Why Is My Hummingbird Feeder Unused? What to Know About Dye and Fresh Nectar
You hung a feeder, filled it with bright red liquid, and the hummingbirds still skip it. Many gardeners blame the color of the nectar, but…
By Ethan Brooks · Oct 1, 2026
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Gardening Tips
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2,423 Articles
Gardening Tips
What Does a Black Widow at Your North Carolina Woodpile Really Mean?
You reach for a log and spot a shiny black spider tucked into the stack. Your first thought…
By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 1
Gardening Tips
Your Fall Cucumbers Keep Blooming but Never Set Fruit, and One Cool-Night Mistake Is Why
Your cucumber vines look lush and the yellow flowers keep opening, yet the harvest basket stays empty. It…
By Ethan Brooks · Oct 1
Gardening Tips
Before You Prune Your Crape Myrtle This Fall, Know What a Cut Can and Can’t Do
Fall brings the urge to tidy up, and crape myrtles seem like an easy target. Many Southern gardeners…
By Ethan Brooks · Oct 1
Gardening Tips
How North Carolina Gardeners Can Control Japanese Honeysuckle on a Wooded Edge
That fragrant vine climbing along your wooded edge may look harmless, but in North Carolina it is often…
By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 1
Gardening Tips
Your Fall Tomatoes Keep Cracking Open Right Before You Pick Them, and Watering Is Why
You walk out to pick a tomato that was almost perfect, and there it is, split wide open.…
By Ethan Brooks · Oct 1
Gardening Tips
Cutting Blueberry Tips With Flower Buds Can Reduce the Coming Crop
Those little shoot tips on your blueberry bush may already hold the flowers for next spring. Snip them…
By Ethan Brooks · Oct 1
Gardening Tips
What an Eastern Kingsnake in Your North Carolina Yard Can and Cannot Tell You About Copperheads
A glossy black snake slides along your garden edge, and your heart skips. In North Carolina, that visitor…
By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 1
Gardening Tips
How to Tell Which Zinnia Seed Heads Are Ready to Save Before Frost
Those faded zinnias at the back of the bed are holding next year’s flowers, but only if you…
By Ethan Brooks · Oct 1
Gardening Tips
What It Really Means When Stink Bugs Start Crowding Onto Your North Carolina Fall Peppers
Walk out to your pepper patch in October and you may find a clump of stink bugs sitting…
By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 1
Gardening Tips
Rabbits Keep Chewing Your Young Shrubs to the Ground This Winter, and Here’s What Actually Stops Them
You walk out to check a new shrub and find a few stems snipped off and bark scraped…
By Ethan Brooks · Oct 1
Gardening Tips
Your Fall Peppers Keep Dropping Flowers, and One Feeding Change Gets Them Setting Fruit Again
Your pepper plant is covered in blooms, yet the flowers keep falling off and no peppers show up.…
By Ethan Brooks · Oct 1
Gardening Tips
Asiatic Jasmine May Help Suppress Some Weeds in Your Beds Once It Fills In
Pulling the same weeds from the same bed every few weeks gets old fast. One way to cut…
By Ethan Brooks · Oct 1
Gardening Tips
Your Hummingbirds Keep Fighting Over One Feeder, and Spreading Out Stations May Ease the Standoff
Watch a single hummingbird feeder in early fall and you may see one tiny bird chase off every…
By Ethan Brooks · Oct 1
Gardening Tips
A Clean Hummingbird Feeder in October Can Offer Late-Season Hummingbirds Supplemental Food
A hummingbird zips past your window in October, and you wonder if it is time to bring the…
By Ethan Brooks · Oct 1
Gardening Tips
These Common Backyard Plants Are Banned in Florida and Texas, and You Might Already Be Growing One
Some of the prettiest plants sold for Southern yards are actually on official noxious or invasive lists in…
By Ethan Brooks · Oct 1
Gardening Tips
These Fast-Spreading Groundcovers Fill Bare Spots Before Spring, Here Are the Ones to Plant This Fall
Bare dirt under trees and along borders tends to wash away, sprout weeds, and make a yard look…
By Ethan Brooks · Oct 1
Gardening Tips
What It Really Means When Five-Lined Skinks Start Showing Up Around Your North Carolina Garden Beds
A flash of bright blue zips across your mulch and vanishes under a leaf. It is a small…
By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 1
Gardening Tips
Your Lawn Keeps Filling With Henbit Every Spring Because the Fall Pre-Emergent Window Gets Missed
Those purple-topped weeds that suddenly carpet your lawn in spring did not appear overnight. Henbit starts its life…
By Ethan Brooks · Oct 1
Gardening Tips
What It Really Means When Spiders Fill Your North Carolina Shrubs With Webs This Fall
Walk out your door in late summer or fall and you may run into silk strung across the…
By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 1
Gardening Tips
Skunks Keep Digging Up Your Lawn at Night, and These Strong Smells Send Them Elsewhere
You step outside with your morning coffee and find little cone-shaped holes all over the grass. Those tidy…
By Ethan Brooks · Sep 30
Gardening Tips
Long Nights May Encourage Your Holiday Cactus to Set Buds This Fall
Few houseplants are as frustrating as a holiday cactus that grows healthy green stems and then never blooms.…
By Ethan Brooks · Sep 30
Gardening Tips
7 Native North Carolina Shrubs That Beat Nandina Along Your Front Walk All Year Round
Nandina shows up along front walks all over North Carolina, but its berries can poison cedar waxwings and…
By Jasmine Hughes · Sep 30
Gardening Tips
Leggy Thyme in the South: Why a Light Trim Beats a Hard Fall Cut
Thyme that looks stretched out, bare in the middle, and a little sad makes many gardeners reach for…
By Ethan Brooks · Sep 30
Gardening Tips
Crabgrass Keeps Returning to Southern Lawns: Why Spring Timing Matters More Than Fall
Nothing stings quite like pulling crabgrass all summer and seeing it fill the lawn again the next year.…
By Ethan Brooks · Sep 30
Gardening Tips
What It Really Means When Rat Snakes Start Showing Up Around Your North Carolina Shed This Fall
You open the shed door and spot a long, dark snake tucked near the wall. Your first thought…
By Jasmine Hughes · Sep 30
Gardening Tips
Your Favorite Blueberry Bush Turns Into More Free Plants When You Take Cuttings Before Winter
Making a new blueberry plant from one you already love is a tempting idea, and it can work.…
By Ethan Brooks · Sep 30
Gardening Tips
The One Thing You Must Do to Your North Carolina Azaleas Before Winter or Spring Blooms Disappear
Every spring, North Carolina yards burst into pink, white, and red azalea color. But many homeowners get a…
By Jasmine Hughes · Sep 30
Gardening Tips
Fall Broccoli Growing Leaves but No Normal Head? A Symptom-by-Symptom Troubleshooting Guide
Your broccoli looks lush and healthy, yet the center of the plant is not giving you the crown…
By Ethan Brooks · Sep 30
Gardening Tips
Your Christmas Cactus Drops Its Buds Right Before the Holidays Because of One Indoor Move
You finally got your holiday cactus loaded with buds, and now they are dropping just before the big…
By Ethan Brooks · Sep 30
Gardening Tips
7 Native North Carolina Shrubs That Edge a Foundation Bed Better Than Boxwood
Boxwood has lined North Carolina foundations for generations, but boxwood blight and leafminers have left plenty of front…
By Jasmine Hughes · Sep 30
Gardening Tips
Your Fall Carrots Grow Big Leafy Tops but Skinny Forked Roots, and Soil May Be One Reason
You pull a carrot from the garden and find a thick crown of feathery green leaves on top…
By Ethan Brooks · Sep 30
Gardening Tips
Your New Grass Seed Sprouts Then Dies Because the Watering Schedule Changes Too Soon
You spread seed, watered faithfully, and finally saw green shoots. Then the patches started thinning out and turning…
By Ethan Brooks · Sep 30
Gardening Tips
Dull Mower Blades May Leave Ragged, Discolored Grass Tips and Add Stress to Your Lawn
Walk across your lawn an hour after mowing and look closely at the grass tips. If they look…
By Ethan Brooks · Sep 30
Gardening Tips
These Smells Keep Deer From Eating Your Fall Garden Down to the Stems
You plant a row of fall lettuce and collards, and two nights later there’s nothing left but chewed…
By Ethan Brooks · Sep 30
Gardening Tips
Your Favorite Rosemary Bush Turns Into a Dozen Free Plants When You Take Cuttings This Fall
That rosemary bush by your back steps is hiding a secret stash of free plants. With a pair…
By Ethan Brooks · Sep 30
Gardening Tips
Your Raised Beds Keep Sinking Every Year, and Here’s How to Refill Them Without Starting Over
You walk out to your raised bed and the soil sits a few inches below the top board.…
By Ethan Brooks · Sep 30
Gardening Tips
Why Persimmon Fruit Drops: Moisture and Other Factors to Check
Your persimmon tree is leafy and green, yet fruit keeps landing on the ground. That can feel alarming,…
By Ethan Brooks · Sep 30
Gardening Tips
Eastern Box Turtles Quietly Clean Slugs Out of North Carolina Gardens When You Leave Them a Leaf Pile
Spot a box turtle plodding across your North Carolina yard and you might wonder if it is doing…
By Jasmine Hughes · Sep 30
Gardening Tips
Your Daylilies Come Back Fuller Next Spring When You Do These 7 Things Now
Daylilies are tough plants, but even tough plants can start looking tired after a long Southern summer. If…
By Ethan Brooks · Sep 30
Gardening Tips
Southern Wax Myrtle vs. Leyland Cypress: Choosing a Native Fence Screen in North Carolina
Planting a row of Leyland cypress along a fence has long been a common way to get privacy…
By Jasmine Hughes · Sep 30
Gardening Tips
Fewer Dandelions Next Spring: What a Fall Treatment Can Do for Your Southern Lawn
Pull one dandelion and three more seem to pop up by spring. These weeds are tougher than they…
By Ethan Brooks · Sep 29
Gardening Tips
White Powdery Patches on Squash Leaves: How to Limit the Spread
You walk out to the garden and find flour-like white patches spreading across your squash leaves. It looks…
By Ethan Brooks · Sep 29
Gardening Tips
Sow These Native Seeds Along Your North Carolina Ditch Bank This Fall and It Blooms Like a Meadow by Summer
That scraggly ditch bank you mow every other week could be the prettiest strip on your whole property.…
By Jasmine Hughes · Sep 29
Gardening Tips
A Better Spot for Your Hummingbird Feeder: What to Try When Birds Aren’t Visiting
You filled the feeder, hung it up, and now it just sits there while you wait. Before you…
By Ethan Brooks · Sep 29
Gardening Tips
Your Fresh Hummingbird Nectar Goes Untouched When You Make These 9 Common Mixing Mistakes
You filled the feeder, hung it by the porch, and waited, but the hummingbirds flew right past it.…
By Ethan Brooks · Sep 29
Gardening Tips
Your Azaleas May Already Be Setting Next Spring’s Flowers, So Hold Off on Routine Shaping
That neat fall trim on your azaleas might cost you flowers next spring. Many common azaleas are already…
By Ethan Brooks · Sep 29
Gardening Tips
What North Carolina Gardeners Do With Canna Rhizomes This Fall So Next Summer’s Blooms Come Back Bigger
Those tall canna leaves and bright flowers that carried your beds all summer are living on borrowed time…
By Jasmine Hughes · Sep 29
Gardening Tips
Thin Turf Can Invite Weeds, and Repair Timing Depends on Your Grass and Location
Bare, thin patches in a lawn seem to fill with weeds almost overnight. It is tempting to blame…
By Ethan Brooks · Sep 29
Gardening Tips
Shasta Daisies Dying Out in the Middle? Division May Help Renew the Clump
You planted a bright clump of Shasta daisies, and now the middle looks bare while the flowers around…
By Ethan Brooks · Sep 29