Your Basil Is Flowering and Turning Bitter — Here's the Fix

Your Basil Is Flowering and Turning Bitter — Here's the Fix

Mushrooms Popping Up in Your Lawn? Here's What They're Actually Telling You

Mushrooms Popping Up in Your Lawn? Here's What They're Actually Telling You

Why Your Cucumbers Taste Bitter (And How to Stop It Before Harvest)

Why Your Cucumbers Taste Bitter (And How to Stop It Before Harvest)

Why Your Squash Plants Are All Flowers and No Fruit (Yet)

Why Your Squash Plants Are All Flowers and No Fruit (Yet)

Your Basil Is Flowering and Turning Bitter — Here’s the Fix

A hand pinching off a flowering bud from a basil plant to prevent bolting

If your basil suddenly sprouted little white or purple flower spikes sometime in the last couple weeks, congratulations, you have officially entered bolting season. It happens to basically everyone’s basil in July. The heat spikes, the days are long, and your plant decides its life’s purpose is now reproduction instead of making pesto for you.…

Why Your Squash Plants Are All Flowers and No Fruit (Yet)

A bee pollinating a yellow squash blossom in a garden

Your zucchini plant is the size of a golden retriever, it’s covered in bright yellow blooms, and yet somehow you’ve harvested exactly zero squash. Meanwhile your neighbor is leaving bags of the stuff on porches like it’s a public service announcement. Annoying, right? Before you blame your soil or start talking to the plant like…

Why Your Hydrangea Blooms Are Turning Green (And Whether You Should Panic)

Hydrangea blooms transitioning from pink to green in late summer light

Somewhere around the Fourth of July, hydrangea owners everywhere start sending panicked texts to their more plant-literate friends: “why is my hydrangea turning green?? did I kill it??” Short answer: probably not. Long answer: it depends on what kind of hydrangea you’re growing, and whether this is a feature or a symptom. First, figure out…

Blossom End Rot Is Ruining Your Tomatoes, and It’s Not a Disease

Close-up of a tomato on the vine showing a dark, sunken patch of blossom end rot on its bottom

You go out to check on your tomatoes, feeling pretty good about the season, and there it is: a sunken, leathery, brownish-black splotch on the bottom of an otherwise perfect fruit. Your first thought is probably “blight” or “some horrible fungus is going to wipe out the whole plant.” Take a breath. It’s blossom end…