Gardening Tips
Something Keeps Marching Up to Your Hummingbird Feeder and Swarming the Nectar — Here’s How to Stop the Ants for Good
Ants have a remarkable ability to find sugar water, and once a single scout locates your hummingbird feeder,…
By Ethan Brooks
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Sep 5
Gardening Tips
The Hummingbird Feeder Mistake Most North Carolina Gardeners Make That Quietly Drives the Birds Off
Watching ruby-throated hummingbirds zip around the backyard is one of the small pleasures of a North Carolina summer.…
By Jasmine Hughes
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Sep 5
Gardening Tips
These Fast-Spreading Garden Plants Are Actually Banned in US Backyards – Here Are the Ones to Pull Now
Some plants look pretty in the garden but cause big trouble once they escape into the wild. A…
By Ethan Brooks
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Sep 5
Gardening Tips
The One Thing North Carolina Gardeners Must Do Before Japanese Beetles Lay Their Eggs Or Next Year’s Grubs Wreck the Lawn
Japanese beetles are a real headache for North Carolina homeowners, but the timing of when to act matters…
By Jasmine Hughes
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Sep 5
Gardening Tips
Your High-Maintenance Flowers Keep Fizzling Out — Here Are the Tough Perennials That Thrive on Neglect
If your fussy flowers keep dying no matter how much you fuss over them, the problem might not…
By Ethan Brooks
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Sep 5
Gardening Tips
Your Tomatoes Stayed Small This Year No Matter How You Fed Them — Here’s the One Overlooked Mistake Behind It
Picking a handful of tiny tomatoes after months of watering and feeding is one of the most frustrating…
By Ethan Brooks
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Sep 5
Gardening Tips
Stop Spending Money on Weed Killers – Here’s the Cheap Kitchen Fix That Wipes Out Late-Season Weeds
Every fall, weeds seem to surge back just when you thought the garden was winding down, and the…
By Ethan Brooks
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Sep 5
Gardening Tips
Your Hydrangeas Struggle in the Heat No Matter What You Do — Here Are the Flowering Shrubs That Thrive in Their Place
If your hydrangeas wilt and brown out every summer no matter how much you water them, you are…
By Ethan Brooks
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Sep 5
Gardening Tips
The Most Overlooked North Carolina Native Grass That Softens Harsh Patio Edges with Little Routine Irrigation Once Established
Hard concrete edges can make a patio feel cold and uninviting, but the right plant along that border…
By Jasmine Hughes
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Sep 5
Gardening Tips
Something Keeps Digging Small Cone-Shaped Holes in Your Lawn Overnight — Here Are the Everyday Spots Quietly Drawing Skunks In
Waking up to find a cluster of small, cone-shaped holes scattered across your lawn overnight is genuinely puzzling,…
By Ethan Brooks
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Sep 5
Gardening Tips
The Low-Growing Native Herb North Carolina Gardeners Tuck Around Zinnias to Choke Out Weeds All Summer
Weeding around zinnias all summer is one of those chores that never seems to end, and plenty of…
By Jasmine Hughes
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Sep 5
Gardening Tips
Your Peace Lily Grows Brown Tips No Matter How You Water — Here’s What It’s Really Telling You
Peace lilies are some of the most forgiving houseplants around, but those crispy brown tips can show up…
By Ethan Brooks
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Sep 5
Gardening Tips
Your Squash Plants Flower All Day but Set Almost No Fruit in the Late-Summer Heat – Here’s the One Fix
Watching your squash plant explode with bright yellow blossoms while producing almost no actual squash is one of…
By Ethan Brooks
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Sep 5
Gardening Tips
Your Hanging Baskets Struggle in the Heat No Matter How Often You Water — Here’s the Watering Slip Behind It
Hanging baskets can look perfectly watered from the outside and still have a bone-dry root ball on the…
By Ethan Brooks
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Sep 5
Gardening Tips
Your Tomato Plants Slow Down in the September Heat — Here’s the One Feeding Move That Ripens More Fruit
Green tomatoes hanging on the vine while the calendar flips to September is one of the most frustrating…
By Ethan Brooks
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Sep 5
Gardening Tips
Something Keeps Draining Your Hummingbird Feeder but the Nectar Isn’t Bringing Them In – Here’s the Sweet Flower That May Help
Your hummingbird feeder keeps emptying out, but you never actually see a hummingbird at it. Before assuming the…
By Ethan Brooks
·
Sep 5
Gardening Tips
Your Hydrangea Leaves Turn Crispy Brown at the Edges While the Plant Looks Fine — Here’s the Warning It’s Sending
Crispy brown edges creeping along your hydrangea leaves can stop you cold, especially when the rest of the…
By Ethan Brooks
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Sep 5
Gardening Tips
Your Boston Fern Turns Crispy and Brown at the Tips – Here’s What to Check Before You Cut It Off
Waking up to find your Boston fern looking like it spent the night near a campfire is genuinely…
By Ethan Brooks
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Sep 5
Gardening Tips
The Native North Carolina Plant That Keeps Goldfinches Feeding in Your Yard From Midsummer Into Fall
Eastern purple coneflower, known by its scientific name Echinacea purpurea, is one of North Carolina’s most reliable native…
By Jasmine Hughes
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Sep 5
Gardening Tips
Creeping Charlie Keeps Taking Over Your Lawn – Here Are the No-Chemical Tricks That Finally Stop It
Creeping Charlie is that low, sneaky weed with round leaves and tiny purple flowers that spreads across your…
By Ethan Brooks
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Sep 5
Gardening Tips
What It Really Means When Cooper’s Hawks Suddenly Start Hunting Your North Carolina Bird Feeders
A Cooper’s Hawk dropping into your backyard while you are watching the bird feeder is one of those…
By Jasmine Hughes
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Sep 5
Gardening Tips
Your Cucumber Leaves Turn Yellow and It’s Spreading Fast – Here’s What the Plant Is Trying to Tell You
Watching yellow spread across your cucumber vines can feel alarming, especially when it seems to move from plant…
By Ethan Brooks
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Sep 4
Gardening Tips
Watering Your Lawn in the Midday Sun Normally Won’t Scorch Ordinary Grass – Here’s a Common Preventable Mistake Burning It Brown
Most Southern homeowners have heard the warning: never water your lawn in the heat of the day, or…
By Ethan Brooks
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Sep 4
Gardening Tips
What North Carolina Gardeners Do To Get an Asparagus Bed That Feeds the Family Every Spring for Decades
Asparagus is one of the few vegetables you plant once and harvest for many springs to come. North…
By Jasmine Hughes
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Sep 4
Gardening Tips
Your Lawn Stays Thin and Patchy After Overseeding – Here’s the One Seeding Mistake Leaving Bare Spots Behind
Overseeding sounds straightforward enough: scatter some seed, water it, and wait for the bare patches to fill in.…
By Ethan Brooks
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Sep 4
Gardening Tips
Your Clematis Looks Healthy but Won’t Set a Single Bloom – Here’s the Care Timing It’s Waiting On
A clematis covered in thick green leaves but not a single flower is one of the more frustrating…
By Ethan Brooks
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Sep 4
Gardening Tips
Your Cucumbers Grow Slow and Sickly No Matter How You Water – Here’s the Soil They Quietly Hate
Watering your cucumbers faithfully and still watching them sit there pale, stunted, and miserable is one of the…
By Ethan Brooks
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Sep 4
Gardening Tips
The Most Underrated North Carolina Native That Turns a Plain Birdbath Edge Into a Bird Magnet All Summer
Most birdbaths sit in the yard looking lonely, drawing a splash or two and then going ignored for…
By Jasmine Hughes
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Sep 4
Gardening Tips
Your Plant Droops the Moment the Heat Hits — Here’s What It Really Needs Before You Reach for the Watering Can
Seeing your tomato or cucumber suddenly go limp on a hot afternoon can send any gardener straight for…
By Ethan Brooks
·
Sep 4
Gardening Tips
Your Peace Lily Keeps Growing Brown Tips No Matter How Often You Trim – Here’s the Real Cause
Trimming brown tips off a peace lily feels productive, but when fresh ones appear just a few weeks…
By Ethan Brooks
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Sep 4
Gardening Tips
The Underrated North Carolina Vegetables That Keep Producing Long After Shorter-Season Gardens Have Quit
Most gardens in North Carolina fizzle out by late summer, leaving beds bare just when you crave fresh…
By Jasmine Hughes
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Sep 4
Gardening Tips
Your Petunia Leaves Turn Sticky and It Isn’t Dirt — Here’s What the Plant Is Trying to Tell You
Running your hand along a petunia stem and feeling that telltale stickiness can send a gardener straight to…
By Ethan Brooks
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Sep 4
Gardening Tips
One Mowing Habit Is Quietly Feeding the Crabgrass Taking Over Your Lawn — Here’s the Fix
Crabgrass has a way of showing up every summer no matter how much effort you put into your…
By Ethan Brooks
·
Sep 4
Gardening Tips
Why Your North Carolina Tomato Leaves Curl in the Summer Heat and the One Fix Most Gardeners Get Wrong
Tomato leaves curling up in the July heat is one of the most unsettling sights in a North…
By Jasmine Hughes
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Sep 4
Gardening Tips
Your Endless Summer Hydrangea Grows Big Leaves but Small Flowers – Here’s the One Missing Step Holding the Blooms Back
Few things are more frustrating than a hydrangea that looks perfectly healthy but stubbornly refuses to flower. If…
By Ethan Brooks
·
Sep 4
Gardening Tips
The One Thing North Carolina Blueberry Bushes Need in Late Winter or They Quietly Stop Fruiting
Blueberry bushes are patient plants, but years of skipped pruning can slowly work against them. An overcrowded, aging…
By Jasmine Hughes
·
Sep 4
Gardening Tips
Your Coneflowers Stop Blooming by Late Summer – Here’s the One Care Habit That Keeps Flowers Coming Into Fall
Coneflowers are one of the most cheerful plants in a Southern summer garden, but by August many of…
By Ethan Brooks
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Sep 4
Gardening Tips
The One Thing to Do the Moment a Black Widow Bites You in Your North Carolina Garden
Black widows are real residents of North Carolina gardens, hiding in woodpiles, under pots, and inside stored gloves.…
By Jasmine Hughes
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Sep 4
Gardening Tips
Your Geraniums Slow Their Blooming as the Heat Lingers – Here’s the One Care Tweak That Keeps Flowers Coming
When summer heat settles in and refuses to leave, your geraniums may respond by producing fewer and fewer…
By Ethan Brooks
·
Sep 4
Gardening Tips
Your Tomatoes Set Almost No Fruit in the Early-Fall Heat – Here’s the One Care Habit That May Give Flowers a Better Chance
Every Southern gardener knows the frustration: your tomato plant looks healthy, covered in yellow blossoms, yet the fruit…
By Ethan Brooks
·
Sep 4
Gardening Tips
Your Black-Eyed Susans Come Back Thinner Every Year — Here’s the One Fall Task That Rebuilds a Fuller Clump
If your black-eyed Susans seem a little less impressive every summer, you are not alone. Many Southern gardeners…
By Ethan Brooks
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Sep 4
Gardening Tips
Don’t Deadhead Your Coneflowers This Fall — Those Fading Seed Heads Still Have a Job to Do
Most gardening advice tells you to deadhead spent flowers to keep the garden looking sharp, but purple coneflowers…
By Ethan Brooks
·
Sep 3
Gardening Tips
Remove the Spent Flower Stalk After Blooming and Give Your Delphiniums a Chance at a Second Flush
Perennial garden delphiniums put on a dramatic show, but once those tall spikes finish flowering, a lot of…
By Ethan Brooks
·
Sep 3
Gardening Tips
The North Carolina Flower Farm Where You Walk the Rows and Cut Your Own Sunflowers and Zinnias
Imagine walking through rows of sunflowers so tall they reach over your head, scissors in hand, ready to…
By Jasmine Hughes
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Sep 3
Gardening Tips
Your Raised Beds Stopped Producing Like They Used To – Here Are the Three Soil Ingredients That Bring Them Back
Plenty of gardeners in Florida and Texas have stood over a raised bed that just stopped cooperating –…
By Ethan Brooks
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Sep 3
Gardening Tips
There’s a Right Time to Mow Your Lawn – and It’s Not When Most Gardeners Grab the Mower
Mowing the lawn seems simple enough – wait until the grass looks shaggy, grab the mower, and get…
By Ethan Brooks
·
Sep 3
Gardening Tips
Skip Ajuga in Your North Carolina Shade Borders and Plant This Native Mat-Former That Stays Where You Put It
Ajuga is one of the most popular shade groundcovers in the South, but plenty of North Carolina gardeners…
By Jasmine Hughes
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Sep 3
Gardening Tips
Your Crabgrass Keeps Spreading Across the Lawn – Here’s the One Product You Already Own That Kills It
Crabgrass has a way of showing up uninvited and refusing to leave, creeping across bermudagrass, St. Augustinegrass, and…
By Ethan Brooks
·
Sep 3
Gardening Tips
That Slippery Green Film Keeps Coming Back on Your Porch Roof – Here’s the Cheap Fix That Beats Scrubbing
Every time you scrub that green film off your porch roof, it seems to come right back within…
By Ethan Brooks
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Sep 3