Whet your appetite for the growing season and learn about healthy lawns, happy houseplants and trees at this weekend’s Lawn and Garden Show.

You also can make a wreath, design a waterfall and discover ways to decorate your garden.

Bring the kids for free children’s activities, says Crystal Stewart, Minnehaha County Extension educator-horticulture.

Learn about the wide variety of trees you can grow here from John Ball, professor of forestry at South Dakota State University. He’ll also discuss drought-tolerant treesduring his presentation at the show.

The urban landscape is changing thanks to the emerald ash borer, an insect from China that hitched a ride to a port city in Michigan. The deadly insect has killed 20 million ash trees in the Midwest, Ball says. “And about a third of our urban tree population is green ash.”

The insect could kill these trees similar to Dutch elm disease a few decades ago.

“We’ll lose that species, but it may still be decades before it arrives,” Ball says.

If we use this time wisely and diversify urban species, he says, the effect of the insect won’t be as great.

A sampling of trees Ball recommends for this area includes an Amur cork tree from China, which has a corky bark and can tolerate this climate. A yellowwood will grow 30 to 35 feet tall and produce a fragrant white hanging flower in June.

Or try “an American beech, a very fussy tree, yet there are a number that are thriving in downtown Sioux Falls,” he says.

source : www.argusleader.com