If there’s one task that quietly separates the gardeners who eat home-grown garlic next summer from the ones buying the…
Every October, garden centers roll out their bulb displays and everyone rushes home to jam tulips in the ground the…
Dahlias have been showing off all summer, and if yours are anything like mine, they’re still going strong right now.…
If you’ve walked past a flower bed this week and spotted a cluster of pink or lavender blooms shooting straight…
One day your zucchini plant is a monster, sprawling across half the bed and dropping more squash than you know what to do with. The next morning it’s just… down. Wilted flat, leaves crispy, like something sucked the life out of it while you slept. Something did. Meet the squash vine borer, the reason late…
You walk out to check on your fig tree, expecting that first satisfying harvest, and instead you find half the fruit cracked open like tiny geodes. Some are oozing. Some have already attracted a small committee of wasps. If this is happening to you right now, in the thick of August, you’re not doing anything…
If you’ve noticed a grayish, silky mess ballooning out over the tips of tree branches this month, you’re not imagining things and it’s not just old spiderwebs having a moment. That’s fall webworm season, and mid-to-late August is basically their prime real estate market. They show up every year right when everyone’s distracted by tomatoes…
If your basil plant suddenly looks like it’s trying to become a different species entirely — tall, sparse, with weird little white or purple flower spikes shooting up from every stem — congratulations, it’s bolting. This happens like clockwork in mid-to-late August. Long hot days plus the plant sensing that its life cycle is winding…
Walk out to the garden this week and your zucchini or yellow squash leaves might look like someone came through with a flour sifter. That’s powdery mildew, and mid-August is basically its Super Bowl. Warm days, cooler humid nights, and leaves packed tight enough that airflow can’t get through — it’s a perfect setup, and…
If your bearded irises bloomed less enthusiastically this spring than they did a couple years ago, or if the clump has turned into a solid mat of rhizomes fighting each other for real estate, this is your sign. Late summer, right about now, is the single best window to dig them up and divide them.…
