That gorgeous tree shading your back patio might be writing you a bill that you can’t afford. Foundation damage caused by tree roots is one of the most expensive and least visible threats to a home, and most homeowners never see it coming until doors stop closing, basement walls crack, or a home inspector delivers …
Gardening
One morning, you walk out to check on your beans, and the leaves look like green lace with ragged holes, bare stems, whole sections stripped overnight. You didn’t see it coming. But something did. Grasshoppers are among the most destructive garden pests in the United States, and they operate fast. As Colorado State University Extension …
That cottage garden you’ve been tending for years? It may already be one of the most hazardous spaces in your yard. The plants most likely to send a child or a pet to the emergency room aren’t the exotic specimens or the ones marked with warning labels at the nursery. They’re the classics: the same …
When a community comes together to make sure its members are fed, special things can happen. More than 20 backyard gardeners in and around Alpharetta, Georgia, are signing up to grow vegetables for local families with a new program called Homegrown Harvest. The effort, organized by the nonprofit North Fulton Community Charities and Alpharetta’s Community …
There’s nothing worse than coming home from a relaxing trip to a lineup of wilted, yellowing houseplants. The instinct before going out of town for a few days is often to drown everything “just in case.” However, the biggest mistake people can make before heading out on vacation is overwatering. As horticulturist Justin Hancock of …
Most gardeners put their tools away in August, convinced the growing season is winding down. That single assumption may be costing you hundreds of dollars every year. The vegetables you plant right now, in the final days of summer, will produce some of the best food your garden has ever grown. Fall gardens are actually …
It is not the 95°F afternoon that is killing your vegetable garden; it is what happens after the sun goes down. Most gardeners watch their tomato blossoms shrivel in the July heat and assume the blazing midday sun is to blame. But according to the University of Delaware Cooperative Extension, it is actually warm nighttime …
Every summer, well-meaning gardeners across the country fire up their mowers at sunrise, plant bamboo along the fence line, and let their compost pile breathe in the morning air, while their neighbors silently fume. What feels like seasonal enthusiasm on your side of the property line can feel like a property violation on the other. …
That tomato you’ve been waiting on all summer? You should have picked it three days ago. And those green potatoes you dug up early? They might belong in the trash, not on your plate. Most home gardeners assume that patience is always a virtue in the vegetable patch. Wait a little longer, let it grow …
Your joints ache, your knees protest, and somewhere along the way, someone told you that gardening was a young person’s game. That someone was wrong, and a University of Arkansas study of more than 3,300 women proves it. Researchers found that women over 50 who gardened at least once a week had higher bone density …