Gardening Tips
The North Carolina Plants Being Banned in More Counties Before They Take Over Native Landscapes
Some plants look pretty in the garden but turn into bullies once they escape into the wild. Across…
By Jasmine Hughes
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Jul 28
Gardening Tips
If your cucumbers taste bitter at harvest, one growing-season stress usually turns them that way
Biting into a homegrown cucumber and getting a mouthful of bitterness is one of summer’s most common garden…
By Ethan Brooks
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Jul 28
Gardening Tips
If your cucumber leaves keep scorching brown at the edges in this heat, the trouble usually starts underground
Crispy brown edges on cucumber leaves are one of the most alarming things a home gardener can spot…
By Ethan Brooks
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Jul 28
Gardening Tips
Here’s What It Really Means When Anoles Suddenly Vanish From Your North Carolina Garden
One morning you notice the usual flicker of green on the fence post is gone, and a week…
By Jasmine Hughes
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Jul 28
Gardening Tips
Tomato Leaves Turning Yellow From the Bottom Up: How to Read the Pattern and Find the Real Cause
Spotting yellow leaves creeping up your tomato plant from the bottom is enough to make any gardener nervous,…
By Ethan Brooks
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Jul 28
Gardening Tips
If your zucchini keeps flowering heavily but never sets fruit in this heat, the blossoms are your first diagnostic clue
Your zucchini plant is covered in bright yellow blossoms every morning, yet not a single fruit is forming.…
By Ethan Brooks
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Jul 27
Gardening Tips
Why North Carolina Gardeners Keep Lemongrass by the Patio (And What Actually Controls Mosquitoes)
Lemongrass has a way of earning permanent real estate near a North Carolina patio once a gardener tries…
By Jasmine Hughes
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Jul 27
Gardening Tips
If your cucumbers keep growing stubby and misshapen in this heat, the trouble usually starts at the flowers
You worked hard to get those cucumber vines going, and now they’re sprawling and green – but the…
By Ethan Brooks
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Jul 27
Gardening Tips
If Your Cucumber Leaves Are Yellowing Between the Veins, Magnesium Is Worth Investigating – But It Is Not the Only Answer
Yellow patches spreading between the veins of your cucumber leaves while the veins themselves stay green is one…
By Ethan Brooks
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Jul 27
Gardening Tips
If your cucumber plants suddenly wilt and collapse in this heat even when the soil is wet, one hidden invader is usually behind it
Watching a cucumber plant go limp on a hot afternoon is alarming enough, but finding wet soil beneath…
By Ethan Brooks
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Jul 27
Gardening Tips
If your squash leaves turn silvery-white in this heat, the trouble usually starts long before you spot mildew
Spotting white or silvery patches on your squash leaves during a heat wave can send any gardener straight…
By Ethan Brooks
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Jul 27
Gardening Tips
If your tomatoes crack open right after you water in this heat, one watering habit is usually behind it
Reaching into your tomato plants on a hot afternoon and finding split fruit is one of the most…
By Ethan Brooks
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Jul 27
Gardening Tips
If your tomatoes keep hanging green and won’t turn red in this heat, the trouble usually starts with how you’re feeding them
Walking out to the garden and finding a plant loaded with green tomatoes that refuse to change color…
By Ethan Brooks
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Jul 27
Gardening Tips
Your Cucumber Vines Are Not Stalling From Hunger – Here Is What to Check First
Cucumber vines can go from pumping out fruit to barely setting any in a matter of days once…
By Ethan Brooks
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Jul 27
Gardening Tips
The Front Yard Trees That Beat Crape Myrtle for North Carolina Homes All Year Round
Crape myrtle shows up in almost every North Carolina front yard, but it fades fast once the flowers…
By Jasmine Hughes
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Jul 27
Gardening Tips
If your tomato leaves are rolling up tight in this heat, the trouble usually starts long before you notice it
Watching your tomato plant curl its leaves into tight green tubes on a scorching afternoon is enough to…
By Ethan Brooks
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Jul 27
Gardening Tips
If your cucumber vines stall out in this heat, one thing in the watering can gets them climbing again
Watching your cucumber vines sit motionless in midsummer heat is genuinely frustrating, especially when you expected a surge…
By Ethan Brooks
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Jul 27
Gardening Tips
This Underrated North Carolina Native Shrub Blooms All Summer and Shrugs Off Dry Spells
Most nursery shelves pass right over St. Andrew’s cross, a compact native shrub that quietly flowers through much…
By Jasmine Hughes
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Jul 27
Gardening Tips
If your watermelons keep rotting at the blossom end in this heat, the trouble usually starts in the soil before the fruit even sets
Finding a dark, sunken spot on the bottom of your watermelon is genuinely discouraging, especially when the vines…
By Ethan Brooks
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Jul 27
Gardening Tips
Plant Butterfly Weed in This Narrow North Carolina Window or You Wait Another Whole Year
Butterfly weed is one of those plants that earns its place in a North Carolina yard quickly, drawing…
By Jasmine Hughes
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Jul 27
Gardening Tips
If your cantaloupe vines keep sprawling but never setting fruit in this heat, the trouble usually starts at the flowers
Watching a cantaloupe vine take over your garden bed while producing zero melons is one of the more…
By Ethan Brooks
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Jul 27
Gardening Tips
If your pepper plants keep growing bushy but never setting fruit in this heat, one overnight detail is usually behind it
Your pepper plant looks great from the outside, full of leaves and loaded with flowers, but every blossom…
By Ethan Brooks
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Jul 27
Gardening Tips
Why More North Carolina Homeowners Are Putting Up Owl Houses for Free Pest Control
Owls have lived in North Carolina’s woodlands, fields, and suburban neighborhoods long before anyone thought to build them…
By Jasmine Hughes
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Jul 27
Gardening Tips
If your eggplants keep dropping their blossoms in this heat, the trouble usually starts at the flowers
Watching your eggplant drop flower after flower without a single fruit forming is one of the more frustrating…
By Ethan Brooks
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Jul 27
Gardening Tips
If your carrots keep growing forked and split underground, the trouble usually starts in how you prepped the soil
Pull up a batch of carrots and you might find a tangle of forked, branched, or cracked roots…
By Ethan Brooks
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Jul 27
Gardening Tips
What It Really Means When a Fox Starts Passing Through Your North Carolina Backyard at Dusk
Spotting a fox slipping through your backyard as the sun goes down can feel alarming, but for most…
By Jasmine Hughes
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Jul 27
Gardening Tips
If your bean plants keep flowering but never fill their pods in this heat, the trouble usually starts at the blossoms
You water your beans faithfully, the vines look full and green, flowers keep popping open every morning, and…
By Ethan Brooks
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Jul 27
Gardening Tips
If your zucchini keeps rotting at the tip in this heat, the trouble usually starts at the flower
Watching a zucchini shrivel and rot at the tip is one of the more discouraging sights in a…
By Ethan Brooks
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Jul 26
Gardening Tips
If your pepper plants keep sunburning their fruit in this heat, the trouble usually starts with the leaves
That pale, papery patch on your pepper is frustrating, especially when the rest of the fruit looks perfectly…
By Ethan Brooks
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Jul 26
Gardening Tips
If your tomato leaves keep curling upward in this heat, the trouble usually starts with how the plant handles stress
Curling tomato leaves during a heat wave can send a gardener straight to the garden center looking for…
By Ethan Brooks
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Jul 26
Gardening Tips
If your squash plants keep collapsing overnight in this heat, one hidden stem invader is usually behind it
Walking out to your garden and finding a squash plant completely collapsed is one of the more unsettling…
By Ethan Brooks
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Jul 26
Gardening Tips
If your tomato plants split their fruit right after this heat, the trouble usually starts with how you water
Picking a tomato only to find it split open along the stem is one of summer’s most discouraging…
By Ethan Brooks
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Jul 26
Gardening Tips
What It Really Means When a Stink Bug Turns Up Inside Your North Carolina Home This Summer
Spotting a stink bug on your curtain can send your mind racing toward worst-case scenarios, but the reality…
By Jasmine Hughes
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Jul 26
Gardening Tips
If your cucumber plants keep wilting by afternoon in this heat, the trouble usually starts with when you water
Watching your cucumber plants droop on a hot afternoon can feel alarming, especially when you thought you were…
By Ethan Brooks
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Jul 26
Gardening Tips
The Hawks Circling Your North Carolina Yard Are Hunting the Rodents That Carry Ticks In – Here’s How to Keep Them Coming Back
That hawk riding the air above your backyard is doing something worth paying attention to, even if its…
By Jasmine Hughes
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Jul 26
Gardening Tips
If your cucumbers turn bitter in this heat, the trouble usually starts with how you’re watering them
Pulling a cucumber off the vine and biting into something that tastes more like medicine than a salad…
By Ethan Brooks
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Jul 26
Gardening Tips
If your potted tomatoes stay small and weak all summer, one container mistake is usually behind it
Watching a potted tomato sit there all summer, barely growing and producing almost nothing, is genuinely frustrating. Before…
By Ethan Brooks
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Jul 26
Gardening Tips
Why Your Cucumber Vines Keep Flowering But Never Set Fruit: Several Midsummer Factors May Be to Blame
Watching a cucumber vine grow big and bushy while producing almost no cucumbers is one of summer’s most…
By Ethan Brooks
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Jul 26
Gardening Tips
The Most Underrated North Carolina Native That Owns August When Every Other Flower Has Quit
Most North Carolina gardeners know coneflowers and black-eyed Susans, but there is one native plant that quietly earns…
By Jasmine Hughes
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Jul 26
Gardening Tips
If your tomato plants stalled out in this July heat, one feeding change gets them growing again
July heat can stop a tomato plant cold, and watching a vine sit motionless while the summer ticks…
By Ethan Brooks
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Jul 26
Gardening Tips
The Underrated North Carolina Native Shrub That Slows Ticks Down Along Your Wooded Property Line
Your wooded property line is one of the first places you should think about when it comes to…
By Jasmine Hughes
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Jul 26
Gardening Tips
If your tomatoes rot on the bottom in this heat, the trouble usually starts in the soil before the fruit even sets
Finding a sunken black patch on the bottom of your tomatoes is one of the most discouraging moments…
By Ethan Brooks
·
Jul 26
Gardening Tips
Native North Carolina Ground Covers That Smother Weeds Better Than the Mulch You Rebuy Every Year
Every spring, a lot of North Carolina homeowners haul home bag after bag of mulch, only to watch…
By Jasmine Hughes
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Jul 26
Gardening Tips
If your pepper plants keep dropping their blossoms in this heat, the trouble usually starts at the roots
Watching your pepper plant bloom beautifully, then shed every flower before a single fruit forms, is one of…
By Ethan Brooks
·
Jul 26
Gardening Tips
If your zucchini keeps growing leaves but no fruit, the trouble usually starts at the flowers
You planted one zucchini and ended up with a jungle of leaves, but the vines are empty. Before…
By Ethan Brooks
·
Jul 26
Gardening Tips
Moss Phlox on a Dry Slope: A Strong Native Option for Sunny, Well-Drained Banks in North Carolina
Sunny, dry slopes in North Carolina can defeat almost every plant a homeowner tries. The soil is shallow,…
By Jasmine Hughes
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Jul 26
Gardening Tips
If your cucumber vines keep yellowing in this heat, the trouble usually starts underground
Watching your cucumber vines turn yellow during the hottest weeks of summer is genuinely worrying, especially when the…
By Ethan Brooks
·
Jul 26
Gardening Tips
Water Your Tomatoes This Way in the Heat and You’ll Pull the Biggest Harvest Yet
Hot summer weather can turn a thriving tomato patch into a wilting, struggling mess almost overnight. The good…
By Ethan Brooks
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Jul 25
Gardening Tips
8 Reasons Beautyberry Is the Most Underrated Native Shrub North Carolina Gardeners Walk Right Past
American beautyberry is one of those shrubs that most North Carolina gardeners stroll right past at the nursery,…
By Jasmine Hughes
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Jul 25