Your yard probably looks like a soggy pit right now. Good. That’s your sign spring is finally loosening its grip. If the soil is damp but not waterlogged, and your shovel can slide in without bouncing off frozen ground or coming up with a brick of mud, you can start planting the tough flowers that…
Even if nurseries were amateur-gardener-friendly, you won’t find flowers under the “most likely to survive a heatwave while you’re on vacation” category. You’re lucky if half the trays have name tags that haven’t faded yet. So here it is: your beginner-friendly cheat sheet for heat-tolerant flowers that can actually handle May planting and the summer…
I see hydrangeas in so many gardens lately. Did they become a new status symbol while I was outside… taking care of my own hydrangeas? Everyone seems to have one now, but not everyone knows what to do with it once May shows up with warmer days, fast new growth, and the first signs of…
What do we do when we’re desperate for a reset? I declutter my closet. You get a haircut. Our plants aren’t much different. By May, some are begging for a tidy-up, a little shaping, or a fresh start. It’s not just a spring thing, but it is about renewal. And let’s be honest, we all…
Plants are biologically programmed to reproduce and then retire. To keep the show going, you must intervene. When we deadheading, we’re removing the spent blooms before the plant can focus fully on seed production, encouraging it to make more flowers instead. Is it a form of garden gaslighting? Darn, I think it might be. Now…
A peony without support is like a celebrity without an agent, a total catastrophe. Come spring, they crave attention, nutrients, and a bit of firm discipline. Feed them, prop them up, and hope they forgive your intrusion as they chase their moment of glory. Here are the eight tasks I do on my peonies each…