Gardening Tips

Your hydrangea has big green leaves, but the flowers never showed up. Many gardeners wonder if a fall…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 11

Swallowtails and other butterflies need nectar, and the shrub you plant decides what is on the menu. Butterfly…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 11

Tomato leaves that fold up like tacos can make any gardener nervous. The curl is a real message…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 11

Big, juicy tomatoes start long before you set a single plant in the ground. The soil they grow…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 11

Potted geraniums can look tired by fall, with fewer flowers and leggy stems. A well-timed feeding may help…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 11

Late fall can leave a North Carolina yard looking tired, with summer flowers faded and few blooms left.…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 11

You look at your fig tree, see long branches and tangled growth, and wonder if it is time…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 11

Every fall, North Carolina yards fill up with free mulch that many people send to the curb. Shredded…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 11

You pull a carrot you have waited months for, and it is split in two or short and…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 11

Rosemary looks tough, but a pot changes the game when winter rolls in. The thin walls of a…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 11

Some fall afternoons, a sunny wall suddenly looks crowded with small orange beetles. Many of them may be…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 11

Walk out to your raspberry patch after harvest and you will see a tangle of canes, some finished…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 11

A fast black snake zips along your mulch bed, and your heart skips. Then it shows up again…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 11

If your irises gave you lots of leaves but only a few flowers last spring, you are not…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 11

Clover popping back up in your lawn can feel personal, especially after you’ve mowed, fed, and sprayed. The…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 10

Aphids clustered under your fall kale and collards can make any gardener hunt for a quick fix. A…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 10

Those crispy brown tips on your spider plant can make a healthy-looking plant seem like it is struggling.…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 10

Mowing a steep front yard slope in July heat is no fun, and it can be risky too.…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 10

Nothing stings quite like a fig tree loaded with fruit that just will not soften as the nights…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 10

Your hydrangea looked healthy all summer, with big green leaves and strong stems, yet the flowers never showed…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 10

Few things in the garden feel as frustrating as a fig tree covered in big green leaves but…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 10

You walk out to your tomato plant and spot yellow leaves low on the stems. It is easy…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 10

Knock Out roses look tough, and they are, but the weeks before winter still matter. A few simple…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 10

A few snips can keep lavender tidy, but one cut too deep can leave bare sticks that never…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 10

If you have ever watched deer mow your hostas down to bare stems overnight, you know the frustration…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 10

You look at your lavender and notice the bottom looks like a pile of gray sticks, with leaves…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 10

A hydrangea that is thick with leaves but has no flowers can feel like a plant that is…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 10

A bumpy yard can turn a simple walk to the mailbox into an ankle-rolling risk. Some dips are…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 10

Crispy brown tips on a spider plant are easy to spot, and they tend to show up more…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 10

Fresh parsley is hard to replace once the garden slows down in winter. Digging up a plant and…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 10

Once the blooms fade, most of us hang up the hose and forget about our hydrangeas. But fall…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 10

Peonies that look yellow, spotted, and flattened by autumn can make any gardener nervous. In most cases, the…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 10

That shaggy, curling bark on your river birch can look like something has gone wrong. Many North Carolina…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 10

A lemon tree covered in glossy green leaves should feel like a win, so tiny fruit on the…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 10

Collards are one of the toughest leafy greens you can grow in a North Carolina yard. When the…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 10

Your tomato and cucumber plants work hard all summer, and the soil under them works even harder. When…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 9

You aerated, spread seed, and watered, yet those empty spots are still staring back at you. A bare…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 9

You flip on the basement light and something with long legs and a humped back springs across the…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 9

Your blackberry patch has given you its summer harvest, and now it looks a bit tangled. Some of…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 9

You sow a row of beets, watch the green tops fill in, and then pull up roots no…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 9

That leafy plant on your coffee table might look harmless, but some of the most popular houseplants can…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 9

Bare mud and stubborn weeds love to move into the gaps between stepping stones. A low native plant…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 9

One hard frost can turn a lush pot of sage, thyme, or mint into a sad pile of…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 9

As the nights cool off, brown marmorated stink bugs start hunting for a warm place to spend the…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 9

Garlic goes into the ground when most of the garden is winding down, and that is part of…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 9

Something small and brown keeps darting through the mulch by your back steps, and it moves too fast…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 9

That begonia on your porch does not have to end up in the trash bin when the weather…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 9

A fence line needs a screen that looks good in July and still does its job in January.…

By Jasmine Hughes · Oct 9

Some hydrangeas are already holding next summer’s flowers on their bare stems. Cold, drying wind, and a late…

By Ethan Brooks · Oct 9