Ethan Brooks

Cool fall evenings can bring stink bugs to doors, window screens, and porch lights. Some of these visitors…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 21

You pull a beet from the row and find a root barely bigger than a marble. Beet seeds…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 21

A young fruit tree can look healthy in the fall and then show missing bark at the base…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 21

Your Swiss chard looked great last month, and now the leaves are freckled, torn, or full of holes.…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 21

Your pepper plants are heavy with green fruit, and the days are getting shorter. A popular tip says…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 21

Sweet potatoes grow quietly underground, so it is easy to forget them as fall weather shifts. Cold nights…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 21

That woody rosemary bush by your back door can look fine in November and sad and crispy by…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 21

Late October rolls around, and your fig tree is still hanging onto hard green fruit. Do you wait,…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 21

Hosta leaves can turn tattered and soggy by fall, and many gardeners blame slugs right away. Cleaning up…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 21

You planted garlic cloves this fall, and now green tips are poking through the soil while the weather…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 21

Every fall, pine trees drop a blanket of needles that most of us rake up and haul away.…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 20

A Christmas cactus that keeps pushing out fresh green stem segments but never sets a bud can be…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 20

You run a hand down a tomato stem and feel small, bumpy swellings that were not there last…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 20

A Christmas cactus with floppy, wrinkled stems can look like it is giving up. Many people grab the…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 20

That pot of mums on your porch looks great now, but will it come back next year? Some…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 20

You walk out to the garden and your fall collards look like someone fired tiny pellets at them.…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 20

Pulling every carrot before the first cold snap feels like the safe move, but some gardeners leave the…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 20

Fall planting day feels hopeful, but a few missteps can leave you staring at an empty bed in…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 20

Loose, leafy Brussels sprouts can be a letdown after months of care. Some gardeners hear that snapping off…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 20

A few hummingbirds are still moving through Southern yards when the leaves start to turn. A clean feeder…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 20

You spent months growing pumpkins and winter squash, so it hurts to find a soft, leaking fruit on…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 20

Your fall spinach was looking great, and now the leaves are turning yellow while the veins stay green.…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 20

You walk out to the garden after a stormy night and find a once-perfect cabbage cracked wide open.…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 20

Rub a leaf of a scented geranium and you get a burst of lemon, rose, mint, or fruit.…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 20

Mint is supposed to be the easy herb, so stretched, washed-out stems in a pot can feel like…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 19

Your tomato and pepper pots may still be loaded with fruit, but the weather has started to shift.…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 19

You carried your basil, parsley, and chives inside before the cold hit, and now the leaves are fading…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 19

Most of us have stared at a woodpile or a tangle of shrubs and wondered if something is…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 19

You walk out to the kale bed after a chilly night and the leaves look rough, or they…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 19

Bringing a favorite pepper plant inside for winter can give you a head start on next season. But…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 19

Seeing your strawberry bed look thin and bare in late fall can make you worry that the plants…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 19

Few things sting like watching a favorite geranium turn to mush after the first frost. With a little…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 19

A fall cauliflower head can go from creamy white to yellow or greenish faster than you expect. Sunlight…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 19

Pull a leek from your fall bed and find it no wider than a pencil, and it is…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 19

Walk out one morning and find your collards nibbled down or your favorite shrub stripped of new growth,…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 19

You check your fall broccoli and find a head the size of a golf ball, or one that…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 19

You walk out to water your container tomato and flip over a leaf, and the underside is a…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 19

Snake plants are tough, but winter can trip up even careful plant owners. Shorter days and cooler rooms…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 19

You carry your potted lemon tree inside to keep it safe, and a few days later there are…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 19

Pulling the last tomatoes and peppers from the garden is the perfect time to save seed for next…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 19

You planted pansies for cheerful fall color, and now they are sprawling across the pot or bed like…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 18

Dahlia tubers can sit happily in the ground all summer, then run into trouble once fall turns cold…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 18

A few yellow leaves on a geranium can make any gardener worry. As fall nights cool off, the…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 18

Your peace lily was glossy and green last month, and now the leaf tips look like they got…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 18

Your potted geraniums looked amazing in spring, but now the blooms are thinning out and the leaves look…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 18

Snake plants have a reputation for being almost impossible to kill, so it feels extra frustrating when the…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 18

Raspberry canes live on a two-year schedule, and the cut you make can change which berries show up…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 18

Fall cleanup fills your yard with leaves, spent tomato vines, and kitchen scraps that seem perfect for the…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 18

You planted beets this fall, and now the big question is when to pull them. Some advice online…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 18