Gardening Tips
What Fire Ants in Your North Carolina Garden Beds Are Really Trying to Tell You
Spotting a fire ant mound in your garden bed can make your stomach drop, but that mound is…
By Jasmine Hughes
·
Jul 24
Gardening Tips
If Your Tomatoes Keep Splitting Just as They Ripen in the Heat, One Watering Pattern Is Often to Blame
Walking out to your garden and finding a perfectly ripening tomato split open is one of the most…
By Ethan Brooks
·
Jul 24
Gardening Tips
If Your Tomato Plants Suddenly Stop Growing Taller in the Heat, the Trouble Usually Starts Deep Below the Roots
Noticing a low, fleshy weed creeping around your tomato plants at the same time growth seems to stall…
By Ethan Brooks
·
Jul 24
Gardening Tips
The Common Blueberry Mistakes That Quietly Kill North Carolina Backyard Harvests Before They Start
Blueberries grow across North Carolina, but getting a reliable harvest from your backyard takes more than dropping a…
By Jasmine Hughes
·
Jul 24
Gardening Tips
If Your Cucumber Plants Look Lush but the Blossoms Keep Dropping in the Heat, One Watering Habit Is Usually to Blame
Watching cucumber vines grow thick and green while every flower falls off before producing a single fruit is…
By Ethan Brooks
·
Jul 24
Gardening Tips
Set Up a Rain Barrel Once and Your North Carolina Container Garden Has Water All Summer
Dragging a hose across a hot patio to water a row of potted plants gets old fast, especially…
By Jasmine Hughes
·
Jul 24
Gardening Tips
If Your Pepper Plants Flower Heavily but Drop Every Blossom in the Heat, One Hidden Stress Is Usually to Blame
You step outside on a hot afternoon and find a cluster of pepper blossoms scattered on the soil…
By Ethan Brooks
·
Jul 24
Gardening Tips
The Tall North Carolina Flower That Pulls In Bees, Hummingbirds, and Butterflies All Season
If you want bees buzzing, butterflies landing, and hummingbirds hovering in your yard from June through September, one…
By Jasmine Hughes
·
Jul 24
Gardening Tips
If Your Cucumbers Grow Fat in the Middle but Pinch at the Ends in the Heat, One Watering Habit Is Usually to Blame
Pulling a cucumber off the vine and finding it swollen in the middle but pinched or tapered at…
By Ethan Brooks
·
Jul 24
Gardening Tips
If Your Zucchini Grows Huge Leaves but Barely Any Fruit in the Heat, One Feeding Habit Is Usually to Blame
You water faithfully, the plant looks enormous, and yet the zucchini just aren’t showing up. When your plant…
By Ethan Brooks
·
Jul 24
Gardening Tips
If Your Cucumber Leaves Turn Yellow at the Edges in the Heat, One Magnesium Habit Is Usually to Blame
Watching your cucumber leaves develop yellow edges during a summer heat wave is genuinely worrying, and the instinct…
By Ethan Brooks
·
Jul 24
Gardening Tips
If Your Tomato Leaves Yellow From the Bottom Up in the Heat, the Trouble Usually Starts Down in the Roots
Watching your tomato plant’s lower leaves turn yellow during a heat wave is enough to make any gardener…
By Ethan Brooks
·
Jul 23
Gardening Tips
Tomato Leaves Curling and Fruit Sunburning? A Recent Fertilizer Overapplication May Be One Piece of a Bigger Puzzle
Curling leaves and pale, papery patches on your tomato fruit can stop a gardener cold, especially when the…
By Ethan Brooks
·
Jul 23
Gardening Tips
North Carolina Bluebirds Come Back Every Spring – Here’s How to Get Them Nesting in Your Yard
Eastern Bluebirds are one of the most recognizable birds in North Carolina, with their brilliant blue backs and…
By Jasmine Hughes
·
Jul 23
Gardening Tips
If Your Cucumber Plants Grow Huge Vines but Barely Any Cucumbers in the Heat, One Feeding Habit Is Usually to Blame
Watching a cucumber plant explode into a tangle of thick vines and broad leaves is exciting, right up…
By Ethan Brooks
·
Jul 23
Gardening Tips
If Your Zucchini Flowers but Never Sets Fruit in the Heat, One Pollination Habit Is Usually to Blame
Your zucchini plant looks healthy, covered in big leaves and bright yellow flowers, but the fruit just never…
By Ethan Brooks
·
Jul 23
Gardening Tips
9 Native North Carolina Plants That Bring Fireflies Back to Your Backyard This Summer
Warm summer nights in North Carolina used to sparkle with fireflies, but a lot of yards have gone…
By Jasmine Hughes
·
Jul 23
Gardening Tips
If Your Cucumber Vines Wilt at Midday Even in Damp Soil, One Hidden Culprit Is Usually to Blame
Walking out to your garden at noon and finding your cucumber vines draped and limp is an unsettling…
By Ethan Brooks
·
Jul 23
Gardening Tips
If Your Tomatoes Stall Out in the Late-July Heat, One Feeding Fix Usually Gets Them Moving Again
Watching your tomato plants slow to a crawl in late July is genuinely frustrating, especially when you have…
By Ethan Brooks
·
Jul 23
Gardening Tips
The Native North Carolina Alternatives That Belong Along Your Walkway Instead of Liriope
Liriope shows up along half the walkways in North Carolina, but it is not from here, and in…
By Jasmine Hughes
·
Jul 23
Gardening Tips
Sudden Squash Wilt Could Signal a Vine Borer – Here Is How to Tell
Watching a healthy squash plant suddenly flop over in the afternoon heat is genuinely alarming, especially when you…
By Ethan Brooks
·
Jul 23
Gardening Tips
The One Thing Your North Carolina Tomatoes Need Right Now or Blossom End Rot Wrecks the Harvest
Pull back the leaves on a July tomato plant and you might spot it before you even pick…
By Jasmine Hughes
·
Jul 23
Gardening Tips
If Your Cucumber Leaves Turn Silvery and Speckled in the Heat, One Sneaky Pest Is Usually Feeding Underneath
Walking out to your cucumber patch on a hot afternoon and finding the leaves looking pale, silvery, or…
By Ethan Brooks
·
Jul 23
Gardening Tips
Big Cucumber Harvests Can Start With One Ingredient You Already Have in the Kitchen
Plenty of gardening tips promise that one simple pantry staple will transform your cucumber plants into a bumper-crop…
By Ethan Brooks
·
Jul 23
Gardening Tips
If Your Peppers Stay Green and Never Ripen in the Heat, the Trouble Starts Before the Fruit Even Colors
You walk out to your pepper plants expecting a flush of red, yellow, or orange fruit, and all…
By Ethan Brooks
·
Jul 23
Gardening Tips
If Your Potted Tomatoes Stay Small and Slow in the Heat, One Container Mistake Is Usually to Blame
Watching your potted tomato sit there barely growing while summer heat cranks up is genuinely frustrating, especially when…
By Ethan Brooks
·
Jul 23
Gardening Tips
If Your Zucchini Rots at the Blossom End Before It Ripens in the Heat, One Watering Habit Is Usually to Blame
Spotting a brown, sunken patch on the tip of a young zucchini is one of the more disheartening…
By Ethan Brooks
·
Jul 23
Gardening Tips
If Your Pepper Leaves Curl and Cup Upward in the Heat but Pests Are Nowhere in Sight, the Cause Is Usually How You Water
Pepper plants have a way of sending gardeners into a panic when their leaves start to curl or…
By Ethan Brooks
·
Jul 23
Gardening Tips
Bitter Cucumbers and Tough Ends in the Heat: How Uneven Watering May Be Contributing
Biting into a cucumber you grew yourself and getting a mouthful of bitterness is genuinely frustrating, especially in…
By Ethan Brooks
·
Jul 23
Gardening Tips
If You Spot This Bug in Your North Carolina Yard, Don’t Touch It – Here’s Why
A striking insect has been turning up in North Carolina yards, and the first reaction many people have…
By Jasmine Hughes
·
Jul 23
Gardening Tips
If Your Tomatoes Get Pale Sunken Patches on the Sunny Side in the Heat, Aggressive Foliage Removal Can Raise the Risk
Spotting a pale, papery patch on the sunny side of a tomato you have been carefully growing all…
By Ethan Brooks
·
Jul 23
Gardening Tips
More Bats in Your North Carolina Yard Means Fewer Mosquitoes – Here’s How to Bring Them In
North Carolina summers bring fireflies, garden tomatoes, and unfortunately, clouds of mosquitoes that can make an evening outside…
By Jasmine Hughes
·
Jul 23
Gardening Tips
If Your Pepper Plants Grow Bushy but Set No Pods in the Heat, One Feeding Swing Is Usually to Blame
You step outside to check your pepper plants and find them packed with deep-green leaves, looking healthier than…
By John Miller CA
·
Jul 22
Gardening Tips
If Your Cucumbers Turn Yellow and Mushy on the Vine in Midsummer Heat, One Watering Habit Is Usually to Blame
Walking out to your cucumber patch and finding a soft, yellow fruit hanging on the vine is genuinely…
By Ethan Brooks
·
Jul 22
Gardening Tips
Here’s What It Means When Hawks Keep Circling Back to Your North Carolina Yard
Spotting a hawk once in your yard is a treat, but when the same bird keeps showing up…
By Jasmine Hughes
·
Jul 22
Gardening Tips
If Your Cucumber Plants Look Lush but Never Fill Out Their Fruit, One Feeding Swing Is Usually to Blame
You planted cucumbers expecting a steady harvest, but instead you have a jungle of dark-green vines and almost…
By Ethan Brooks
·
Jul 22
Gardening Tips
If Your Tomatoes Keep Splitting Their Skins After a Hot Spell, One Watering Habit Is Usually to Blame
Walking out to your garden after a summer rainstorm and finding your nearly ripe tomatoes split wide open…
By Ethan Brooks
·
Jul 22
Gardening Tips
Pawpaws and Persimmons Are North Carolina Natives Almost Nobody Grows but Every Yard Should Have
Two fruit trees have grown wild across North Carolina for centuries, feeding wildlife and quietly ripening each fall,…
By Jasmine Hughes
·
Jul 22
Gardening Tips
If Your Tomatoes Rot on the Bottom Only After a Hot Spell, the Trouble Starts in How You Water
Finding a dark, sunken patch on the bottom of a tomato you have been watching all season is…
By Ethan Brooks
·
Jul 22
Gardening Tips
The Invasive North Carolina Tree That Quietly Spreads Spotted Lanternfly Through Backyards
A weedy, fast-growing tree called tree-of-heaven is already growing in many North Carolina backyards, and it turns out…
By Jasmine Hughes
·
Jul 22
Gardening Tips
Cucumber Plants Full of Flowers but No Fruit in the Heat? Here Is What to Check Before You Feed
Watching a cucumber vine explode with blossoms while the produce drawer stays empty is one of the more…
By Ethan Brooks
·
Jul 22
Gardening Tips
If Your Zucchini Grows Huge Leaves but Never Sets Fruit in the Heat, One Hidden Mistake Is Usually to Blame
Your zucchini plant looks fantastic from a distance, sprawling and leafy like something out of a seed catalog,…
By Ethan Brooks
·
Jul 22
Gardening Tips
The Most Underrated North Carolina Native Shrub That Turns Your Yard’s Edge Into a Tick Barrier
Ticks do not wait for an invitation. They hang at the edge of your lawn, on tall grass…
By Jasmine Hughes
·
Jul 22
Gardening Tips
If Your Tomatoes Are Growing Tall but Setting No Fruit in the Heat, One Feeding Habit Is Usually to Blame
Walking out to a tomato plant that looks lush and tall but has almost nothing to show for…
By Ethan Brooks
·
Jul 22
Gardening Tips
If Your Cucumber Vines Wilt by Afternoon but Bounce Back by Morning, the Trouble Is Already in the Roots
Watching your cucumber vines droop in the afternoon heat is unsettling, especially when they look perfectly fine the…
By Ethan Brooks
·
Jul 22
Gardening Tips
If Your Cucumber Leaves Turn Yellow From the Bottom Up in the Heat, the Cause Is Usually Below the Soil
Walking out to your garden in July and finding the lower leaves on your cucumber plants turning yellow…
By Ethan Brooks
·
Jul 22
Gardening Tips
If Your Pepper Plants Keep Dropping Blossoms in the Heat, One Watering Swing Is Usually to Blame
Your pepper plants look lush and full of flowers, yet the blossoms keep falling off before a single…
By Ethan Brooks
·
Jul 22
Gardening Tips
If Your Zucchini Sets Fruit That Rots Before It Grows, the Trouble Starts Before the Bloom Opens
Watching a tiny zucchini swell up and then shrivel before it ever reaches your kitchen is one of…
By Ethan Brooks
·
Jul 22
Gardening Tips
Why Your Pepper Plants Are Bushy but Dropping Every Flower: Midsummer Heat Is Often the First Place to Look
You planted your peppers back in spring, watched them grow into full, healthy-looking bushes, and then waited for…
By John Miller CA
·
Jul 22