Gardening tips Cut Coneflower Seed Heads Too Early And You Could Lose Most Of Your Harvest
Purple coneflowers are one of the easiest plants to stretch across your yard for free, but the window for collecting good seed is narrower than most…
Gardening tips Most People Guess This Backyard Bloom Wrong, And It Is Actually The Toughest Flower For A Hot Dry Bed
That bold, daisy-like flower baking happily in your driest garden strip is easy to confuse with black-eyed Susan, but it’s probably something…
Gardening tips That Airy Grass Swaying At Your Border Is The One Most People Cannot Name At First Glance
Walk past a sunny border on a breezy afternoon and one plant stops you cold. It moves differently from everything around it,…
Gardening tips That Awkward Woodcock In Your Woods Sees Behind Its Own Head While Its Beak Is Buried
Something chunky and brown is standing at the edge of your yard, bill pointed at the ground, rocking back and forth like…
Gardening tips Roly-Polies Can Absorb Certain Metals, But They Are Not Cleaning Your Soil
Flip over a damp flowerpot and you will almost always find a few roly-polies curled up underneath, minding their own business. A…
Gardening tips That Dragonfly Cruising Your Yard Hits 95 Percent Of Its Mosquito Strikes, So Stop Swatting It
Gardening tips Your Tomatoes And Blueberries Set Fruit Only Because This Fuzzy Bee Does What Honeybees Cannot
Gardening tips That Rat Snake Climbing Your Brick Wall Into The Attic Means You Already Had A Rodent Problem
Gardening tips That Dead Bird On Your Doorstep Is Your Cat Deciding You Cannot Hunt For Yourself
You open the front door and there it is: a small bird on the welcome mat, your cat sitting nearby looking perfectly…
Gardening tips Before You Squish That Caterpillar, It Might Be The Monarch Your Garden Actually Needs
You’re pulling weeds near the milkweed when you spot it: a fat, striped caterpillar chewing a leaf down to the stem. Your…
Gardening tips The Everyday Magic Kids Find In Rustling Leaves And Butterflies Beats Any Screen In Your House
A child crouches at the edge of the yard, completely still, watching a painted lady butterfly open and close its wings on…
Gardening tips Those Strong Smells Squirrels And Chipmunks Refuse To Cross Keep Your Bulbs Safe Overnight
The crisp fall air rolls across your yard, carrying damp leaves and distant woodsmoke as you finish tucking dozens of tulip bulbs…
Gardening tips Clover Is Not A Weed, It Feeds Your Lawn Free Nitrogen And Laughs At Dog Pee Spots
Gardening tips If Your Snake Plant Stays Short And Sparse, These Care Habits Finally Send It Tall
Gardening tips Your Oak Is Dumping 10,000 Acorns This Year Because The Whole Forest Seems Coordinated
Gardening tips Your Peppers Burn You On Purpose, But The Cardinal Eating Them Feels Nothing
Bite into a hot pepper and your mouth signals a five-alarm fire, even though nothing is actually burning. A cardinal can swallow…
Gardening tips The Dragonflies Swarming Your Yard Right Now Are Migrating Farther Than Monarchs
Step outside on a late-summer evening in many parts of the United States and you might find dozens of dragonflies wheeling above…
Gardening tips Your Coneflower Heads Are Drying Brown Right Now, And That Is Your Free Seed For Next Year
Walk out to your garden right now and look at your purple coneflowers. If the flower heads are turning brown and prickly,…
Gardening tips Every Bird Is Done Nesting But That Yellow Goldfinch On Your Thistle Just Became A Parent
Most backyard birds wrap up nesting by early summer, so spotting a bright yellow bird still working a thistle patch in late…
Gardening tips Planting A Seed Is A Favorable Bet, Not A Guarantee, But It Often Pays Back In Food And Flowers
Gardening tips That Tree Dropping Leaves In August Is Not Turning Early, It Is Begging You For Water
Gardening tips Five Old-Fashioned Beans Your Grandparents Grew That Taste Nothing Like The Canned Kind
Gardening tips Your Mole May Eat Grubs, But That Does Not Mean It Is Protecting Your Lawn All Season
You walk out on a Saturday morning, coffee in hand, and your lawn looks like something tunneled through it overnight, because something…
Gardening tips You Can Weave A Living Fence That Blocks Wind And Wildlife, But Only If You Plant It Dormant
Push a bundle of willow rods into the ground this winter and you can grow a woven living fence called a fedge,…