Gardening Tips

Those bold dahlia blooms start underground, in fat tubers that hold next summer’s flowers. When winter turns freezing…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 28

Azaleas are the stars of a North Carolina spring, so it is natural to wonder what you can…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 28

Every fall, stink bugs start crowding onto porches and creeping toward warm indoor spaces. A popular claim says…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 28

A young apple or pear tree can look perfectly fine in November and have a ring of missing…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 28

Those brown, spiky heads on your purple coneflowers are not just leftovers. Some may still hold seeds you…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 28

You tucked your garlic cloves into the ground this fall, and now you are wondering if a blanket…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 28

A fig tree can look fine in December and still leave you guessing in April. Cold can hurt…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 28

Green onion leaves poking up in a fall garden can make you wonder if something went wrong. In…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 28

Your Japanese maple was supposed to glow this fall, but the leaves are dry, brown, and crunchy instead.…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 28

Sunny walls across North Carolina can look crawling with stink bugs once September and October roll around. Many…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 28

Strawberry plants can look tired and flat in winter, and it is natural to worry about next spring’s…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 28

That bare patch under your oak tree does not have to stay dusty, rooty, and empty. Grass struggles…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 28

That tall, tangled tomato or pepper plant in your bed may have given its last fruit weeks ago.…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 28

Those shield-shaped bugs that chewed up your tomatoes this summer are not leaving when the weather cools. Instead,…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 28

Those tall, feathery asparagus ferns can start to look messy by fall, and it is tempting to grab…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 28

A messy clematis can make you want to grab the shears the moment the weather cools. But some…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 28

You pull every weed from your patio on Saturday, and by the next rainy week the gaps look…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 28

Some of the prettiest spring and summer blooms in North Carolina start with a handful of seeds tossed…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 28

Walk out one cold morning and find your sweet potato vines drooping and black, and it is easy…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 28

Eastern box turtles are North Carolina’s official state reptile, and right now they are searching your yard for…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 28

A peace lily that collapses over the rim of its pot looks like an emergency. Many gardeners grab…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 27

Every fall, lots of gardeners haul their patio pots inside to protect them from the cold. Some plants…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 27

Cold nights in North Carolina do something sneaky to certain vegetables. They turn starch into sugar, so a…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 27

Yellow leaves on a potted fig in late fall can make any caretaker nervous. Sometimes it is simply…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 27

A snake plant that sits quietly all winter can leave you wondering if anything is happening in that…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 27

Did your raised bed sink a few inches over the summer, or did your tomatoes and peppers fall…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 27

Walk past a crape myrtle in October and you will see rows of dry brown clusters where pink,…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 27

You tuck garlic cloves into the ground in fall and expect green shoots later. Sometimes you dig one…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 27

You walk out to the garlic bed after a chilly night and spot yellow tips on leaves that…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 27

Those big, bright garden geraniums that fill your pots all summer do not have to end up on…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 27

Yellow leaves on spinach can stop a gardener in their tracks. The color looks simple, but it can…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 27

A split hose or a leaky spigot is a pain to find on the first warm spring day.…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 27

A fig in a pot can look dead by December, and that scares a lot of gardeners. Most…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 27

You walk out after a soaking November rain and find your best cabbage cracked wide open like a…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 27

Weeds love a freshly planted garlic or onion bed, and the slow-growing alliums can lose the race. Straw…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 27

You dug up a bucket of beautiful sweet potatoes, and now the next few days matter more than…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 27

Your herb bed may look quiet this winter, but under the soil, three plants are still on the…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 27

When the first cool snap hits, you might spot dozens of brown, shield-shaped bugs soaking up sun on…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 27

A box turtle plodding across your mulch can make you stop mid-weed and wonder what it is up…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 27

The last flower has dropped, and your Christmas cactus suddenly looks a little plain. What you do next…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 27

You pulled a big batch of beets from the garden, and now you want them to last. Beets…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 26

You step onto the patio on a mild fall afternoon and a yellowjacket is already circling your drink.…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 26

You walk out to the garden in late fall and spot green garlic tips already pushing through the…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 26

Garlic goes into the ground in fall, and plenty of Southern gardeners wonder if they have missed their…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 26

Those hard green figs hanging on your tree in late October can feel like a small mystery. Some…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 26

Those tomato cages and stakes leaning against the shed have been through a long season of leaves, soil,…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 26

That bare strip along the fence keeps sprouting weeds no matter how often you pull them. Creeping thyme…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 26

A fig tree that has dropped its leaves is not finished for the year. The bare branches can…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 26

A cold snap can end your tomato season overnight, and the vines are often still loaded with green…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 26