Gardening Tips

Pulling the same weeds from the same bed every few weeks gets old fast. One way to cut…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 1

Watch a single hummingbird feeder in early fall and you may see one tiny bird chase off every…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 1

A hummingbird zips past your window in October, and you wonder if it is time to bring the…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 1

Some of the prettiest plants sold for Southern yards are actually on official noxious or invasive lists in…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 1

Bare dirt under trees and along borders tends to wash away, sprout weeds, and make a yard look…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 1

A flash of bright blue zips across your mulch and vanishes under a leaf. It is a small…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 1

Those purple-topped weeds that suddenly carpet your lawn in spring did not appear overnight. Henbit starts its life…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 1

Walk out your door in late summer or fall and you may run into silk strung across the…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 1

You step outside with your morning coffee and find little cone-shaped holes all over the grass. Those tidy…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 30

Few houseplants are as frustrating as a holiday cactus that grows healthy green stems and then never blooms.…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 30

Nandina shows up along front walks all over North Carolina, but its berries can poison cedar waxwings and…

By Jasmine Hughes · Sep 30

Thyme that looks stretched out, bare in the middle, and a little sad makes many gardeners reach for…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 30

Nothing stings quite like pulling crabgrass all summer and seeing it fill the lawn again the next year.…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 30

You open the shed door and spot a long, dark snake tucked near the wall. Your first thought…

By Jasmine Hughes · Sep 30

Making a new blueberry plant from one you already love is a tempting idea, and it can work.…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 30

Every spring, North Carolina yards burst into pink, white, and red azalea color. But many homeowners get a…

By Jasmine Hughes · Sep 30

Your broccoli looks lush and healthy, yet the center of the plant is not giving you the crown…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 30

You finally got your holiday cactus loaded with buds, and now they are dropping just before the big…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 30

Boxwood has lined North Carolina foundations for generations, but boxwood blight and leafminers have left plenty of front…

By Jasmine Hughes · Sep 30

You pull a carrot from the garden and find a thick crown of feathery green leaves on top…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 30

You spread seed, watered faithfully, and finally saw green shoots. Then the patches started thinning out and turning…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 30

Walk across your lawn an hour after mowing and look closely at the grass tips. If they look…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 30

You plant a row of fall lettuce and collards, and two nights later there’s nothing left but chewed…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 30

That rosemary bush by your back steps is hiding a secret stash of free plants. With a pair…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 30

You walk out to your raised bed and the soil sits a few inches below the top board.…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 30

Your persimmon tree is leafy and green, yet fruit keeps landing on the ground. That can feel alarming,…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 30

Spot a box turtle plodding across your North Carolina yard and you might wonder if it is doing…

By Jasmine Hughes · Sep 30

Daylilies are tough plants, but even tough plants can start looking tired after a long Southern summer. If…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 30

Planting a row of Leyland cypress along a fence has long been a common way to get privacy…

By Jasmine Hughes · Sep 30

Pull one dandelion and three more seem to pop up by spring. These weeds are tougher than they…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 29

You walk out to the garden and find flour-like white patches spreading across your squash leaves. It looks…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 29

That scraggly ditch bank you mow every other week could be the prettiest strip on your whole property.…

By Jasmine Hughes · Sep 29

You filled the feeder, hung it up, and now it just sits there while you wait. Before you…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 29

You filled the feeder, hung it by the porch, and waited, but the hummingbirds flew right past it.…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 29

That neat fall trim on your azaleas might cost you flowers next spring. Many common azaleas are already…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 29

Those tall canna leaves and bright flowers that carried your beds all summer are living on borrowed time…

By Jasmine Hughes · Sep 29

Bare, thin patches in a lawn seem to fill with weeds almost overnight. It is tempting to blame…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 29

You planted a bright clump of Shasta daisies, and now the middle looks bare while the flowers around…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 29

You flip on the porch light after dark and there it is again, a toad sitting right by…

By Jasmine Hughes · Sep 29

A yellow leaf on your pothos can make your stomach drop, especially when you are not sure what…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 29

A cold snap is on the way, and your vines are still hung with hard green tomatoes. Some…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 29

You walk out to the garden and find big, glossy peppers that just will not change color. It…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 29

Those brown, spiky seed heads on your coneflowers are not leftovers. They hold seeds you can gather and…

By Jasmine Hughes · Sep 29

You look at your lilac in October and see a few stray branches begging for a trim. Grab…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 29

That glossy vinca on your hillside looks tidy, but it creeps into woods, smothers wildflowers, and does a…

By Jasmine Hughes · Sep 29

Most people take their feeders down in September and think the hummingbird show is over. In the South,…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 29

Walk out to your daylily bed after the first cold snap and you may find leaves that are…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 29

Carolina Chickadees are small, curious birds that stay in North Carolina all year. When cold weather arrives, finding…

By Jasmine Hughes · Sep 29

A full feeder with no visitors can feel strange, especially when the yard was busy a few weeks…

By Ethan Brooks · Sep 29