Gardening Tips

Late summer and early fall bring a hidden hazard to many North Carolina lawns: a possible underground yellowjacket…

By Jasmine Hughes · Sep 7

Holding a packet of zinnia seeds in September and wondering if you’ve already missed your chance is a…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 7

Watching a hydrangea droop in the afternoon heat is one of those moments that makes every Southern gardener…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 7

Every summer, North Carolina gardeners watch deer strip their hosta beds overnight, leaving nothing but ragged stems. Hostas…

By Jasmine Hughes · Sep 7

Late summer is prime time to watch hummingbirds fuel up at your backyard feeder, but something else may…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 7

Bare patches in a Southern lawn are an open invitation for weeds, and no amount of pulling seems…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 6

You might be surprised to learn that a few plants sitting in your Southern garden right now could…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 6

Purple coneflowers are supposed to be tough, but plenty of gardeners watch them struggle season after season despite…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 6

Fall is sneaking up on Southern gardens faster than most people realize, and a few perennials in your…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 6

Seeing your hydrangea flowers turn brown while the leaves stay perfectly green can send a gardener into a…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 6

Waiting three years for a new flower bed to look full is nobody’s idea of fun. Some North…

By Jasmine Hughes · Sep 6

Ever notice your tomato plants looking healthy but barely setting any fruit? Sometimes the problem is not the…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 6

American elderberry is a native shrub that can soften a fence line, supply summer fruit for birds, and…

By Jasmine Hughes · Sep 6

When summer winds down and your garden beds look worn out, it can feel like the season is…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 6

Scattering grass seed over a bare patch feels like a simple fix, but plenty of Southern homeowners end…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 6

Staring at a bare, empty flower bed can feel discouraging, especially when you want color fast. The good…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 6

Bare patches in a North Carolina yard can feel like an open invitation to weeds, mud, and eroding…

By Jasmine Hughes · Sep 6

When your tomato plants start looking tired and leggy, it can feel like the growing season is over.…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 6

Ticks are a real concern for North Carolina homeowners, especially during the warmer months when people and pets…

By Jasmine Hughes · Sep 6

Bare patches showing up in your lawn right before fall can feel like a race against the clock.…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 6

Plenty of North Carolina homeowners have looked at a crape myrtle growing in the wrong spot and thought,…

By Jasmine Hughes · Sep 6

If your porch or balcony geranium looks more like a bare stick with a few leaves at the…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 6

You water them, you feed them, and your geraniums look full and green – but the flowers just…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 6

Zinnias are one of the most rewarding flowers you can grow in a North Carolina yard, but keeping…

By Jasmine Hughes · Sep 6

You walk out to your bird feeder in the morning and find seed scattered everywhere, the feeder tipped…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 6

Ants have a remarkable ability to find sugar water, and once a single scout locates your hummingbird feeder,…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 5

Watching ruby-throated hummingbirds zip around the backyard is one of the small pleasures of a North Carolina summer.…

By Jasmine Hughes · Sep 5

Some plants look pretty in the garden but cause big trouble once they escape into the wild. A…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 5

Japanese beetles are a real headache for North Carolina homeowners, but the timing of when to act matters…

By Jasmine Hughes · Sep 5

If your fussy flowers keep dying no matter how much you fuss over them, the problem might not…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 5

Picking a handful of tiny tomatoes after months of watering and feeding is one of the most frustrating…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 5

Every fall, weeds seem to surge back just when you thought the garden was winding down, and the…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 5

If your hydrangeas wilt and brown out every summer no matter how much you water them, you are…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 5

Hard concrete edges can make a patio feel cold and uninviting, but the right plant along that border…

By Jasmine Hughes · Sep 5

Waking up to find a cluster of small, cone-shaped holes scattered across your lawn overnight is genuinely puzzling,…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 5

Weeding around zinnias all summer is one of those chores that never seems to end, and plenty of…

By Jasmine Hughes · Sep 5

Peace lilies are some of the most forgiving houseplants around, but those crispy brown tips can show up…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 5

Watching your squash plant explode with bright yellow blossoms while producing almost no actual squash is one of…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 5

Hanging baskets can look perfectly watered from the outside and still have a bone-dry root ball on the…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 5

Green tomatoes hanging on the vine while the calendar flips to September is one of the most frustrating…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 5

Your hummingbird feeder keeps emptying out, but you never actually see a hummingbird at it. Before assuming the…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 5

Crispy brown edges creeping along your hydrangea leaves can stop you cold, especially when the rest of the…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 5

Waking up to find your Boston fern looking like it spent the night near a campfire is genuinely…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 5

Eastern purple coneflower, known by its scientific name Echinacea purpurea, is one of North Carolina’s most reliable native…

By Jasmine Hughes · Sep 5

Creeping Charlie is that low, sneaky weed with round leaves and tiny purple flowers that spreads across your…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 5

A Cooper’s Hawk dropping into your backyard while you are watching the bird feeder is one of those…

By Jasmine Hughes · Sep 5

Watching yellow spread across your cucumber vines can feel alarming, especially when it seems to move from plant…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 4

Most Southern homeowners have heard the warning: never water your lawn in the heat of the day, or…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 4

Asparagus is one of the few vegetables you plant once and harvest for many springs to come. North…

By Jasmine Hughes · Sep 4