The strip of soil trapped between the sidewalk and the street is a plant torture chamber if I’ve ever seen one. Reflected asphalt heat fries everything. Soil compaction convinces the ground it’s concrete. Salt trucks dump winter slush directly onto whatever is trying to live there. Pedestrians trample it. Dogs… baptize it. Why waste cash…
Is your Christmas cactus looking a bit pointless without any October buds? Don’t leaf it out in the cold just yet! Budding early isn’t its strong suit. Let’s unpack the real reasons your cactus hasn’t popped its party hats yet. Reason 1: It Is Naturally a Later Bloomer Expecting holiday flowers in early fall? Your…
The crazy thing about gardening in a country as ginormous as the U.S. is that half your Instagram feed is panicking over frost while the other half is running the air conditioner in shorts. Roses do not give a dirt under the thorn what month it is out there. Read the signals your plants are…
You’ll find fall garden chores get complicated when perennial vines demand restraint instead of the aggressive cleanup you might be tempted to do. Get ready to walk into a clematis care minefield this October, where one wrong cut can remove the old wood carrying a big share of next year’s flowers. Task 1: Identify the…
Fall nursery clearance sales offer healthy, well-rooted plants for pennies on the dollar. Planting these established bargains now gives them a chance to settle in before winter and put on a show next year at a fraction of their usual price, assuming you get them in the ground about four to six weeks before the…
Nurseries just love it when you let overgrown clumps die out over winter. Be smarter. Split your perennials now while the soil still holds some remaining fall warmth. Give them a couple of hours of your time and roughly four to six weeks to ancho before the ground freezes, or give your local nursery cash…