Why Your Tomatoes Keep Splitting Open After Every Summer Storm

Why Your Tomatoes Keep Splitting Open After Every Summer Storm

Why Your Crepe Myrtle Leaves Are Covered in Black Sticky Gunk This Summer

Why Your Crepe Myrtle Leaves Are Covered in Black Sticky Gunk This Summer

Grasshoppers Are Shredding Your Garden Right Now — Here's How to Actually Stop Them

Grasshoppers Are Shredding Your Garden Right Now — Here's How to Actually Stop Them

Why Your Basil Is Bolting in the July Heat — And How to Slow It Down

Why Your Basil Is Bolting in the July Heat — And How to Slow It Down

Why Your Tomatoes Keep Splitting Open After Every Summer Storm

Close-up of a ripe tomato on the vine with a visible crack near the stem after rain

You walk out after a good soaking rain expecting to admire your tomato plants, and instead you find half your ripening fruit looking like it lost a fight with a tiny knife. Splits, cracks, sometimes full-on bursts. It’s one of the most common complaints this time of year, and the good news is it’s not…

Why Your Basil Is Bolting in the July Heat — And How to Slow It Down

Basil plant with flower spikes forming on tall stems in summer heat

You water it, you harvest it, and somehow by mid-July your basil plant looks like it’s trying to become a Christmas tree — tall, woody, and topped with little white flower spikes instead of the tender leaves you actually wanted. That’s bolting, and it’s basil’s way of saying “I’m done growing leaves, I’m making seeds…