Gardening Tips

That hawk riding the air above your backyard is doing something worth paying attention to, even if its…

By Jasmine Hughes · Jul 26

Pulling a cucumber off the vine and biting into something that tastes more like medicine than a salad…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 26

Watching a potted tomato sit there all summer, barely growing and producing almost nothing, is genuinely frustrating. Before…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 26

Watching a cucumber vine grow big and bushy while producing almost no cucumbers is one of summer’s most…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 26

Most North Carolina gardeners know coneflowers and black-eyed Susans, but there is one native plant that quietly earns…

By Jasmine Hughes · Jul 26

July heat can stop a tomato plant cold, and watching a vine sit motionless while the summer ticks…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 26

Your wooded property line is one of the first places you should think about when it comes to…

By Jasmine Hughes · Jul 26

Finding a sunken black patch on the bottom of your tomatoes is one of the most discouraging moments…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 26

Every spring, a lot of North Carolina homeowners haul home bag after bag of mulch, only to watch…

By Jasmine Hughes · Jul 26

Watching your pepper plant bloom beautifully, then shed every flower before a single fruit forms, is one of…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 26

You planted one zucchini and ended up with a jungle of leaves, but the vines are empty. Before…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 26

Sunny, dry slopes in North Carolina can defeat almost every plant a homeowner tries. The soil is shallow,…

By Jasmine Hughes · Jul 26

Watching your cucumber vines turn yellow during the hottest weeks of summer is genuinely worrying, especially when the…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 26

Hot summer weather can turn a thriving tomato patch into a wilting, struggling mess almost overnight. The good…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 25

American beautyberry is one of those shrubs that most North Carolina gardeners stroll right past at the nursery,…

By Jasmine Hughes · Jul 25

Watching your zucchini plant explode with bright yellow blooms while the harvest bowl stays empty is genuinely frustrating.…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 25

Lantana is one of the toughest flowering plants you can grow in a North Carolina yard, pushing out…

By Jasmine Hughes · Jul 25

If your hydrangea leafs out beautifully every spring but barely produces flowers, the plant probably isn’t the problem.…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 25

Spotting a dark, sunken patch spreading across the bottom of your tomatoes is one of the most discouraging…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 25

You planted cucumbers expecting a steady harvest, and instead you have long, leafy vines running in every direction…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 25

Most North Carolina gardeners have watched a promising perennial slowly give up during a July heat wave, leaving…

By Jasmine Hughes · Jul 25

Two North Carolina native plants have been circulating online under a claim that one tree feeds wildlife all…

By Jasmine Hughes · Jul 25

Crape myrtles show up in almost every North Carolina yard, but they came here from Asia and do…

By Jasmine Hughes · Jul 25

Ticks are a real concern for anyone who spends time kneeling in a backyard vegetable garden in North…

By Jasmine Hughes · Jul 25

Ticks are a real part of summer life in North Carolina, and most people assume they just wander…

By Jasmine Hughes · Jul 24

Walk into most garden centers in North Carolina and you’ll see the same rows of imported shrubs over…

By Jasmine Hughes · Jul 24

Spotting a fire ant mound in your garden bed can make your stomach drop, but that mound is…

By Jasmine Hughes · Jul 24

Walking out to your garden and finding a perfectly ripening tomato split open is one of the most…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 24

Noticing a low, fleshy weed creeping around your tomato plants at the same time growth seems to stall…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 24

Blueberries grow across North Carolina, but getting a reliable harvest from your backyard takes more than dropping a…

By Jasmine Hughes · Jul 24

Watching cucumber vines grow thick and green while every flower falls off before producing a single fruit is…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 24

Dragging a hose across a hot patio to water a row of potted plants gets old fast, especially…

By Jasmine Hughes · Jul 24

You step outside on a hot afternoon and find a cluster of pepper blossoms scattered on the soil…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 24

If you want bees buzzing, butterflies landing, and hummingbirds hovering in your yard from June through September, one…

By Jasmine Hughes · Jul 24

Pulling a cucumber off the vine and finding it swollen in the middle but pinched or tapered at…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 24

You water faithfully, the plant looks enormous, and yet the zucchini just aren’t showing up. When your plant…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 24

Watching your cucumber leaves develop yellow edges during a summer heat wave is genuinely worrying, and the instinct…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 24

Watching your tomato plant’s lower leaves turn yellow during a heat wave is enough to make any gardener…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 23

Curling leaves and pale, papery patches on your tomato fruit can stop a gardener cold, especially when the…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 23

Eastern Bluebirds are one of the most recognizable birds in North Carolina, with their brilliant blue backs and…

By Jasmine Hughes · Jul 23

Watching a cucumber plant explode into a tangle of thick vines and broad leaves is exciting, right up…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 23

Your zucchini plant looks healthy, covered in big leaves and bright yellow flowers, but the fruit just never…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 23

Warm summer nights in North Carolina used to sparkle with fireflies, but a lot of yards have gone…

By Jasmine Hughes · Jul 23

Walking out to your garden at noon and finding your cucumber vines draped and limp is an unsettling…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 23

Watching your tomato plants slow to a crawl in late July is genuinely frustrating, especially when you have…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 23

Liriope shows up along half the walkways in North Carolina, but it is not from here, and in…

By Jasmine Hughes · Jul 23

Watching a healthy squash plant suddenly flop over in the afternoon heat is genuinely alarming, especially when you…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 23

Pull back the leaves on a July tomato plant and you might spot it before you even pick…

By Jasmine Hughes · Jul 23

Walking out to your cucumber patch on a hot afternoon and finding the leaves looking pale, silvery, or…

By Ethan Brooks · Jul 23