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 you’ve been diligently pinching suckers off your tomato plants all summer, congratulations — you’ve been throwing away free tomato plants. Every one of those little shoots you snap off has the genetic instructions to become a full, fruiting plant on its own. Late July is actually the sweet spot to start rooting them, because…
If your lawn suddenly looks like someone took a blowtorch to random circles of grass, and it happened almost overnight, you’re probably not dealing with drought stress or a dog problem. You’re dealing with brown patch, and late July is basically its Super Bowl. Warm days, muggy nights that never quite cool off, and grass…
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…
If your crepe myrtle looked gorgeous in June and now looks like it got hosed down with motor oil, you’re not imagining it. That black, sooty film coating the leaves and dripping onto your patio furniture below is one of the most common July complaints about these trees, and it’s almost always the same culprit:…
If your kale looks like lace and your dahlias have gone from lush to lacy overnight, you’re probably not dealing with beetles or caterpillars. Late July is peak grasshopper season, and in dry, hot summers like this one, they show up in numbers that can strip a garden bed in a couple of days. They’re…
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…
