If your basil plant suddenly looks like it’s trying to become a different species entirely — tall, sparse, with weird…
Walk out to the garden this week and your zucchini or yellow squash leaves might look like someone came through…
If your bearded irises bloomed less enthusiastically this spring than they did a couple years ago, or if the clump…
If your crepe myrtle looks like someone dumped a bucket of dark syrup over it, you’re not imagining things, and…
You’ve been babying these tomato plants since May. Then one morning you go out to check on that first big beefsteak and the bottom of it looks like it’s been through something. Sunken, leathery, dark brown or black, sometimes with a weird flat spot that’s almost caving in. Your first instinct is probably “blight” or…
If your rose leaves suddenly look like lace doilies and there’s a metallic green beetle orgy happening on every bloom, congratulations, you’ve hit peak Japanese beetle season. Mid-July through early August is their prime time to absolutely wreck roses, grapevines, linden trees, and anything else with tender, sun-warmed leaves. They skeletonize foliage, chew flowers to…
You fed the fish Saturday morning and the water was clear-ish. By Wednesday it looks like you could stand a spoon up in it. Welcome to peak algae season, courtesy of the same heat wave that’s been wilting your tomatoes. It’s Not One Kind of Algae, It’s Two People say “algae” like it’s a single…
You watered this morning. You know you did. And yet by lunchtime your porch pots look like they haven’t seen a drop of water in a week, leaves drooping like they’ve given up on the whole photosynthesis thing. Before you dump more water on them (please don’t, we’ll get to that), let’s talk about what’s…
If you’ve got a crape myrtle in the yard, you’ve probably noticed strips of bark curling off the trunk right about now, mid-July, peak bloom season, sitting there looking like the tree is shedding its skin. First instinct for a lot of people is panic. Second instinct is to go Google “tree disease bark falling…
You water your tomatoes on Tuesday, feeling like a competent adult with a functioning garden. By Thursday, half the plant looks like it went through a wood chipper. Welcome to hornworm season. These things are basically the horror movie villains of the vegetable patch — silent, huge, and somehow invisible until you’re standing right on…
