Every October, millions of homeowners spend a Saturday wrestling leaves into bags, hauling them to the curb, and paying (with…
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 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.…
If your crepe myrtle looks like someone dumped a bucket of dark syrup over it, you’re not imagining things, and no, it’s not some weird disease that’s going to kill the tree overnight. What you’re looking at is sooty mold, and it’s basically a symptom, not the actual problem. The real culprit is something much…
If you walked outside this week and did a double-take at your hydrangeas, you’re not imagining things. Those big white or pink mophead blooms are turning a weird antique green, like they’re rusting from the inside out. Before you panic and start googling plant diseases, take a breath. This is almost always completely normal, and…
Every seed packet says lettuce and spinach germinate best between 60 and 75 degrees. Cute. Right now the soil in most backyards is sitting somewhere north of 85, and those little seeds are basically staging a sit-in refusing to sprout. This is the single biggest reason people give up on fall vegetable gardens before they…
By this point in August, your petunias have probably gone from a lush, spilling mound to something that looks more like a tumbleweed with a few sad blooms clinging to the ends. The stems are long and bare in the middle, the flowers have migrated to the very tips, and no amount of deadheading seems…
If you’ve walked outside this week and noticed weird circular patches in your lawn that look like someone dragged a wet cigar across the grass, you’re not imagining it. That’s brown patch, and August’s combination of heat, humidity, and overnight moisture is basically a welcome mat for it. It shows up almost overnight, spreads fast,…
