Matthew Borden
Matthew Borden, DPM, is a plant health consultant specializing in diagnostics and integrated management of landscape plant pests and diseases.
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How-ToGarden Pest and Disease Watch: Eastern Filbert Blight and Elm Zigzag Sawfly
Question: My 30-year-old Harry Lauder’s walking stick (Corylus avellana* ‘Contorta’, Zones 4–8) is starting to die back. Some leaves are chlorotic and then turn brown, with the branch becoming dry…
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How-ToWatch Out for New Garden Pests Heading This Way
Recall for a moment the sense of excitement you feel while strolling through your garden on a summer morning. You take in the colors, the scents, the daily changes as…
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How-ToEriophyid Mites: What They Are and How to Control Them in the Home Garden
If you’ve ever battled rose rosette disease or encountered odd leaf deformities, you should care about eriophyid mites. I find the juxtaposition of their incredibly small size with the bizarre,…
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How-ToSpots on Your Tomatoes? Learning about tomato diseases and blights is half the battle
If you have ever found yourself disappointed by the tomato harvest from your garden, you are not alone. There are around nine bacterial diseases of tomato, nearly two dozen fungal…
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How-ToHow to Identify and Combat Tomato Blights
Each year as spring warms into summer, verdant vegetables hold the attention of many an eager gardener. As growers monitor their tomato plants, they may notice scattered yellow spotting, a…
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How-To3 Tell-Tale Signs of Boxwood Blight
There are many common but less severe diseases of boxwood shrubs, and all are occasionally mistaken for boxwood blight. Learning the following combination of three key symptoms will help you…
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How-ToHow to Fight Boxwood Blight
It has now been a full ten years since a mysterious disease affecting 10,000 containerized boxwood (Buxus spp. and cvs., Zones 5–9) shrubs in North Carolina and over 100,000 boxwoods…
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How-ToWhat You Need to Know About Beech Leaf Disease
Gardeners best know two kinds of nematodes: those that are destructive root pests, and those that are beneficial and may be purchased to help control soil grubs, fungus gnats, thrips,…
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How-ToWhat to Know About Using Neem in the Garden
Neem is often brought up in any discussion of garden pests and diseases, but is it all good? Learn more about using neem in the garden here.
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How-ToEverything You Should Know About Powdery Mildew
Powdery mildews may be the plant diseases most recognizable to gardeners. They are known for the gray to white patches of dusty fungal growth that develop on leaves of numerous…
Fine Gardening Magazine
