Author Archives: Gail Langellotto

About Gail Langellotto

I'm a Professor in the Department of Horticulture at Oregon State University, where I also coordinate the statewide Master Gardener Program.

Lab News: Garden Ecology Lab featured on PolliNation Podcast

Dr. Andony Melathopolous hosted us on his fabulous PolliNation podcast. Listen to the episode, where we talk about the importance of gardens to native bees, our current research, and some key questions that remain to be answered regarding gardening for … Continue reading

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Research Update: Studying Willamette Valley’s Native Plants

The post below comes from Aaron Anderson, a M.S. student in the OSU Department of Horticulture, and a member of the Garden Ecology Lab. ************************************* This past summer, we conducted the first field season of a study screening native plants … Continue reading

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Studying Urban Garden Soils

  This post is modified from a submission from Michael Nelson. It details lessons learned from his survey of garden soils, across Corvallis, Oregon, and the Portland Metropolitan area.  In September 2017, Michael sampled soils from about 25 gardens. These … Continue reading

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Pollinator of the Week: Gray Hairstreak

This post was written by Isabella Messer, an undergraduate working in the Garden Ecology Lab. The Gray Hairstreak (Strymon melinus(Hübner, 1818)) is a common butterfly in the US. Its habitat spans most of the country with the exception of some … Continue reading

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Pollinator of the Week: Yellow-Faced Bumble Bee

This entry is from Isabella Messer an undergraduate horticulture major at Oregon State University.  It highlights one of the most common pollinators that we see in Portland area gardens. Out of the twenty four different garden sites we visit, each month … Continue reading

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#OverlyHonestMethods

#OverlyHonestMethods is a hashtag that is trending on Twitter.  With this hashtag (which is simply an easy way to sort and find posts), scientists share the honest, ugly truth behind research.  Some examples: “Data was not recorded on Sundays because … Continue reading

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Plant of the Week: Showy Milkweed

Now that our lab group is working on native plants and native bees, I thought it would be fun to do a ‘Plant of the Week’ and ‘Bee of the Week’ series.  This second entry is from Lucas Costner, an undergraduate … Continue reading

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Plant of the Week: Broadleaf Stonecrop

Now that our lab group is working on native plants and native bees, I thought it would be fun to do a ‘Plant of the Week’ and ‘Bee of the Week’ series.  This first entry is from Lucas Costner, an undergraduate … Continue reading

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Why Study Gardens?

Gardens are unique and understudied systems that can have multi-faceted and positive impacts on environmental and public health.  But, key to realizing the potential, positive impact of gardens are the decisions that are made when planning, installing and maintaining garden … Continue reading

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We Study Gardens

We study gardens: the plants, insects, animals, people, decisions and management practices that either improve or degrade a garden’s ability to promote environmental and human health. An underlying premise of our work is that gardens are important and understudied systems, … Continue reading

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