Jasmine Hughes

Walk across a North Carolina yard in October and you may spot a small fuzzy caterpillar hurrying over…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 7

October feels like the end of the garden year for a lot of folks, but in North Carolina…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 7

Every yard has a spot you wish nobody could see, like the humming AC unit or the row…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 7

Walk past a yard in early fall and you might spot clusters of bright purple berries wrapped around…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 7

A fig tree can look dead after a hard January freeze, then surprise you with a basket of…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 7

Every spring you reseed the bare patch under your big oak, and every August it turns back into…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 7

Blueberry bushes that go unpruned for years can fill up with thin, crowded shoots and small berries. A…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 6

Your oakleaf hydrangea is already planning next summer’s flowers, even as its leaves turn wine red this fall.…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 6

You hear the lid rattle, or you find a patch of lawn flipped over like a rug. Fall…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 6

Rain hammers bare garden soil all winter, and that can wash away the best part of your bed.…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 6

If you garden in North Carolina, you know the red clay that turns to brick in July and…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 6

Every spring, Bradford pears light up North Carolina roadsides with white blooms that smell like something went bad…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 6

Some of the most common plants in North Carolina yards are now on official watch lists, and a…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 5

Rats in the shed and chewed plants in the garden make many North Carolina homeowners reach for poison…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 5

You spot a small brown cone dangling from your arborvitae and wonder if it is a seed pod,…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 5

Bare, weedy ground under a shade tree is a common headache in North Carolina yards. Many people reach…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 5

Bright red berries on bare branches can make a gray winter yard look alive. Winterberry holly is a…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 5

Walk out your back door on a sleety January morning and the yard can look empty. Juncos, sparrows,…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 5

Few native trees offer something for caterpillars in summer and something for people to admire in autumn. Common…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 4

Crape myrtles are everywhere in North Carolina yards, and many of them stand close to a driveway. When…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 4

You flip on the porch light and see a gray, pointy-faced opossum shuffling past your collards. It is…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 4

Plenty of North Carolina homeowners plant a row of Leyland cypress for fast privacy, only to watch the…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 4

You reach under a pot or into a pile of leaves, and a sharp sting stops you cold.…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 4

A fuzzy little caterpillar on a shrub can look cute, but some of them can leave a painful…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 4

A fig tree in a pot can give you sweet, sticky fruit right off your North Carolina patio.…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 3

Every fall, North Carolina porches fill with silver dusty miller that gets tossed when frost hits. There is…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 3

A bare back fence can make a yard feel exposed, and a row of shrubs that also feeds…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 3

Every fall, stink bugs across North Carolina start hunting for a cozy place to wait out the cold.…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 3

You lift the porch light on a cool evening and spot a toad tucked beside the steps. Is…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 3

By the time fall settles in, many beds start to look tired. Big-headed aster is a native perennial…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 3

Hummingbirds seem to vanish from North Carolina yards all at once, but the real story is messier. Some…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 2

Some fall memories start with a wagon ride and end with a pumpkin that is almost too heavy…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 2

By October, many North Carolina flower beds have gone quiet. Monarch butterflies heading south may still look for…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 2

Shady ground under big trees is hard to plant, and many North Carolina yards end up with Japanese…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 2

Chewed, brown patches in a North Carolina lawn in late summer can send anyone hunting for a quick…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 2

Every yard seems to have one spot where water sits after a storm and the grass turns to…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 2

You reach for a log and spot a shiny black spider tucked into the stack. Your first thought…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 1

That fragrant vine climbing along your wooded edge may look harmless, but in North Carolina it is often…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 1

A glossy black snake slides along your garden edge, and your heart skips. In North Carolina, that visitor…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 1

Walk out to your pepper patch in October and you may find a clump of stink bugs sitting…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 1

A flash of bright blue zips across your mulch and vanishes under a leaf. It is a small…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 1

Walk out your door in late summer or fall and you may run into silk strung across the…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 1

Nandina shows up along front walks all over North Carolina, but its berries can poison cedar waxwings and…

By Jasmine Hughes · Sep 30

You open the shed door and spot a long, dark snake tucked near the wall. Your first thought…

By Jasmine Hughes · Sep 30

Every spring, North Carolina yards burst into pink, white, and red azalea color. But many homeowners get a…

By Jasmine Hughes · Sep 30

Boxwood has lined North Carolina foundations for generations, but boxwood blight and leafminers have left plenty of front…

By Jasmine Hughes · Sep 30

Spot a box turtle plodding across your North Carolina yard and you might wonder if it is doing…

By Jasmine Hughes · Sep 30

Planting a row of Leyland cypress along a fence has long been a common way to get privacy…

By Jasmine Hughes · Sep 30

That scraggly ditch bank you mow every other week could be the prettiest strip on your whole property.…

By Jasmine Hughes · Sep 29