Gardening Tips

Watching your hydrangea go from lush blooms to brown, papery clusters in the middle of summer can feel…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 15

Your clematis is covered in leaves but the flowers just are not showing up, and it is hard…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 15

Peonies are one of the most rewarding plants in a home garden, but they can also leave you…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 15

Few gardening frustrations match watching a clematis vine fill with leaves every spring and then produce almost no…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 15

If your cucumber vines look sad, chewed up, or just plain lazy about making fruit, the plants growing…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 15

If your tomato plants look sickly and someone told you to sprinkle Epsom salt on them, you are…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 15

If squirrels and chipmunks keep digging up your bulbs, snacking on your tomatoes, or raiding the bird feeder,…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 15

Walking out to your garden and finding a cucumber vine loaded with bright yellow flowers feels like a…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 15

If your tomato plants look tired, pale, or stingy with fruit, the fix might already be sitting in…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 14

Your tomato plants looked amazing in June, but now they seem stuck, with pale leaves and hardly any…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 14

You planted a bed of tulips and crocuses, came back the next morning, and found half of them…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 14

Somewhere between vanilla, almond, and warm baked fruit, there is a flower whose scent stops people mid-step and…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 14

Snakes are shy creatures that would rather stay out of sight, which is exactly why they can move…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 14

After a summer storm rolls through, the lawn looks lush and the mower is sitting right there in…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 14

Plant one onion bulb and pull up one onion at harvest – that is what most people expect.…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 14

Those striped little acrobats look adorable until you find your tulip bulbs scattered across the yard or a…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 13

Nothing stings quite like walking out to your garden and finding your almost-ripe tomatoes half-eaten and tossed on…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 13

Lavender in a pot looks easy, but plenty of gardeners watch theirs turn brown, mushy, or refuse to…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 13

If you love the big, puffy blooms of hydrangeas but hate babysitting them through droopy leaves and wilted…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 13

Petunias look gorgeous on the plant tag, but keeping them happy through a hot US summer can feel…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 13

Spotting a raccoon nosing around your yard at dusk can set off an immediate urge to shoo it…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 13

Geraniums are tough little plants, but when they stop blooming or the leaves turn pale, it usually means…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 13

Nothing ruins a warm summer evening faster than a cloud of hungry mosquitoes. The good news is that…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 13

Pulling up a potato plant too soon is one of the most common mistakes in the home garden,…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 13

You planted a geranium full of promise, and now it just keeps pushing out more leaves while the…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 13

Your petunias started the season looking full and bright, but now they seem tired, leggy, and short on…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 13

Waiting years for a new garden bed to look full can test anyone’s patience. The good news is…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 13

Few things are more frustrating than watching tomato flowers open and then drop off without leaving a single…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 13

Watching your garden sit bare and boring all summer is frustrating, especially when fancy flowers cost a small…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 13

There is a little garden center in Norwood, Massachusetts that seems to run on a schedule as reliable…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 13

Your Christmas cactus looked fine last week, and now its stem segments are sagging like they have given…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 13

Before you grab the broom and shoo that bushy-tailed visitor off your fence, take a breath. Those squirrels…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 12

Spotting a coyote in your backyard can be startling, especially if you have kids, pets, or a garden…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 12

Zucchini has a sneaky habit of hiding under those big leaves and doubling in size overnight. One day…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 12

If your petunias turn to mush every July, the problem probably isn’t you. Some flowers just can’t take…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 12

If your flower beds look tired and half-empty by midsummer, you are not alone, and you have not…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 12

If your hydrangea gives you a burst of flowers in June and then just sits there looking green…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 12

Coneflowers look tough, and mostly they are, but plenty of gardeners watch theirs flop, rot, or simply refuse…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 12

Watching a peony produce nothing but leaves year after year is genuinely frustrating, especially when you have done…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 12

Few things beat slicing into a homegrown beefsteak tomato that is heavy, juicy, and bursting with flavor. If…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 12

Noticing fewer hummingbirds at your feeder can feel discouraging, especially when you have put time and care into…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 12

Your hydrangea looked great in spring, and now it is drooping, browning, or dropping leaves in the summer…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 12

Watching your cucumber vines burst with cheerful yellow flowers feels like a promise of crunchy cukes to come.…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 12

Nothing ruins a warm summer evening faster than the whine of mosquitoes circling your ankles. The good news…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 12

Petunias promise months of nonstop color, but a lot of gardeners watch their plants fizzle out by midsummer…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 12

Walk out to your garden mid-July and find your tomato plant sprawled on the ground, its cage tipped…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 12

Is your geranium looking tired, with only a few sad blooms and lots of leggy stems? You are…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 12

Squirrels can turn a tidy garden bed into a dug-up mess almost overnight, snatching bulbs and nibbling tender…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 11

You cut back your peonies after the flowers faded, the garden looked tidy all summer, and then spring…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 11