Gardening Tips

Watching your zucchini plants collapse in a heap every August afternoon is enough to send any gardener into…

By Ethan Brooks · Aug 8

Spotting a cluster of fresh mounds in your garden bed can feel alarming, but the story behind them…

By Jasmine Hughes · Aug 8

Watching your pepper plants bloom all summer while producing almost no fruit is one of the more frustrating…

By Ethan Brooks · Aug 8

Finding an eastern box turtle slowly making its way through your tomatoes or flower beds can stop you…

By Jasmine Hughes · Aug 8

If your hydrangeas look leafy but stingy with flowers, you are not alone. The good news is that…

By Ethan Brooks · Aug 8

Watching your hydrangea push out thick, healthy leaves every spring only to sit flowerless all season is one…

By Ethan Brooks · Aug 8

Stepping out to check your tomato plants and finding a row of tightly curled, leathery leaves can send…

By Ethan Brooks · Aug 8

Watching your cucumber plant develop crispy, yellow, or scorched leaves in August is genuinely alarming, especially when you…

By Ethan Brooks · Aug 8

Cracked tomatoes are one of the most frustrating sights in a late-summer garden, especially when you have been…

By Jasmine Hughes · Aug 8

Every August and September, North Carolina yards fill with a rising chorus of rasping, buzzing calls coming from…

By Jasmine Hughes · Aug 8

Fall broccoli is one of the most rewarding cool-season crops a North Carolina gardener can grow, but getting…

By Jasmine Hughes · Aug 8

Spotting a copperhead along the edge where your yard meets the woods can stop you in your tracks,…

By Jasmine Hughes · Aug 8

Most North Carolina homeowners have seen a Bradford pear in full white bloom and thought it looked like…

By Jasmine Hughes · Aug 7

Walk the edge where your lawn meets the woods and you might brush past a thorny, low-growing shrub…

By Jasmine Hughes · Aug 7

Watching a pepper plant fill up with flowers in August feels like a promise – and then every…

By Ethan Brooks · Aug 7

Every fall, North Carolina homeowners start sneezing and immediately point a finger at the bright yellow wildflower blooming…

By Jasmine Hughes · Aug 7

Your tomato plants looked great in June, and now they seem stuck – fewer flowers, fruit that won’t…

By Ethan Brooks · Aug 7

Biting into a cucumber you grew yourself only to get a mouthful of bitterness is one of the…

By Ethan Brooks · Aug 7

Something unsettling happens when a patch of your lawn turns brown in a matter of days, and no…

By Jasmine Hughes · Aug 7

Watching a tiny zucchini turn yellow and mushy at the tip is one of the more frustrating moments…

By Ethan Brooks · Aug 7

Every July and August, North Carolina homeowners spot something alarming: huge, yellow-striped wasps hovering low over the grass…

By Jasmine Hughes · Aug 7

Seeing yellow patches spread between the green veins on your cucumber leaves in August is genuinely unsettling, especially…

By Ethan Brooks · Aug 7

Spotting a large, fast-moving spider along your foundation can stop you in your tracks, especially when it seems…

By Jasmine Hughes · Aug 7

Stepping outside to find praying mantises perched on every shrub and fence post can feel like your yard…

By Jasmine Hughes · Aug 6

Spotting a copperhead along your yard’s wooded edge in late summer can stop you cold, and it raises…

By Jasmine Hughes · Aug 6

Every summer, North Carolina gardeners walk outside to find their rose bushes looking like lace curtains, stripped of…

By Jasmine Hughes · Aug 6

Chain-link fences are practical, but they are not exactly beautiful, and most homeowners would rather look at something…

By Jasmine Hughes · Aug 6

Most backyard blueberry growers in North Carolina spend the summer focused on picking fruit, but the work that…

By Jasmine Hughes · Aug 6

Spotting a hawk once is exciting, but seeing the same bird swoop through your backyard again and again…

By Jasmine Hughes · Aug 6

Finding a handful of large, fast-moving spiders patrolling your foundation on a cool October evening can make any…

By Jasmine Hughes · Aug 5

Walk outside on a warm August evening in North Carolina and you might feel like the trees have…

By Jasmine Hughes · Aug 5

A patch of ragged, browning grass can send a North Carolina homeowner straight to the garden center, but…

By Jasmine Hughes · Aug 5

Spotting a nearly round hole in your deck rail or fence post can stop you mid-step, especially when…

By Jasmine Hughes · Aug 5

Every summer, Japanese beetles show up in North Carolina yards and go straight for roses and bean plants,…

By Jasmine Hughes · Aug 5

Glance out at a North Carolina yard in late summer and you might spot a dozen small green…

By Jasmine Hughes · Aug 5

Late summer in North Carolina often brings a surprise in the backyard: silky white webs draped over the…

By Jasmine Hughes · Aug 4

Spotted lanternflies have been showing up in more North Carolina yards, and the egg masses they leave behind…

By Jasmine Hughes · Aug 4

Stepping outside on a warm North Carolina evening and spotting wolf spiders scattered across your yard can feel…

By Jasmine Hughes · Aug 4

Walking out to your garden in August and finding a tomato plant with drooping, yellowing lower leaves is…

By Ethan Brooks · Aug 4

A colorful, fast-spreading insect called the spotted lanternfly has been turning up in North Carolina yards, and one…

By Jasmine Hughes · Aug 4

Watching a tiny zucchini shrivel and turn soft at the blossom end is one of the most frustrating…

By Ethan Brooks · Aug 4

Every October, a lot of North Carolina yards sit bare and brown while neighbors wonder what went wrong…

By Jasmine Hughes · Aug 4

Finding a nearly ripe tomato split open in circular rings near the stem is one of late summer’s…

By Ethan Brooks · Aug 4

Turning a tomato leaf over and finding purple or reddish-purple coloring underneath can stop you cold. That color…

By Ethan Brooks · Aug 4

Spotting a flash of blue tail darting under your deck or finding three lizards sunning on the same…

By Jasmine Hughes · Aug 4

August is the month when cucumber vines hit their fastest growth, and that speed catches a lot of…

By Ethan Brooks · Aug 4

Walking out to your pepper plants and finding the leaves rolled into tight curls or feeling unusually stiff…

By Ethan Brooks · Aug 3

Right now, across North Carolina yards, metallic beetles are showing up on roses and making a mess of…

By Jasmine Hughes · Aug 3

Noticing pale yellow patches spreading across your cucumber leaves can send a gardener into full alarm mode, especially…

By Ethan Brooks · Aug 3