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.…
You watered it Tuesday. It looked fine Tuesday. Wednesday morning it’s a heap of yellow, wilted leaves lying flat on the ground like it gave up on life sometime overnight. If your squash or zucchini plant went from thriving to collapsed in the span of about twelve hours, put the fungicide down. This isn’t powdery…
You planted those hydrangeas for the blue or pink or white blooms, and now, right in the thick of July, they’re going… green? Not sickly green. Not \”something is wrong\” green. More like an antique, dusty, watercolor green that’s honestly kind of gorgeous once you stop panicking about it. This is usually just the flower…
You walk out to check on your zucchini and the leaves look like someone dusted them with flour. That’s powdery mildew, and if you’re growing squash, cucumbers, melons, or pumpkins in July, you’re going to meet it eventually. The good news: it’s rarely a death sentence for the whole plant right away. The bad news:…
If you planted garlic last fall, mid-July is probably when you’re standing in the garden holding a fistful of bulbs, feeling pretty proud of yourself. Good. You should. But here’s the part nobody warns you about: pulling the garlic is the easy 20% of the job. The other 80% happens over the next several weeks,…
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…
