When to Plant Pansies in North Carolina for Winter and Spring Color
Pansies are one of the few flowers that thrive when the weather cools down, which makes fall the time to plant them in North Carolina.…
By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 26, 2026
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Gardening Tips
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2,417 Articles
Gardening Tips
Why your onion and shallot sets rot in the ground over winter, and the planting depth that saves them
You went out to check your fall-planted onion or shallot sets and found some that feel soft, mushy,…
By Ethan Brooks · Oct 26
Gardening Tips
Christmas Cactus With No Buds by Late October? Check Nighttime Light and Temperature
A holiday cactus with no buds in late October can feel like a missed deadline. The plant is…
By Ethan Brooks · Oct 26
Gardening Tips
The Strange Jungle-Looking Plants That Actually Thrive in North Carolina Yards
You do not need to live in the tropics to have a yard that looks like a rainforest.…
By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 26
Gardening Tips
Your amaryllis bulb sat dormant all summer, and late October may give it a chance at Christmas blooms
That amaryllis bulb you tucked away last spring has been quietly resting, and the calendar is now telling…
By Ethan Brooks · Oct 26
Gardening Tips
Skip Purple Fountain Grass Along Your North Carolina Driveway and Plant This Native That Comes Back Every Year
A bright grass along the driveway can make a plain curb look finished. But many North Carolina gardeners…
By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 26
Gardening Tips
Why your pepper plants are still loaded with green fruit in late October, and how to ripen them before frost
Your pepper plants look full and healthy, but nearly every fruit is still green. That can feel like…
By Ethan Brooks · Oct 26
Gardening Tips
Why Do Potted Peppers Lose Leaves or Blossoms After Moving Indoors for Winter?
You carry your pepper plant inside before a cold snap, and a few days later leaves are yellowing…
By Ethan Brooks · Oct 26
Gardening Tips
Can a Fall Cut Hurt North Carolina Fig Trees Before Winter? What Really Causes Freeze-Back
You trimmed a fig branch in October, and now every cold forecast makes you wonder if you doomed…
By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 26
Gardening Tips
Why Your Potted Amaryllis Grows Tall Leaves but No Flower Stalk, and How a Rest May Help Time Blooms
Your amaryllis stands tall with strap-like leaves, yet there is no flower stalk in sight. That can feel…
By Ethan Brooks · Oct 26
Gardening Tips
Why your fall lettuce leaves turn brown and slimy at the edges, and how to save the rest of the bed
You walk out to the garden after a cold, rainy stretch and the lettuce edges are brown and…
By Ethan Brooks · Oct 26
Gardening Tips
Native Shrubs North Carolina Gardeners Are Planting Instead of Crape Myrtle, and They Look Better Year-Round
Crape myrtles bloom hard for a few summer weeks, then spend the rest of the year as bare,…
By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 26
Gardening Tips
Your Hostas Need Two Quick Jobs Before Winter, and One Fall Chore Most Gardeners Should Skip
When hosta leaves turn yellow and flop over in fall, many gardeners worry the plant is dying. It…
By Ethan Brooks · Oct 26
Gardening Tips
If your potted tomatoes and peppers are coming indoors for winter, check the undersides of the leaves for whiteflies first
Bringing a healthy-looking tomato or pepper plant inside can feel like a win against the first chilly nights.…
By Ethan Brooks · Oct 25
Gardening Tips
Why your fall cabbage heads keep splitting open after a rainy week, and how to stop it
You walk out after a soggy week and find your best cabbage cracked wide open. It is a…
By Ethan Brooks · Oct 25
Gardening Tips
Rosemary, thyme and oregano in pots need a different winter spot than your basil, and here’s where each one goes
Your potted herbs do not all want the same winter home. Rosemary, thyme and oregano come from dry…
By Ethan Brooks · Oct 25
Gardening Tips
Why potted herbs may turn yellow or leggy after moving indoors
You carried your basil, rosemary, or thyme inside to keep it safe, and now it looks pale or…
By Ethan Brooks · Oct 25
Gardening Tips
Overwintered rosemary in a pot dies indoors from soggy roots, not the cold, so water it far less
Your rosemary looked great on the patio, so why does it start to struggle a few weeks after…
By Ethan Brooks · Oct 25
Gardening Tips
Should You Water Your North Carolina Dogwood Before November? Check the Soil First
Your dogwood put on a show last April, and now you want to help it do it again.…
By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 25
Gardening Tips
Beets with Big Leafy Tops but Tiny Roots: Crowding May Be a Cause, and Thinning Can Help Next Time
You pulled up your fall beets expecting fat, round roots, and found tiny ones sitting under a jungle…
By Ethan Brooks · Oct 25
Gardening Tips
The Surprising Reason North Carolina Gardeners Are Spraying Vinegar Along Their Driveways and Walkways
Picture a weed poking up from a crack in a driveway, and a bottle of vinegar sitting in…
By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 25
Gardening Tips
Swiss chard keeps pumping out fresh leaves all winter when you cut the outer stalks this way
A chard plant that looks tired in December can still feed you for weeks if you pick it…
By Ethan Brooks · Oct 25
Gardening Tips
Collard greens with holes and gray clusters under the leaves have aphids, and cold weather won’t kill them off
You flip over a collard leaf and find a gray, fuzzy-looking crowd tucked along the underside. The leaf…
By Ethan Brooks · Oct 25
Gardening Tips
Dividing an overgrown hosta in fall may help a thinning, floppy clump, if timing and site allow
A hosta with a sad, open middle and leaves that flop to the sides can make a shady…
By Ethan Brooks · Oct 25
Gardening Tips
These Small Backyard Trees Throw Real Shade Without Swallowing Your North Carolina Yard
A big oak can shade a whole house, but it can also eat a small yard alive and…
By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 25
Gardening Tips
Topping Brussels Sprouts: When It Helps and When to Skip It
A tall Brussels sprout stalk covered in tiny, open sprouts can leave any gardener scratching their head. Many…
By Ethan Brooks · Oct 25
Gardening Tips
Trying to Keep Coleus Through a North Carolina Winter With Cuttings Started in a Jar
A favorite coleus can fade fast once fall nights turn cold in North Carolina. Hauling a big, sprawling…
By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 25
Gardening Tips
Should You Shut Last Year’s Poinsettia in a Dark Closet Every Night to Get Holiday Color Again?
That poinsettia you kept alive since last December is probably sitting there with plain green leaves. Many gardeners…
By Ethan Brooks · Oct 25
Gardening Tips
What to Do in the First Few Seconds a Coyote Shows Up in Your North Carolina Yard
A coyote trotting across your lawn can make your heart jump, and your first instinct may be to…
By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 25
Gardening Tips
Bringing Geraniums Indoors This Fall Can Help You Save Them for Another Season
That pot of red or pink geraniums on your porch does not have to be a one-season plant.…
By Ethan Brooks · Oct 25
Gardening Tips
A Cold Night Can Damage a Vulnerable Fig Tree, So Here’s How to Prepare Before the First Frost
A forecast frost can make any fig grower nervous, especially when the tree has been giving you sweet…
By Ethan Brooks · Oct 25
Gardening Tips
The Messy Black Walnut Harvest North Carolina Gardeners Swear Is Worth Every Stained Finger
Black walnuts wrapped in thick green hulls can litter a North Carolina yard and leave dark stains on…
By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 25
Gardening Tips
These 9 Smells in Your Fall Yard Are Quietly Inviting Coyotes Closer to Your House
Coyotes have a nose that can pick up a whiff of food from a surprising distance, and fall…
By Ethan Brooks · Oct 25
Gardening Tips
Leaving Some Fallen Leaves in Your Beds Can Help Your Garden Over Time
Those leaves piling up in your beds might be doing more work than you think. Instead of bagging…
By Ethan Brooks · Oct 24
Gardening Tips
The One Thing North Carolina Gardeners Must Do Before Bringing Potted Plants Inside or Pests Spread to Every Houseplant
Your porch plants spent all summer soaking up North Carolina sun, and now cooler nights are coming. Before…
By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 24
Gardening Tips
Your Potted Mums Wilt Every Afternoon Because the Root Ball Dries Out Faster Than You Water It
A porch mum that droops by mid-afternoon can make you feel like you are failing a plant that…
By Ethan Brooks · Oct 24
Gardening Tips
These Native North Carolina Plants Quietly Rebuild Your Clay Soil a Little More Every Year
If you garden in North Carolina, you know the red clay that cracks in August and turns to…
By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 24
Gardening Tips
Hydrangeas in pots die over winter from frozen roots, so wrap or move them before the first hard freeze
A hydrangea in the ground has a thick blanket of soil around its roots. A hydrangea in a…
By Ethan Brooks · Oct 24
Gardening Tips
Potted lemon and lime trees drop their leaves indoors this winter when you move them in too fast
A potted lemon tree can look perfect on the patio in October and start dropping leaves a few…
By Ethan Brooks · Oct 24
Gardening Tips
Snake clues hiding in your fall garden beds tell you one has moved in, even if you never see it
Snakes are masters of hiding, and a fall garden bed full of mulch, leaves, and fading plants can…
By Ethan Brooks · Oct 24
Gardening Tips
Carrots left in the ground under a thick straw blanket taste sweeter every week you wait to pull them
Pulling a crisp carrot from the cold garden in winter feels like a small victory. Plenty of gardeners…
By Ethan Brooks · Oct 24
Gardening Tips
Rosemary in North Carolina: An Evergreen Herb Option Beside Garden Mums
Fall beds and porch pots in North Carolina often default to mums, but there is another plant worth…
By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 24
Gardening Tips
Cool weather may change how fall kale tastes, but frost does not reliably make it sweet
Bitter kale leaves a lot of gardeners wondering if the plant is waiting on a frost. Cool weather…
By Ethan Brooks · Oct 24
Gardening Tips
What Really Happens When You Mow Over Fallen Leaves Instead of Raking Your North Carolina Lawn
Every October, North Carolina yards fill up with leaves, and so do the weekends of people who rake…
By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 24
Gardening Tips
Broccoli with yellow flowers this fall may still produce side shoots after you remove the head
You walk out to the garden and spot tiny yellow flowers where a tight green broccoli head should…
By Ethan Brooks · Oct 24
Gardening Tips
Hellebores Can Brighten Shady Beds in Winter When Planted in Fall
Picture a shady corner of your yard in the gray months, with glossy green leaves and nodding flowers…
By Ethan Brooks · Oct 24
Gardening Tips
Thick Leaf Cover Can Stress Southern Lawns: How to Mulch, Rake, or Move Fallen Leaves
Fallen leaves can look pretty on a lawn, but a deep blanket of them can cause trouble for…
By Ethan Brooks · Oct 24
Gardening Tips
Deer Browsing Your Shrubs and Fall Greens as Forage Shifts? Here’s How to Protect Them Now
You walk out one morning and find your shrubs chewed and your fall greens nibbled down. Deer are…
By Ethan Brooks · Oct 24
Gardening Tips
Brown, mushy spots on your stored winter squash start at one spot most gardeners never check
You reach for a butternut or pumpkin from the pantry shelf and feel a soft, brown patch under…
By Ethan Brooks · Oct 24
Gardening Tips
Stink Bugs Sneaking Indoors for Winter Hate These Natural Repellents You Already Have at Home
When the weather cools, brown marmorated stink bugs start hunting for a warm place to hide, and your…
By Ethan Brooks · Oct 24