Those gnarly surface roots snaking through your yard aren't going anywhere, and cutting them could cost you the entire tree. The good news is that hiding them well is easier than you think, and a few of these fixes will actually make your yard more beautiful than before.

Surface roots are one of the most common frustrations for homeowners with mature trees. They dull mower blades, create tripping hazards, and can look downright messy in an otherwise tidy yard. But before you grab a chainsaw or haul in a load of topsoil, it's worth understanding why those roots are there and what you can safely do about them.

Trees push roots to the surface for a few practical reasons. Compacted soil, shallow water tables, and naturally aggressive root systems (looking at you, maples and willows) all play a role. In many cases, the roots you see are anchoring the tree and feeding it at the same time, which is exactly why hacking them away can trigger decline, instability, or even death in an otherwise healthy tree. The rule of thumb most arborists follow is to never cut roots within the tree's critical root zone, roughly the area from the trunk out to the edge of the canopy.

The smarter move is to work with the roots instead of against them. The strategies below range from quick cosmetic cover-ups to longer-term landscaping projects, and none of them require putting your tree at risk.

Why Tree Roots Surface in the First Place

Tree roots don't rise to spite you. According to Purdue Extension urban forestry specialist Lindsey Purcell, the majority of a tree's roots grow horizontally in the top 4 to 15 inches of soil because that's where oxygen is most available. As the trunk thickens year after year, so do the roots, and eventually, they break the surface. Soil erosion, foot traffic, and compacted or clay-heavy soil can all accelerate the process.

Species like silver maple, willow, poplar, and sycamore are especially prone to surface rooting. If you have one of these trees and it's been in the ground for more than a decade, some root exposure is almost inevitable.

What NOT to Do (This Is Where Most People Go Wrong)

Here's the part that surprises most homeowners: the two most instinctive fixes are also the two most damaging ones.

Cutting or grinding surface roots opens wounds that invite pests and disease, and it can destabilize the entire tree during storms. Piling on a thick layer of topsoil is equally harmful. As the Arbor Day Foundation notes, smothering roots with heavy soil cuts off their oxygen supply and can contribute to rot and tree death. A little soil, think half an inch, is fine, but a full load of fill dirt is not.

Concrete is also a no-go. It blocks roots from getting the air and water they need, and the roots will eventually crack right through it anyway, leaving you with a bigger mess than you started with.

Instead, try one (or more) of these 9 tips for hiding tree roots below. 

1. Mulch: The Gold Standard Solution

If there's one method every arborist agrees on, it's this one. A 2 to 3-inch layer of shredded wood mulch is widely considered the best way to cover surface roots. According to the Davey Tree Expert Company, organic mulch allows air and water to pass through freely while giving your yard a clean, polished look. It also insulates roots from temperature extremes and discourages foot traffic across the root zone.

Spread it in a wide, flat ring that extends to the tree's dripline (the outer edge of the canopy) if possible. However, there is one critical caveat from Southern Living: never pile mulch against the trunk in the "volcano" style. That traps moisture and invites pests right at the tree's most vulnerable point.

2. A Thin Layer of Topsoil (Done Right)

Used carefully, a light layer of topsoil can cover the smallest surface roots without causing harm. The Wisconsin Horticulture Extension recommends applying just enough to cover roots by about half an inch. Because roots thicken each year, you may need to top it up again in a few seasons.

This method works best for minor exposure and is most effective when combined with mulch or a groundcover layer on top.

3. Shade-Loving Groundcovers

A living carpet of low-growing plants can transform an awkward root zone into a genuine garden feature. Good candidates include sweet woodruff, vinca minor, liriope, and hostas, all of which tolerate shade and compete reasonably well with tree roots for moisture. According to the Arbor Day Foundation, the key is planting gingerly: dig the smallest holes possible, start at least a foot from the trunk, and never use a rototiller near tree roots. Finish with a thin layer of mulch between plants to retain moisture.

Frogfruit (Phyla nodiflora) is a native option worth considering for warmer climates (zones 7 to 11). It grows just a few inches tall, blooms most of the year, and attracts butterflies. Partridge berry (Mitchella repens) works well in zones 3 to 8 and can handle even deep shade, making it ideal for areas close to the trunk.

4. Decorative Stones or Gravel (With Caution)

Strategically placed decorative stones can block roots from view without smothering them, as long as you're not piling on a thick layer. Rough or irregular stones placed sporadically look more natural; smoother stones arranged in a ring create a tidier, more intentional look. If you choose gravel, the Davey Tree Expert Company recommends placing landscape fabric over the roots first and keeping the gravel to no more than two inches deep. Gravel can heat up significantly in summer, so this approach works best in cooler climates.

5. A Low Fence or Raised Garden Border

When roots are too large or widespread to cover effectively, a simple enclosure can do the work. A low picket fence, a ring of stacked stones, or a raised timber border frames the root zone neatly and keeps foot traffic and lawn mowers away. This is one of the most durable long-term solutions, and it opens up the interior space for mulch or groundcovers that finish the look.

6. A Ring of Taller Flowering Plants

For a softer, more garden-forward approach, plant shade-tolerant perennials in a ring around the outer edge of the root zone. You're not planting over the roots themselves — you're creating a visual frame that draws the eye away from them.

Agapanthus works well in zones 8 to 11; lupines are a reliable choice for zones 4 to 8. The effect is a proper garden bed that makes the whole tree look intentional and designed rather than neglected.

7. A Seating Area or Garden Feature

If the roots aren't severe, sometimes the smartest solution is misdirection. A well-placed bench with its legs positioned on either side of the root system hides the roots entirely while giving you a shaded spot to sit. Add a small table and a couple of chairs, and suddenly that awkward corner of the yard becomes its most inviting one. Garden ornaments, potted plants, and decorative structures can work the same way on a smaller scale.

8. A Moss Garden

Moss thrives in shade and spreads slowly to cover uneven ground, including roots, in a lush, velvety green. It requires no mowing and, once established, very little maintenance. The main downside is patience: moss spreads slowly, and covering a large area will require starting with plenty of it.

During hot, dry spells, you'll need to water it regularly to prevent dieback. When it works, though, it works beautifully, giving a mature tree the kind of ancient, fairy-tale quality that no other groundcover quite matches.

9. Lean Into the Look

This one requires a shift in perspective, but it's worth considering: surface roots on a mature tree aren't a flaw. They're a sign of age, strength, and character. Tucking small garden ornaments, ceramic mushrooms, or a fairy garden arrangement among the roots turns what felt like an eyesore into a conversation piece.

Plenty of gardeners have leaned into this approach and found that their trees' root zones became the most charming spot in the yard.

Don't Treat Surface Roots Like a Problem

The biggest mistake homeowners make is treating surface roots as a problem to eliminate rather than a condition to manage. As Purdue Extension's Purcell puts it, the goal is to create an environment where trees and turf can survive harmoniously, and that usually means working with the tree's natural tendencies rather than against them.

Mulch is your best first move. Everything else is a matter of preference, budget, and how dramatic a transformation you want. Start with a wide, flat mulch ring and build from there. Your tree will thank you for it.

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When you see an animal in need, you should always try to help, as long as it's safe to do so. Two paddleboarders pulled a struggling raccoon out of Lady Bird Lake in Austin, Texas, during some seriously stormy weather. The pair, Tucker and Owen, were out fishing and filming when they spotted what they first took for a dog being pushed out of a tunnel under the South Congress bridge, according to KXAN. A closer look through their cameras showed it was actually a raccoon in trouble.

Tucker said the raccoon was being pulled under by the current as they raced over. He used his paddle to scoop the animal up out of the water. He then started paddling for shore with the raccoon aboard.

In the video, the raccoon can be seen tucked under Tucker's legs on the board. It calmed down once it had gotten out of the water. Tucker said the animal seemed to feel safe there. The two got it to land, and the raccoon was able to get to safety.

The rescue happened as heavy rain moved through Central Texas, part of the same weather pushing water up across the region. Lady Bird Lake is a dammed stretch of the Colorado River in downtown Austin, and storm runoff can turn its usually calm surface into a moving current. That current is what put the raccoon in danger and what the paddleboarders were working against to reach it.

Why the Timing Made This Rescue Risky

Lady Bird Lake is normally flat, motor-free water favored by paddlers, which is part of why the storm conditions stood out. Runoff from heavy rain feeds into the lake and speeds up the flow, especially near culverts and bridge tunnels like the one the raccoon came out of. A small animal caught in that kind of current can be pulled under quickly, which is what the video appears to show.

The weather is also why the moment carried extra weight in Austin this week. The rain over Central Texas came as the broader Texas Hill Country was again dealing with dangerous flooding, and Gov. Greg Abbott confirmed one death in the region from the high water. The raccoon rescue was a small, lighter moment set against a serious and still-developing flood situation nearby.

Should You Try to Rescue a Raccoon Yourself?

The rescue ended well, though wildlife experts would urge caution before anyone copies it. Raccoons can bite and scratch when frightened, and they are a known rabies vector, so handling one directly carries real risk even when the animal seems calm. The paddlers used a paddle to lift the raccoon rather than their hands, which kept some distance between them and the animal.

For most people who find wildlife in trouble, the safer path is to call local animal control or a wildlife rescue rather than intervene. If someone does end up in direct contact with a raccoon, especially a bite or scratch, health officials advise washing the wound and contacting a doctor about rabies risk. In this case, the raccoon reached shore and moved off on its own, which is the outcome that avoids both a trapped animal and an injured rescuer.

While the idea of getting to spend time enjoying the local wildlife may sound like a dream to some homeowners, one Redditor says that his experience quickly turned into a nightmare after a new neighbor moved onto his street. It all started when the "Crazy Karen" (as dubbed by the poster) bought a house that was just outside of a wooded area. According to the Redditor, she immediately began feeding the local wildlife, putting food scraps out to lure them closer to her home.

But things quickly turned ugly for the neighborhood once the wild animals started getting a little bit more brazen, and they began tearing up the property in search of more food. Then, things took a turn for the worse when the animals made their way inside people's homes, causing a whole lot of frustration. 

Now, the unhappy homeowner is turning to Reddit to find out what they should do about their unwanted neighbor. 

Here's what Reddit had to say.

The New Neighbor's Actions Have Real Consequences

Redditor no-flan9961 turned to a popular subreddit in search of advice about the neighbor they nicknamed "Crazy Karen."

According to the post, the family lives around 200 yards from a large wooded area. And while plenty of wildlife call the area home, they must've kept mostly to themselves until the new neighbor moved in a year and a half ago.

"She thinks herself to be Mother Earth and throws food scraps in her bushes," the Redditor wrote. "She has attracted raccoon families, deer families, squirrels and skunks to our homes."

Unfortunately, when the OP and other neighbors approached her about the problem, she laughed at them. Now, the homeowner says he has groundhogs burrowing in his backyard, terrorizing his garden.

"I have contacted the police and they say there is nothing they can do," his post continued. "The only thing they care about is the seven cats she keeps in seven cages in her garage. I believe they are feral, she says they can’t live in her house." The OP wrapped up the post by revealing that he now has squirrels in his attic, and another neighbor has a family of raccoons living in hers. 

Reddit Came Through With Some Solid Advice

Plenty of people posted ideas for the OP. "You could contact your state Fish and Wildlife department," one person wrote. "In some places, it's illegal to feed them certain times a year or altogether, just depends on your state laws."

Others suggested calling animal control or local game wardens, and one person said the local Board of Health could also be an option.

While some of the advice was definitely better than others—a few people suggested getting dogs to chase away the wildlife—it's worth noting that feeding wildlife is almost never a good idea. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), giving wildlife food can cause more harm than good. 

Many animals have specialized diets, and giving them food (especially processed foods) can make them sick. Additionally, animals that get used to humans giving them food can become aggressive, which could be dangerous. Lastly, some animals can carry diseases like hantavirus and rabies, and bringing them into a neighborhood can expose humans to those illnesses. 

Hopefully, the Redditor takes some of the advice they were given and finds a good way to put a stop to the "Crazy Karen" living next door. 

What happens when an animal makes an enormous mess of your store? You clean it up and document it for posterity on social media, of course.

A deer smashed through the front glass window of an antique store in Dothan, Alabama, on Tuesday, tore through a booth, and left through a door an employee opened for it. Blue Daisy Antique posted photos of the aftermath, and owner Mary Kay Floyd said no people or the deer were hurt, according to UPI. The store logged the deer's entrance at 12:42 p.m.

Floyd said the deer damaged the store and its merchandise as it moved through a booth of antiques. A quick-thinking employee opened a door, and the animal ran back out. The store stayed open afterward, with customers steered away from the front entrance.

The Wiregrass Daily News reported the deer caused what the store described as a ruckus before it got out. The photos showed a shattered storefront and a booth left in disarray. The broken glass and scattered merchandise were the extent of it, with no injuries on either side.

It might sound weird, but deer are no strangers to jumping into glass windows like this. A startled deer that sees its own reflection might run straight at the glass. Once inside the small space, it panics and thrashes until it finds a way out. The employee opening a door gave this one exactly that.

Why Deer End Up Crashing Through Windows

A deer's instinct when frightened is to run hard and fast. Large glass windows can be particularly dangerous because a deer can see the landscape reflected in the glass or an open path through a lit interior and try to run to it. That's how deer end up going through storefronts, houses, and office lobbies.

A trapped deer will thrash against fixtures and merchandise, looking for an exit. That's where most of the damage and most of the injury risk come from. You should back away from the deer, avoid cornering the animal, and open the widest possible exit so it can leave on its own, which is close to what the Blue Daisy employee did.

What to Do If a Deer Gets Into a Building

The safest response is to give a trapped deer a clear way out rather than try to catch it. Opening doors and stepping back lets the animal find the exit, while approaching or cornering it can trigger kicks and flailing hooves that injure people and the deer alike. Keeping pets and bystanders clear of the path helps.

If a deer will not leave or has hurt itself, you should call local animal control or a state wildlife agency rather than handle it directly. In Alabama, the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources oversees deer, and its wildlife staff or local officers can respond to an animal that is stuck or injured. For a business, documenting the damage with photos, as the store did, also helps with any insurance claim afterward.

South Dakota homeowners looking for relief may be able to get some soon in the way of a property tax break. The state has passed two bills that will allow local municipalities to decide if they want to forego property tax collection in favor of a sales tax. 

The legislation was apparently drafted after issues with inconsistent taxing across the state, including areas that saw their property values and, therefore, their tax liabilities go up after the pandemic. County officials will now have the ability to decide how to generate funds from homeowners, hopefully reducing financial burdens across the state. 

So far, nearly a dozen different counties in the state have had conversations about making changes based on the new law, with Meade County leading the charge in adopting the change. 

According to KOTA Territory, if these counties act fast, they could roll the new tax programs out as early as next year. Here's what we know.

South Dakota's State Senate Passes New Legislation to Help Homeowners 

Legislation in South Dakota will put more power into the hands of individual counties when it comes to property taxes. According to KOTA Territory, this is thanks to Senate Bills 96 and 245, which allow each county to decide if it would like to generate funds through property taxes or a half-cent sales tax. 

The decision comes after people in places like the Black Hills region (like Minnehaha and Lincoln counties) felt that they were paying higher tax bills after their property values went up post-pandemic. SB 96 and SB 245 will now allow each county to decide if they want to do away with property taxes on owner-occupied properties in favor of the sales tax, according to local radio station SDPB.

According to the publication, counties will only be able to do this if the sales tax is equal to a dollar-for-dollar exchange. 

Property Taxes Play an Important Role in Communities

According to the Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), property taxes are one of the oldest ways that local governments generate income, which they then use to fund all sorts of different community amenities, including safety measures (like police and fire), public schools, and road maintenance. 

When the 20th century first began, more than 80 percent of local tax revenue was generated through property taxes. That number has gone down over the years as new initiatives—like income and sales tax—have become popular alternatives. 

But they haven't gone completely away because property tax remains the most reliable way to fund local government, according to the ITEP. That's because property values traditionally remain stable or grow, even during times of economic downturns, which can impact things like income and spending.

Of course, when it comes to cash-strapped homeowners looking for a break, spending a little bit more when you shop may seem more appealing than cutting a big check come tax time. 

Pole dancing has become a popular way for many people to keep fit. The workout involves using a floor-to-ceiling pole, building up the strength of your core so that you can swing around the stationary object with ease. But just because it's gaining traction with those who are looking for a fun way to spice up their workout, it doesn't mean that it's for everyone.

For example, one renter in Texas has learned the hard way that incorrectly installing your pole can cause more than just a bad workout; it can actually damage your home... and in this case, the homes of others as well.

That's because she accidentally flooded her apartment and others in her building when the pole she was using came loose, taking out the apartment's sprinkler system. 

Now, her story is going viral, and people can't stop talking about how something like this can happen.

A Woman's Pole Dancing Video Goes Viral After She Floods Her Home

@gtcool1 Maybe she shouldn’t have shared this video lol…….,#dancer #fypシ゚viral #blackgirlfollowtrain #followtrain #blacktiktok ♬ original sound - Gregory O Thomas

A Texas renter's story is getting national attention after a workout session went awry recently. A New York affiliate of ABC News shared the video, which featured a Houston woman watching an instructional video for pole dancers. But when it came time to use the lessons she learned on the screen, she quickly found out that her pole hadn't been installed correctly.

Instead of supporting her weight, it immediately fell over, taking the apartment's sprinkler head with it. A flood of water came crashing down on her as she ran for cover, and she could be heard yelling in the background as she tried to figure out what to do. "Immediately, I'm in shock because I'm like, 'Oh my gosh, this cannot be happening to me,'" Asha Gilbert told reporters.

According to her, the water completely damaged her apartment and the one underneath her, and she had to move to another area of the building. The story has been picked up by several outlets, including Fox News and CBS News. But the good news is that Gilbert is embracing the viral video, and TMZ reports that she even created a meme celebrating her newfound fame.

 

 

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by Asha | Houston lifestyle (@ashac.gilbert)

This Story Highlights Why It's Important to Carry Renter's Insurance

According to the insurance company Lemonade, renters do carry some liability when their apartment floods, depending on the reason why. For example, the company says that typically your landlord will be on the hook for damage that is caused by the building's plumbing, like if a pipe breaks or if the issue comes from a system that is shared between tenants. 

However, flooding that is caused by a neighbor's negligence becomes a bit trickier. In a situation like this, Gilbert could conceivably be responsible for the damage to her downstairs neighbor's stuff, depending on a few different factors. That being said, this highlights one of the many reasons why renter's insurance is important, even if you're living inside of a major apartment complex. As you can see, you just never know what could happen.

Deer are certainly cute and all, but too many of them can make for a real problem. Residents in Roanoke, Virginia, say a growing deer population is destroying gardens, damaging merchandise, and raising the risk of tick-borne disease. Now they want the city to act. Casey Jones, owner of the Townside Gardens nursery in Roanoke, has started a petition asking the city to spend more on deer culling, WDBJ reported, with almost 400 signatures collected so far.

Jones said deer coming down from the woods have been eating the nursery's plants for two years, destroying hydrangeas and other stock. She said the business loses $500 to $1,000 a week in merchandise when it doesn't keep up with sprays, granular repellents, and motion-activated deterrents. An eight-foot fence on the back of the property has not stopped the deer, which jump it or walk around onto Franklin Road.

The problem reaches into surrounding neighborhoods as well. Resident Emily Jarrett said it's not unusual to see 10 or 12 deer together in her yard through spring and summer, eating vegetation they never touched before. She also said she noticed more ticks in her yard and had to deal with a deer carcass decomposing in the woods near her property that the city wouldn't do anything about.

Jones said the petition is meant to open a conversation with city and state officials about options including more funding, additional kill permits, relocation, and fertility control. She and others plan to attend a Roanoke City Council meeting on July 20. The petition is posted on Change.org and available in hard copy at the Townside Gardens store.

Why Residents Say the Deer Are More Than a Nuisance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwNtd71CWS8

The complaints go beyond ruined landscaping. Jones said plants considered deer-resistant are now being eaten as the herd grows and food in the woods thins out, and that gardeners are losing money and interest in a hobby they enjoyed. She said heavy browsing also clears a path for invasive plant species to move into local woodlands.

The health concerns are what several residents stress most. Jones tied the deer to the spread of tick-borne disease in people and a higher risk of chronic wasting disease within the herd itself. City Councilman Phazhon Nash echoed the public-health framing, saying Lyme disease has been rising in the area and linking that to the ticks that travel on deer and end up biting people and pets in their yards.

What the City is Thinking of Trying

Nash said the deer issue has been on his radar and that it's time for a plan. The city raised its deer culling budget from $40,000 to $65,000 this year, and Nash said he also wants to pursue a local ordinance allowing bow hunting of deer within city limits during hunting season. No deer hunting is currently permitted in Roanoke.

Nash is meeting with the city attorney to see what the council would need to do, and he would model the rules on frameworks already used in Roanoke County and the City of Salem, including a minimum deer-stand height and buffers around schools and public parks.

Any program would still require a hunting license, a hunting-season timeframe, and shooting from a stand so arrows travel downward. Nash also wants to work with the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources to set a healthy population target with a bow ordinance in the fall.

What if your family left you a house, but you couldn't actually live in it due to some frustrating red tape? One Jacksonville, Florida, woman's fight to keep a home she inherited in an age-restricted community raises a very important question: how can someone legally inherit a house but not be allowed to live in it? A Florida attorney who handles homeowners association law told News4JAX the answer turns on the difference between owning a property and occupying it. But the two aren't the same thing under the law.

The dispute involves Bethany Michel, 28, and her Arbor Mill HOA in the Oakleaf area. Michel inherited the home after her father, a disabled veteran she had cared for, died in 2023. The HOA argues she does not meet the community's age requirement, which has grown into a lawsuit.

Alejandra Gonzales, a community association attorney with Ansbacher Law, said age-restricted communities can legally limit who lives there. She said Arbor Mill's governing documents draw a line between owning a home and occupying one. They have a separate provision that requires every occupied home to have at least one resident who is 55 or older.

The case has also produced a proposed $155,000 special assessment to cover the HOA's legal costs in the suit against Michel, which neighbors were asked to vote on. On July 16, News4JAX reported that the HOA voted to continue the legal battle to remove her. Gonzales noted that, depending on an association's documents, a board may be able to impose an assessment even over homeowner opposition.

Ownership Versus the Right to Live There

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZDWxPKQG54

The part of the case that's making the most trouble is the fact that inheriting the home transfers ownership, not the automatic right to occupy it. Gonzales said Michel can legally inherit the property through the transfer of title because ownership passes to her as the heir. But unfortunately, living there is a separate rule entirely.

Arbor Mill's documents state that no owner under 55 may occupy a home unless the section's requirements are met, so Michel's age, not her ownership, remains the issue. Gonzales said HOA boards are required to follow and enforce their governing documents while staying within state and federal law. Unfortunately, that means there are limited options.

How the Federal 80% Rule Works

Many who heard about the case assumed that federal law forces 55-plus communities to admit some younger residents, which Gonzales called a common misconception. Under the federal Housing for Older Persons Act, a qualifying age-restricted community must ensure at least 80% of its occupied homes have at least one resident who is 55 or older, and it must be intended and operated for older adults. An association that fails those tests can lose its exemption under fair housing law.

The remaining 20% is where the misunderstanding sets in. That share does not entitle younger people to live in the community, Gonzales said, and whether an HOA can grant an exception depends on its own documents and on staying compliant with the federal threshold. In Michel's case, Gonzales said the ratio at Arbor Mill is not publicly known, so it is possible the community has already used up its allowance for occupants who do not meet the age rule. Either way, it doesn't look good for Michel in terms of living in the home just yet.

American lawns cover roughly 40 million acres of land, an area about the size of New England, and the vast majority of that acreage supports almost no wildlife at all. We spend billions maintaining these green monocultures every year, and in ecological terms, they give almost nothing back. If that bothers you even a little, you're ready to do something about it.

Rewilding is a chance at ecological correction, and it is far less complicated, far less expensive, and far faster to pay off than most people think. A rewilded yard is an intentionally curated space, one where you're choosing to step back in specific, purposeful ways rather than maintaining the fiction that a perfect monoculture lawn is good for anything except appearances.

A rewilded space has defined edges, deliberate plantings, and a sense of design. It just also happens to have standing seedheads in winter, longer grass in corners, and no synthetic chemicals anywhere. "Learning about native plants was a perfect lightbulb moment for me," says Laura Tipton, in an interview with Rewilding Magazine, a native plant gardener and nursery professional who transformed her own lawn into a functioning ecosystem. "Connecting the relationships between native plants, the ecosystem, and the land we live on" is what rewilding really means at the residential scale.

You do not need a landscape architect or a degree in botany. You need a few good ideas and some motivation to get started. Here are 12 steps to get you started. 

1. Put the Cardboard Down First

Before you buy a single plant, gather cardboard. Liquor stores, appliance retailers, and warehouse stores often give it away for free. Remove any tape and plastic, then lay it in a thick, overlapping layer over the area you want to rewild. Top it with four to six inches of wood chip mulch. This technique, called sheet mulching, blocks all sunlight from your lawn grass until it dies completely, roots and all.

University of Delaware ecologist Douglas Tallamy, who co-founded the Homegrown National Park initiative, is emphatic on this point: a grass lawn will outcompete every native seed you introduce if it isn't eliminated first. Give the cardboard six to eight weeks, and your work is done without a drop of herbicide.

2. Stop Pesticides Before You Plant Anything

This is probably the most important single action in the entire rewilding process, and it costs nothing. Pesticides, herbicides, and synthetic fertilizers do not just target pests. They kill the beneficial insects, soil microbes, and fungi that an ecological yard depends on.

Aricca Sansone at House Beautiful notes that reducing pesticide and fertilizer use is one of the most impactful things a homeowner can do for local wildlife. Stop spraying your lawn and garden now, in March, and by the time your first native plants go in, recovery will already have begun.

3. Evaluate Your Site Before You Spend a Dollar

Know what you're working with before you spend anything. Walk your yard at different times of day and note where sunlight falls, where water pools, and where the soil feels compacted versus loose. If your home was built in the last few decades, assume builder-grade soil: topsoil was likely scraped during construction, leaving compacted subsoil that resists plant roots.

Many first rewilding attempts fail not from lack of effort but from planting the right plants in the wrong conditions.

4. Visit a Native Plant Nursery (Not a Big Box Store)

This step alone will save you from the most common and expensive rewilding mistake: buying invasive or unsuitable plants from mainstream garden centers. Local native plant nurseries sell species vetted for your specific region, and their staff can tell you exactly which plants attract which pollinators and what to expect in year one. "The plants will be suited to your local climate, and the staff is usually very knowledgeable," says Tipton.

If you don't know where to start, the National Wildlife Federation's native plant finder tool lets you search by ZIP code and see which species are native to your exact area and which insects they support.

5. Plant One Native Species That You Know Will Work

Do not begin with a comprehensive plan. Begin with one plant. If you're planting in a sunny spot, milkweed is almost impossible to argue with as a first choice: it supports monarch butterfly egg-laying, caterpillar feeding, milkweed beetles, and dozens of other pollinators.

"Planting one native milkweed will provide resources for pollinators and a place for monarch butterflies to lay eggs," says Tipton. In a shadier spot, native wild ginger, ferns, or trillium are strong starting points. One plant, in the right spot, planted in late March or April, can bring in wildlife by summer.

6. Leave the Leaves and the Stems

The single most ecologically damaging routine garden chore most homeowners do every fall is raking and bagging their leaves. Native bees, butterflies, fireflies, and moths overwinter in fallen leaves and hollow plant stems. When you bag them and send them to the landfill, you're removing the very habitat your rewilded yard is meant to provide.

Going forward, rake leaves into garden beds rather than off the property. Leave perennial stems standing through winter and cut them back only in spring when new growth appears at the base. This one change requires no planting, no expense, and less effort than raking.

7. Add a Water Source, Even a Simple One

Wildlife does not need a formal pond to respond to water. An upturned garbage can lid, filled and refreshed every few days, will attract birds, frogs, and beneficial insects within days. A genuine small pond can bring in mating frogs, newts, damselflies, and pond snails within a single season.

If space allows, a rain garden, which is a shallow depression planted with moisture-loving native species near a downspout, addresses drainage problems and creates habitat at the same time, while filtering runoff before it reaches storm drains.

8. Layer Your Plantings Like Nature Does

Natural habitats do not grow to a single uniform height. They layer with tall canopy trees overhead, mid-height shrubs underneath, low perennials at ground level, and groundcovers filling the gaps. A rewilded yard that includes all four layers will support exponentially more wildlife than one that uses only perennials.

If you have room for one native tree, a serviceberry, crabapple, or oak, plant it now. Serviceberry blooms in early spring, feeds birds throughout summer, and provides a canopy that can anchor everything planted around it.

9. Kill Some Lawn, But Not All of It

You do not have to eliminate every inch of turf to start rewilding. Trying to do so in year one is one of the most common causes of burnout. Start with one 10x10 bed: large enough to matter, small enough to manage. Cover it with cardboard now, plant natives in May, and evaluate how it performs before converting anything else.

Turf lawn does serve functional purposes: it defines spaces, provides contrast to wilder plantings, and in neighborhoods with HOAs, a maintained grass perimeter can be the difference between an admired yard and a violation letter.

10. Make a Brush Pile or Log Stack

A stack of logs placed in a corner or behind shrubs is one of the highest-impact, lowest-cost additions you can make to a rewilded yard. Softwood and hardwood logs with bark still on them become habitat for beetles, fungi, invertebrates, small mammals, and amphibians.

Log decay also feeds soil organisms that enrich the ground beneath your plantings. If you don't have logs, a simple pile of pruned branches works equally well. Place it where it won't alarm neighbors and let it be.

11. Keep Clean Edges So It Reads as Intentional

A mown border around a wild planting bed signals to every neighbor, passerby, and HOA inspector that what they're looking at was designed, not forgotten. This is not a concession to conformity; it is practical ecology. A rewilded yard that gets a violation notice and has to be torn out helps no one.

Edge your beds with a half-moon edger, a line of river stone, or a cleanly mown border. Keep branches trimmed away from sidewalks and structures. These small acts of visual communication protect the larger project.

12. Get Your Yard Certified and Put Up a Sign

The National Wildlife Federation, Audubon Society, and Monarch Watch all offer wildlife habitat certification programs. Many are free or cost under $25. The sign you receive tells your neighbors and, if necessary, your HOA that your yard is a designated wildlife habitat, not an overgrown mess. Multiple gardeners report that certification signage substantially reduced neighbor friction. It also connects your individual yard to a greater national effort, which is worth something in its own right.

What to Expect in Year One

In the first weeks after planting, you'll see birds and bees responding to new food sources faster than you expected. Native plantings rarely wait for a full season to attract visitors.

Within the first growing season, expect some plants to die. This is not failure; it is data about your site's specific conditions. What survives is telling you what actually wants to grow there. By the end of year one, your rewilded bed will look imperfect but alive. The contrast with a conventional lawn will be unmistakable.

You don't have to do all 12 of these steps this month. Pick one. The cardboard is free. The milkweed is $4 at a native nursery. A certification sign costs less than a bag of lawn fertilizer. Start small, start in March, and let the yard do the rest.

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Most people spend over $100 on their first container garden and watch everything die within six weeks. Not because they lack a green thumb or because container gardening is hard, but because they make the same three fixable mistakes that no garden center will warn them about before ringing up the sale.

These failures feel personal. You blame yourself, assume you are not cut out for growing things, and swear off gardening entirely. But the problem was never you. It was the soil you used, the pot you chose, and the watering habits you were never taught to question. Experienced gardeners know this, but beginners rarely hear it until after they have already tossed their first gardening attempt in the trash.

The payoff for getting this right is real. According to the University of Connecticut Extension, a modest $70 investment in seeds and plants can produce over $600 worth of fresh produce in a single growing season. Even a few herbs in pots can replace $3 to $5 worth of grocery store packages every week. July is still prime time to start; lettuce, basil, and radishes grow fast enough to harvest before fall. Even though it may feel like it, you have not missed the gardening window.

Here are the eight mistakes that are quietly draining your wallet and killing your plants, along with suggestions for what actually works instead.

1. Using Garden Soil Instead of Potting Mix

This is the mistake that kills more container gardens than anything else. Garden soil looks fine in the ground, but inside a pot it compacts into a dense, airless mass that suffocates roots and traps water. The UC Master Gardeners of Santa Clara County are blunt about it: "Do not use planting mix, garden soil, or topsoil as your primary soil component. These can result in compacted soil or are otherwise unsuited as a container medium."

Your grandmother knew this instinctively. She filled her porch pots with something light and crumbly, not scooped from the yard. A bag of quality potting mix costs $8 to $12, filling four to six containers, and it is the single cheapest insurance policy for your entire garden.

2. Buying Pots That Are Too Small

Small pots are the number one regret among first-time container gardeners. A six-inch pot looks adorable at the nursery, but it dries out in hours, stunts root growth, and requires watering multiple times a day in summer heat. According to Better Homes & Gardens, bigger pots dry out more slowly and are significantly more forgiving for beginners.

The fix is counterintuitive for budget-conscious gardeners: spend less on the pot itself. Fabric grow bags cost under $2 each, hold five gallons of soil, and actually outperform expensive ceramic planters because they allow roots to breathe. A five-gallon grow bag is large enough for a full tomato plant. A 12-inch pot handles three to four herbs comfortably. Go bigger than you think you need.

3. Skipping Drainage Holes

Every season, beginners fall for beautiful decorative pots that have no drainage holes. Within two weeks, the soil is waterlogged, roots are rotting, and the plant is beyond saving. This is not a minor detail; it is a dealbreaker.

According to Garden Design Magazine, drainage holes are essential to prevent waterlogged roots. If your pot does not have them, drill them yourself or place a nursery pot with proper drainage inside the decorative container. Standing water in undrained pots also creates a breeding ground for mosquitoes, which is another reason to fix this before planting.

4. Putting Gravel at the Bottom of Pots

This is the myth that refuses to die. Generations of gardeners have been told to layer gravel, rocks, or broken pottery at the bottom of containers to "improve drainage." The science says the opposite. Horticulturist Janet Sluis, writing for Garden Design Magazine, states clearly: "Adding a layer of rock to the bottom does not help with drainage. Studies have found this actually has the opposite effect."

What happens is called a perched water table. The boundary between the gravel and the soil above it causes water to pool in the soil layer rather than drain through. Your grandmother may have done this, but this is one old habit that science has firmly retired. Skip the gravel and fill the entire pot with potting mix. Your plants will thank you.

5. Watering on a Schedule Instead of by Feel

Watering every Tuesday and Friday sounds responsible, but it ignores reality. Containers dry out at different rates depending on pot material, wind exposure, sun, temperature, and the plant itself. A terracotta pot in direct sun can dry out in four hours. A plastic pot in the shade might stay moist for three days.

The method that actually works is the finger test, and it takes five seconds. Push your finger one inch into the soil. If it feels dry, water it until it runs out the bottom. If it is still damp, leave it alone. For gardeners over 50 who have been watering on a fixed schedule for decades, this simple shift can feel like a revelation. It saves water, saves plants, and saves the money you would spend replacing them.

6. Never Fertilizing After Planting

Potting mix comes with some nutrients, but they wash out with every watering. Within a few weeks, the soil is nutritionally empty, and plants begin to yellow, stunt, and produce nothing. Experienced gardeners call this "the midsummer stall," and beginners almost always blame the plant instead of the soil.

According to the UC Master Gardeners, container plants need frequent, light fertilizing because nutrients are leached from the soil with every watering and need to be replenished. A water-soluble fertilizer applied every two weeks costs pennies per feeding. Alternatively, mix slow-release granules into the soil at planting time for hands-off nutrition all season.

7. Planting Without Checking Sun Requirements

Most vegetables need six to eight hours of direct sunlight daily. Most apartment balconies and north-facing patios get far less. Planting tomatoes in a spot that receives three hours of filtered light is not optimistic; it is a guarantee of failure.

Before spending a dollar, spend a day watching your space. Note where the sun falls and for how long. If you have fewer than six hours of direct sun, focus on leafy greens, herbs like mint and parsley, and lettuce, which tolerate partial shade.

8. Cramming Too Many Plants Into One Pot

It is tempting to fill every inch of soil with something green, but overcrowding forces plants to compete for water, nutrients, and light. Everything underperforms. A single tomato plant in a five-gallon container will outproduce three tomato plants crammed into that same space every time.

A good rule: one tomato or pepper per five-gallon pot, three to four herb plants per 12-inch container. This also helps with aesthetics. A few well-maintained containers with healthy, thriving plants look far better than a chaotic cluster and are much less likely to draw attention from an HOA. Some homeowner associations restrict container placement and plant types, so if you live in a managed community, a clean and intentional setup is your best defense.

The Easiest Container Garden for Under $50

Here is a beginner setup that actually works, costs under $50, and will produce food within weeks.

Buy two five-gallon fabric grow bags for about $4 total, one 20-quart bag of quality potting mix for $10, a pack of slow-release fertilizer for $8, one cherry tomato seedling for $4, one basil plant for $3, and a packet of lettuce seeds for $3. That is roughly $32 for a garden that will feed you fresh herbs, salads, and tomatoes from now through October.

If you want to expand later, add a pot of mint (it propagates for free from cuttings), a container of rosemary, or a grow bag of radishes. Each addition costs almost nothing and stretches the harvest further.

Start Small, Start Now

You do not need a yard. You do not need expensive equipment. You do not need years of experience. You need one good pot, the right soil, and five minutes of attention a day.

The real enemy of beginner container gardens was never a lack of skill. It was garden soil in a drainage-free pot, watered on a calendar, topped with a layer of gravel that made everything worse. That setup was doomed before the first seed ever hit the dirt.

There is still time this July. Whether you are growing your first herb pot on a sunny windowsill or downsizing from a backyard garden to something easier on your knees and your schedule, containers are the simplest path to fresh food for almost nothing. Start with one pot. Get it right. Then grow from there.

Read more:

Container Gardening Ideas For Beginners

Why Senior Gardeners Are Switching to Container Gardens

Before you plant a single squash seed, make sure that your garden isn’t missing something important. Squash has been grown in communities for centuries, thanks to the Indigenous farming system known as the Three Sisters: corn, beans, and squash planted together in a living ecosystem where each plant supports the others.

What those farmers understood intuitively, modern horticulture has since confirmed: squash grown alongside the right companions produces more abundantly, resists pests more effectively, and places less burden on the gardener.

Most gardeners think of companion planting as a pest management trick, and it is, but that framing undersells it. Squash is what horticulturalists call a heavy feeder, meaning it pulls enormous amounts of nitrogen from the soil as it grows. Left unchecked, squash depletes the surrounding soil of nutrients. If you pair it with nitrogen-fixing legumes, you create a self-replenishing system. Add flowering companions, and you solve the pollination problem that causes squash plants to bloom beautifully and produce nothing.

Annie Klodd, manager of interpretation and visitor learning at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, notes in Martha Stewart Living that interplanting beans with squash “fixes nitrogen in the soil,” directly counteracting squash’s heavy feeding. “Simply having a diversity of flowering plants that collectively bloom throughout the season,” adds Caleb Goossen in Bob Vila, an organic crop specialist at the Maine Organic Gardeners and Farmers Association, “supports beneficial insects and helps keep pest insect populations in check.”

The garden, in other words, does the work if you let it. Here are 15 companion plants for squash that will change how your entire vegetable garden functions.

1. Pole Beans

The backbone of the Three Sisters guild, pole beans fix atmospheric nitrogen and deposit it in the soil, feeding squash throughout the growing season.

Choose pole varieties over bush beans; their vertical growth habit keeps them accessible for harvest above the sprawling squash canopy. One or two bean plants per squash hill is all you need to see measurable improvement in leaf color and fruit set.

2. Peas

Like beans, peas are nitrogen-fixers, making them an excellent early-season companion before squash spreads and shades them out. They grow vertically, while squash grows horizontally, making them a genuinely efficient space partner. A late-season pea planting can even mature alongside winter squash for a tidy garden-to-table overlap.

3. Corn

Corn provides beneficial dappled shade for squash roots during the intense heat of summer, and its solid stalks give pole beans a natural trellis. One critical note on timing: plant corn first, wait until it reaches 10 to 12 inches, then add beans, and plant squash last.

Plant all three at once, and the beans will overtake the corn before it can function as a support structure, a mistake that trips up gardeners every spring.

4. Nasturtiums

These cheerful, sprawling flowers are the companion plant everyone recommends, and for good reason, though with one important clarification. Nasturtiums are reliably effective as a trap crop for aphids, drawing them away from squash foliage.

Their reputation for repelling squash bugs specifically is more anecdotal. Plant nasturtiums around the perimeter of your squash bed, not within it; they can reach 10 feet and spread 3 or more feet wide, which is significant competition for space.

5. Marigolds

French marigolds are workhorses. Research confirms their ability to suppress root-knot nematodes through compounds released by their roots, while their above-ground scent deters insects and even rabbits.

Select compact French varieties rather than tall Mexican marigolds, and plant them every few feet around the bed perimeter. The dense, sunny blooms also attract pollinators at peak squash-flowering time.

6. Borage

One of the most underappreciated companion plants in this list, borage, offers three distinct benefits. Its star-shaped blue flowers attract bumblebees in extraordinary numbers; its aroma deters cucumber beetles and squash bugs; and its deep taproot mines calcium from the subsoil and makes it available to neighboring plants. It also self-seeds prolifically, so plan for borage to return next year, whether or not you intend it to.

7. Sunflowers

Beyond their obvious beauty, sunflowers earn their place near squash by confusing squash vine borers, a pest that can kill an entire plant in days. Gardening author Jacqueline Soule describes the effect plainly in Martha Stewart Living: sunflowers “appear to bewilder” the squash vine borer. Tall varieties also shade squash roots from scorching afternoon heat and can serve as a substitute for corn as the vertical element in a Three Sisters configuration.

8. Sweet Alyssum

A UC Davis study found that planting sweet alyssum near crops dramatically reduced aphid infestations by drawing hoverflies and parasitic wasps into the garden. This low-growing, honey-scented flower is one of the most scientifically supported companions on this list.

It does not compete with squash for light or nutrients and blooms continuously, providing season-long support to the beneficial insect population your garden depends on.

9. Dill

Willowy and productive in the kitchen, dill becomes a powerhouse companion once it sends up its umbel flowers. Those airy blooms are irresistible to ladybugs, lacewings, hoverflies, and parasitic wasps — the very insects that prey on aphids, thrips, and cucumber beetles.

Some experienced gardeners also report that planting dill near young squash seedlings improves early growth, though the mechanism is not fully understood.

10. Sage

If you grow only one herb near your squash, make it sage. The earthy, resinous aroma of sage is specifically documented to deter the squash vine borer, one of the most destructive pests in the cucurbit family. It works by masking the scent signals the vine borer uses to locate its host plant.

Sage is a perennial in most climates, meaning you plant it once and it protects your garden for years.

11. Thyme

Thyme’s essential oils carry antifungal compounds that protect squash from powdery mildew and other soil-borne pathogens, a particularly meaningful benefit in humid summer conditions. Its low, spreading habit also helps retain soil moisture and suppress weeds beneath the squash canopy.

Plant thyme around the outer edges of your bed where it can spread without being crowded out.

12. Mint

Potent enough to confuse and deter squash bugs and aphids, mint is the companion that requires a little management. Grow it in a pot sunk into the soil or in a clearly defined in-ground section, not loose in the garden bed, or it will happily consume everything around it. The extra step is worth it; the results, according to experienced gardeners, are consistently strong.

13. Lavender

Lavender serves double duty as a pest deterrent and a pollinator magnet, making it exceptionally well-suited to squash. Its scent repels insects while simultaneously drawing the bees that the squash depends on for fruit set.

In warmer regions, established lavender plants return every spring, providing companion benefits without any additional planting effort.

14. Radishes

The most counterintuitive entry on this list. Radishes deter cucumber beetles and squash vine borers, but only if you leave them in the ground. Harvesting them defeats the purpose entirely. Plant a ring of radishes (the icicle variety is considered most effective) two to three weeks before seeding squash in the center, and then let them bolt and go to seed. They also break up compacted soil, making it easier for squash roots to expand and absorb moisture.

15. Calendula

Often called pot marigold, calendula is not a true marigold but shares many of its pest-management benefits. Its intensely resinous, orange flowers attract aphid-eating lacewings, hoverflies, and parasitic wasps. Scatter calendula plants along the margins of your squash bed and allow them to self-seed; they’ll return each season and expand their beneficial reach without any effort on your part.

What NOT to Plant Near Your Squash

The wrong neighbors can actively undermine your squash harvest. Fennel inhibits the growth of most vegetables and should be kept in its own dedicated corner of the garden. Potatoes attract many of the same pests as squash, compounding the problem rather than solving it. Melons are fellow heavy feeders that compete directly with squash for soil nitrogen and root space. Beets grow quickly below ground and can disrupt the shallow, spreading roots of squash plants.

The principle is simple: plant companions that fill a different niche. Squash sprawls horizontally and feeds heavily. Its best partners grow vertically, fix nitrogen, or occupy the air above and the soil below in ways that complement rather than compete.

The garden your grandmother kept, if she kept one, probably looked messier than a modern vegetable plot. Herbs at the edge of the bean row, flowers tucked between the squash hills, corn rising above the whole tangle. It wasn’t chaos. It was a community. And the squash, as it turns out, was thriving.

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Two railway carriages that sat rotting in a field have officially been rebuilt over eight years into an off-grid home in New Zealand. Mandy and Daman Groshinski restored the carriages part-time during a project featured by Living Big in a Tiny House. The couple, who had already restored boats and yachts, took the carriages on despite their state.

Mandy spotted the carriages on a property she and Daman were considering buying near Haast. They were broken and leaking, with tattered roofs, broken windows, and mold, and full of old junk, spiders, and dead birds. She saw their potential anyway.

The couple bought the property, in part for its views of the Southern Alps, and started work. Each carriage runs about 40 feet long by 8 feet wide, so the rooms had to be arranged in sequence rather than side by side. The main carriage became a home with a kitchen, a lounge with a wood stove, and a bedroom with an en suite bathroom, while the second holds a guest room and a second lounge, which Mandy calls the library.

The property has no connection to mains power or water. They have a small solar system that supplies the electricity, and the couple collects and stores rainwater. That helps to make their home fully off-grid. Mandy estimated the total cost of the restoration at around $50,000.

How the Couple Rebuilt the Carriages

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_MWbZsDHC8

The priority was stopping the weather from doing further damage. The roofs had failed and let water in, so the couple decided to restore them before starting on the interior, and then sealed the windows, joints, and other gaps where water and wind had been getting through. Only after the carriages were dry could the internal work begin in earnest.

Much of the work was about preserving what was already there. The couple stripped old paint off the original wood paneling and restored the tin ceilings, and Mandy searched out reclaimed materials to match the carriages' history. She kept the marks of the trains' former life, including seat numbers, old markings, and water stains on the wood, and reused fittings like luggage racks and hooks. A wooden deck now links the two carriages, which are set at an angle to form an L and create a sheltered outdoor space.

What Off-Grid Living Requires in Similar Situations

Running a home this remote takes more than a finished interior. The solar system generates and stores a limited amount of power, so lights and appliances have to be used within what the panels produce and the batteries hold, especially during stretches of low sunlight. The wood stove in the main carriage handles heating during the cold Central Otago winters.

Water follows the same logic. With no municipal supply, the household depends on rainwater captured off the roofs and stored on site, which ties daily use to what the property can collect. Systems like these need ongoing upkeep, and the couple built the home around that reality rather than around constant access to services. The result is a permanent residence in a remote spot that two abandoned carriages couldn't have provided without it. And the couple living there is absolutely loving it.

Live somewhere that doesn't get much sunlight? That could soon be changing. The FCC has approved a startup's plan to launch a satellite that reflects sunlight down to Earth after dark. The company, Reflect Orbital, wants to use a steerable mirror that it would put in orbit to cast a beam of sunlight onto the ground at night. Eventually, it wants to add about 50,000 such satellites, according to IFLScience. The first satellite, Eärendil-1, will be launching in the next few months. 

The concept is as such: a reflective mirror that steers a beam of sunlight roughly three miles wide onto a spot on the ground at night. Reflect Orbital says the technology could deliver sunlight to solar power plants after dark and light up disaster areas. Critics say the same reflected light would go a long way past its target. 

The FCC's own approval acknowledges the pushback but sets it aside. The commission wrote that federal law directs it to encourage new technologies and services, and it called the demonstration satellite a potentially groundbreaking technology in the public interest. It also concluded that the harms raised on the record were unrelated to its role in authorizing radio spectrum, that it lacked authority to review those operations, and that the harms were unlikely to occur.

An earlier round of public comments on the plan drew about 1,800 responses, most of them negative. They cited light pollution, safety, and harm to astronomy. Before the approval, Dark Sky International had called on the FCC to require a full environmental review of the proposals, which the commission did not do.

What Scientists Say the Mirror Could Do

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The American Astronomical Society laid out specific risks in its filing to the FCC. Deputy Director of Public Policy Roohi Dalal wrote that the satellite could cause eye damage to amateur astronomers looking through reasonably sized telescopes, temporarily flash-blind drivers and pilots, and interfere with research at federally funded observatories. Those were the society's stated concerns about a single satellite, not the full constellation.

The wider problem astronomers raise is that light does not stay where it is aimed. Sunlight scatters as it passes through the atmosphere, which is why the daytime sky is blue; so a satellite reflecting sunlight down at night would brighten the sky over a broad area rather than a single point. The European Southern Observatory's Olivier Hainaut ran simulations of a 50,000-satellite version and found it could make dark-sky sanctuaries as bright as suburbs and erase the few stars still visible from cities. He described the potential effect on ground telescopes as losing all of their data.

Why One Satellite Sets Up a Larger Fight

The approval covers a single demonstration satellite, but scientists worry about the precedent it establishes. It signals what one company from one country can be permitted to put in orbit, even when the effects could reach observers worldwide, and Reflect Orbital has said it envisions tens of thousands more. Astronomers argue that without clear regulation for reflective satellites, later expansion becomes harder to stop once the first is flying.

The Vera Rubin Observatory recently began its decade-long Legacy Survey of Space and Time, and the Extremely Large Telescope and the Giant Magellan Telescope are under construction, all of them ground-based projects that depend on dark skies. A separate analysis published last week estimated that around 100,000 faint satellites may be the maximum before ground-based astronomy becomes unworkable. The FCC has said that looking into these particular risks is beyond its scope. It's very possible that this mirror could come to fruition after all. 

Aging infrastructure usually falls to city officials to fix. However, one town in Wisconsin is requiring homeowners to take care of a pretty serious problem with the sewer lines.

The issue? Lead service lines in Wausau, Wisconsin. The city's water authority has been working with homeowners to get the pipes replaced, directing them to state programs that will help cover homeowner costs, according to the Wausau Pilot and Review.

However, those funds are drying up faster than residents are able to get their sewer lines replaced, and Wausau is considering implementing fines and water shut-off notices to homeowners who aren't in compliance. As you can imagine, this stands to put a pretty massive financial burden on cash-strapped people living in the region, which will undoubtedly make things that much harder. 

It also raises questions about who is responsible for replacing sewer lines when they become a health hazard to the people in the community.

Here's what we know so far.

Wausau Considers Fines and Water Service Interruption for Lead Pipes

According to The Cool Down, which also covered the story, the Wausau Water Works Commission is going to be working this week to decide how to proceed with the lead pipe replacement ordinance that has been stalled for almost two years. 

The town is up against a ticking clock since the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) Lead and Copper Rule Improvements state that the country's pipes need to be updated by 2037. To help move things along, Wisconsin had a principal forgiveness program to help offset these costs for homeowners, which fully covered most of the expenses. However, in 2025, that number dropped from 100 percent to 75 percent, and now officials are warning that the fund may be empty by 2028, well ahead of the EPA's deadlines. 

Now, the city is forced to decide what it will do with homeowners who cannot afford to make the replacements, and they are considering daily fines of $50 to $1,000, as well as service interruption. 

There Are No Safe Levels of Lead

It may seem odd for a city to punish people who can't afford to fix their pipes, but there's a very good reason for officials to make this change mandatory. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are no safe levels of lead exposure. 

The heavy metal is especially dangerous for children, who can experience physical and emotional challenges as a result of exposure. Hopefully, the city can figure out a way to ensure that these pipes get changed without penalizing homeowners, especially those who simply cannot afford to make the upgrades to their homes. 

If you feel like your homeowner's insurance (HOI) bill is taking a bigger bite of your paycheck than it used to, you're not alone. That's because new research from Lending Tree, which was published by Rise Media, says that nearly a third of U.S. homeowners are paying more to insure their homes than they do for their property taxes.

Not only that, but the research has uncovered that insurance now takes up an even bigger chunk of a homeowner's housing budget in those same states. 

The culprit? Increased claims related to climate-change-related natural disasters. 

Want to know if your state is on the list? Let's take a look.

The New Study Shows HOI Costs Are on the Rise

According to Lending Tree, HOI payments typically make up 8.5 percent of the traditional housing costs for homeowners who carry a mortgage. Out of the average $2,354 payment, the financial company says it amounts to roughly $200. 

But that's not true in 15 states across the country, where those figures are much higher.

They include West Virginia, Tennessee, South Carolina, Oklahoma, North Carolina, New Mexico, Nebraska, Mississippi, Louisiana, Kentucky, Idaho, Colorado, Arkansas, Arizona, and Alabama. 

For example, Nebraska homeowners pay 19.4 percent of their total monthly housing costs to their HOI company, followed by Oklahoma at 17.6 percent. 

Meanwhile, several states have residents paying the same amount for their HOI and taxes.

Conversely, These States Have the Lowest HOI Costs

The news isn't all bad, though, because Rise Media says there are states with lower-than-average HOI costs. Those include Vermont, Hawaii, Delaware, Maine, and West Virginia. 

According to Consumer Reports, there are a few ways you can save money on your annual bill. One way involves shopping around for new policies from time to time. According to the publication, 21 percent of the people surveyed said they had switched carriers in the past five years, with 62 percent of those people saying that they had made the change to secure a lower premium. 

Some other methods include bundling your coverage (like combining home and auto), keeping a high deductible, and making sure you have good credit. 

When an Air Force Veteran purchased her home in a North Las Vegas homeowners association (HOA), she thought she was setting herself up for a quiet life living next to the city's golf course. Instead, she says she quickly found out there was a major downside to living so close to the course, since her home was constantly being hit by errant golf balls.

To add insult to injury, she says the HOA is demanding that she pay to repair the damage that these balls have caused to her home's exterior, which has added up to thousands of dollars. Now, she's asking local ABC News station KNTV Channel 13 for help with getting the city's golf course to put up protective netting between her home and the greens.

But it sounds like both the HOA and the golf course are resistant to the idea, leaving the homeowner to continue footing the bill for repairs. 

What's worse is that Channel 13 says that the woman's neighbors are also having the same problem, highlighting just how far the issue goes. 

Las Vegas Homeowner Fighting City Over Errant Golf Balls

The homeowner spoke to Channel 13 anonymously, showing them the damage that she says her home suffered after golf balls hit the side of the building. She says that this problem has been going on for the decade she's owned her Sun City Aliante Community Association home, and over the years, she's been forced to shell out what she estimates to be $20,000 to make the repairs.

Her daughter was also interviewed and said that the extra costs are emptying her parents' bank accounts, and she's not sure what kind of future they will have if they have to keep paying. Their solution? They'd like to see the Aliante Golf Club put up a net between the property and the house. However, the city of Las Vegas (which manages the course) says that's not in the cards. 

"The City of North Las Vegas was recently notified of some issues facing a homeowner on the Aliante Golf Club regarding damage to her home," the city said in a statement shared with Channel 13. "While golfers on public courses are responsible for damage they cause to property, City officials met with the homeowner and committed to increasing education about golfer responsibilities with additional signage in the clubhouse and on the course."

However, the homeowners can't imagine how the city will be able to keep track of who is hitting the balls that are causing the damage to enforce the policies. 

Meanwhile, the HOA seems like it has also washed its hands of the problem, telling Channel 13 that the potential for these kinds of issues was disclosed to the homeowners when they purchased the property. 

This Isn't a New Problem for the Course

In 2008, local CBS News station 8 News Now reported on complaints from homeowners living alongside Aliante Golf Course, saying that their homes, their neighbors' homes, and even their bodies had been pelted by golf balls coming from the golf course. 

"I expected occasionally maybe somebody would hit a golf ball, but I’ve repaired in the almost four years that I’ve owned this house about 100 golf ball strikes," Ken Lanier told reporters at the time. "I never expected that. I never expected to be hit by a golf ball, or my wife to be hit by a golf ball, or to see the damage done to the houses around me by golf balls. And I never, ever expected the association not to care."

At the time, the family requested that the golf course add some netting to protect their homes, but it doesn't seem like that request was fulfilled. 

According to Golfweek, most homeowners don't have any recourse in this situation because oftentimes the HOA and the golf course are owned by different companies. Additionally, the blog says that some golf courses are even permitted an easement with certain properties, allowing golfers to come into your yard to look for their lost balls.

So what's a homeowner to do? Well, if you've fallen in love with a home that is situated next to a golf course, you may want to check with your HOA to see what the policy is when it comes to damage caused by golfers. If you don't feel like you'd be adequately protected, you may want to keep on searching for a new home so that you can avoid finding yourself in the same situation as these Las Vegas homeowners. 

A family in Maryland is grieving after a freak accident took the lives of several of their pets and destroyed their home. The family's dog, Bo, managed to set a fire at their Hartford County home when he jumped up on the counter looking for something to eat. Unbelievably enough, the whole incident was caught on Chad Ellis' security camera, which he shared during an interview with local news station WJZ-TV, which shared the footage on Facebook.

CBS News picked up the coverage of the story, sharing how the homeowner was only gone for about 15 minutes before being alerted to the fire by his security camera. Calling it a "freak accident," Ellis is now warning other people about the dangers while mourning the loss of his home and pets. 

Sadly, three of the family's beloved pets were lost in the blaze.

Warning: This footage may be hard for some animal lovers to watch.

The Dog Starts a House Fire with a Toaster

Ellis says that his dog Bo, who was a known "counter surfer" and "knucklehead," doesn't deserve any blame for the July 10 fire that destroyed the family's home. 

"It was an absolute freak accident," he told WJZ. "I guess the lesson we're going to learn the hard way is to unplug appliances that aren't being used." That's because the fire started after Bo turned the toaster on, while Ellis believes he was trying to get to some bread that had been stored nearby. The dog must have started the toaster in the process, which heated up and then caught the kitchen on fire. 

Ellis said he was only gone from the house for 15 minutes when he received the alert from his security camera, and he rushed back home just as fast as he could. "By the time I got here, there were two trucks from the fire department here," he recalled. 

A neighbor was able to get two of the family's dogs, including Bo, to safety. Their bearded dragon also survived, but it was touch-and-go for the first 24 hours. Sadly, their dog Dakota and cats Beth and Kayce didn't make it.

The Family's Freak Accident Isn't So Rare

While it probably feels like a one-in-a-million chance that something like this would happen, the American Red Cross says that pets are to blame for nearly 1,000 home fires a year. As such, the organization suggests taking some general safety precautions when your pets are around, including blowing out candles before you leave your home, removing the knobs from your stove, and securing younger pets when you're unable to supervise them.

What happened to the Ellis family is a tragedy, but hopefully their story helps save another family's home and pets.

Living in your home for five years without a water bill may sound like a dream to many homeowners, but for one Texas man, it's turning into a nightmare. That's because a Port Arthur resident says that the local water authority was unable to locate his home's water meter for years, which kept it from correctly billing him for his water usage.

Not wanting to fall behind (or rack up a huge water bill), he says he went to the utility company several times about the issue, and tells local CBS News station 6 KFDM that Port Arthur Water Utilities instructed him to pay a flat $75 a month while they looked into the issue. However, he says that didn't prevent him from having his water service shut off several times over the years, wreaking havoc on his life.

Now, he says his balance is continuing to rise each month due to late fees and fines, reaching $800.

With 6 KFDM on the case, the publication says this points to a bigger issue within the utility department, and that there could be more homeowners out there facing similar problems. 

The  Full Details: Local Water Company Was Unable to Read His Meter for Five Years

Dexter Antoine told the publication that the water company was unable to find his water meter almost immediately after he moved into his newly built home. "For five years, they could not find my water meter, so they were just guesstimating the bill," he recalled, saying that the utility company suggested $75 a month as the estimated bill.

"I pay my bills, and I work hard," he continued, explaining that he didn't owe money to any other utility or lender, just the water company. "I just want this resolved."

Unfortunately for Antoine, it doesn't seem like an easy fix. That's because the issues stem from an aging water meter system that the city is working on replacing, which includes 19,000 meters. While the attention to Antoine's issue may help him get some answers—the publication says that it has contacted the director of the water utility company as well as the group's supervisor—it highlights how easy it is for a homeowner to get stuck in bureaucratic red tape when massive changes are made. 

What Should You Do If Your Water Bill Is Wrong?

While Antoine seems to have followed the directions he was given, it begs the question, "What do you do when you can't get an accurate water bill?"

According to Bluefield Research, the cost of America's water has been on the rise since 2019, and averages around $125 a month in the U.S. (this estimate includes sewer bills as well). If that number doesn't match what you're seeing on your utility statement, you should reach out to the company that handles your water bill directly to find out if something could be wrong.

Leaks, old meters, and even seasonal water spikes (like outdoor water use in the summer) can all cause changes to your bill. And while increased water use can be a valid reason to see your bill jump from the previous statement, those other reasons are worth investigating since they can add up to even bigger expenses if you don't intervene. 

Property taxes can be pretty expensive in certain places. But many people are willing to pay a little extra so that they can benefit from all the good that money does, like maintaining public parks and roads or funding schools. Now, some New York homeowners may see some relief after Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the state's School Tax Relief (STAR) program, which would put more than $2 billion back into the pockets of New York homeowners.

Press Connects says that rebates will go out to almost 3 million homeowners living in the state starting as early as this summer.

But the real question on everyone's mind is just exactly when will the money be sent? And how much can homeowners expect to receive?

Here's what we know.

New York Homeowners to Get School Tax Rebate

The STAR program was announced in June, and New Yorkers are excitedly awaiting information about when those checks will start going out. The good news is that lohud reports that payments are already being sent out, and they will continue to go out through the fall of 2026, depending on where you live.

For example, homeowners living in Rochester, Syracuse, Buffalo, and New York City are likely to get their rebates first because their school tax bills are paid. 

When it comes to exactly how much people can expect to receive, that answer varies as well. According to lohud, most of the people who are eligible for the rebates will receive between $350 and $600. Seniors can expect to get a little bit more and are expected to get between $700 and $1,500 back.

The total rebate is expected to add up to around $2.1 billion. New York residents can track their rebate status and eligibility by visiting ny.gov/STAR.

How Can You Save on Your School and Property Taxes?

Don't live in New York but want to see if you're eligible for any sort of discount on your taxes? You may have options. According to the AARP, there are a few different options you can pursue. If you think your taxes are higher than they should be, you can reach out to your local taxing authority to check the details they have on file about your home to verify they are correct. If they have incorrect information when it comes to your home's amenities, square footage, and room counts, you may be able to ask them to update your info, potentially changing your obligation (just be warned that this has the potential to backfire, resulting in higher taxes as well).

Next, you'll want to see if there are any exemptions you can file for. Some municipalities have discounts for seniors and veterans, while other places may allow you to apply for a homestead exemption if your property meets certain guidelines. 

While it may be frustrating to have to pay your property and school tax bills, it's important to remember that the money they collect goes towards making your city or town a better place. If you like where you live, spending a little extra to keep the status quo may be a worthwhile investment for you and your family.

Restoring a historic home can be a labor of love for those who enjoy the process. For one homeowner, bringing a historic home back to its former glory was meant to be an investment in the future, after the Monroe man planned to use it to generate some income as a short-term vacation rental property.

However, Osher Zellig says his hopes and dreams went up in smoke when he claims he was targeted in an elaborate scam after a group rented out his home to use it as the site of a massive party, which brought 2,000 partygoers to the property.

Needless to say, the property was damaged as a result, and Zellig says he's devastated by the destruction and worried that he won't be able to repair much of what has been done.

Worst of all, it doesn't seem like this is the first time a scam like this has been pulled off. Here's what you need to know about short-term rental fraud.

A New York Man's Historic Home Was Destroyed by Scammers

RENTAL NIGHTMARE: ‘I was duped.’ A Monroe homeowner says he got ‘scammed’ after people posing as a family rented his 7-bedroom historic mansion, then secretly promoted a pool party that drew up to 2,000 people. Why he says no one may be held accountable — 4:30 on @News12HV. pic.twitter.com/zueZTjezyE

— Blaise Gomez (@BlaiseGomez12) July 14, 2026

Zellig told News 12 that he thought he had rented out the property as a short-term rental to a family for the weekend. Instead, he was deceived by scammers who used the property to host a massive pool party, which neighbors said brought in hundreds of cars.   

"It is like a nightmare. Just a nightmare," he told reporters. "It's an organized scam." After the party, the homeowner found broken furniture, debris around the pool, broken glass, and a trashed 150-year-old piano that Zellig says has been destroyed beyond repair. "You can’t replace that," he said. "To fix it would cost thousands of dollars."

But the damage doesn't stop there. In addition to what photos posted to X show, Zellig says there is also some structural damage as well. "There’s a leak in the ceiling, the sewer system was overwhelmed, and there was sewage coming out all over the place," he continued. "The whole basement is flooded with sewer, and the bathrooms are overflowing. The house is a wreck."

This is a Common Scam

It sounds like authorities were unable to find out about the party in advance because it was advertised online without an address. Those who were interested in attending were told to message the organizer for the location, which was then securely sent out to those who were planning to come. 

While people who rent properties for vacations and getaways are usually the ones who find themselves facing fraudulent rentals, it's clear that those on both sides of the agreement need to take a few extra steps to protect themselves.

According to Zillow, that means avoiding rentals that seem "too good to be true," avoiding those that ask you to send payment through untraceable account methods (like cryptocurrency and cash), and sticking to reputable sites like Vrbo and Airbnb.

Sadly, it appears the homeowner took those extra precautions and still got scammed, highlighting the risks that can sometimes come along with these types of rentals. 

The annual gardening cycle is expensive, time-consuming, and, when you step back and look at it, a little absurd. You buy seeds or starts, raise them through a season, and then watch them die. Next spring, you do it all over again.

Perennial food plants break that cycle entirely. As Eric Toensmeier writes in Perennial Vegetables, cited in Edible Seattle, the category includes far more than most gardeners realize: vegetables, fruits, herbs, nuts, and edible ornamentals that establish once and produce annually for years, sometimes for generations. Many perennials also bridge the "hungry gap," that late-winter, early-spring window when stored food runs low and nothing in the annual garden has started yet. Sorrel is poking through the soil, even though there may still be snow on the ground. Asparagus spears emerge while most gardeners are still planning their first planting date.

The financial logic is equally compelling. A $3 thyme plant will supply your kitchen for a decade. Three blueberry bushes purchased for roughly $40 can produce 5 to 7 pints of fruit per year, year after year: no seed packet, no annual start cost, no replanting weekend.

Here are 12 foods that you can plant once and harvest for years to come.

Asparagus: The One You'll Never Regret Planting

There is no other vegetable that rewards patience as asparagus does. Plant crowns this April, wait two to three years before harvesting, and then collect fresh spears every spring for the next twenty years or more. That is not an exaggeration. According to Cornell University's growing guide, cited by GardenTech, an established asparagus bed reliably delivers two months of tender spring shoots every year for decades.

The flavor argument is the one that converts even skeptics. Asparagus is at its peak the day it is picked. The spears on grocery store shelves have traveled hundreds or thousands of miles and lost significant moisture, sweetness, and texture in transit. Homegrown asparagus harvested and cooked the same morning is a fundamentally different vegetable.

As Rural Sprout explains, an asparagus bed can provide twenty years or more of tasty spears every spring. Give it a dedicated bed with full sun and well-drained soil, keep weeds out in year one, and almost nothing else is required.

Rhubarb: The Easiest Spring Harvest You're Not Growing

Rhubarb arrives in early spring like a declaration. Its bold red stalks and bright, tart flavor appear before nearly every other edible plant in the garden. According to Cornell University's growing guide, rhubarb thrives in far northern zones throughout most of the country and does best where it receives some winter cold.

Once established, rhubarb is nearly indestructible. Multiple experienced gardeners report that years of zero fertilizing and zero attention produce no decline in yield. Give it two years to settle in before harvesting heavily, and expect 3 pounds or more of stalks per plant annually after that.

One non-negotiable rule with rhubarb is to never eat the leaves. Rhubarb leaves contain high levels of oxalic acid and are toxic. Remove and compost them immediately after harvest.

Blueberries, Raspberries, and Strawberries: The Berry Patch That Pays for Itself

Home fruit production is where the financial return on perennial gardening becomes undeniable. The University of Maine Cooperative Extension notes that raspberries and blackberries produce from perennial crowns, with new canes emerging each year, while blueberries can remain productive for decades with appropriate soil conditions.

Blueberries require very acidic soil (pH 4.5 to 5.5) and take roughly three years to reach full productivity, but a planting that goes in this April will still be producing abundantly when you have long stopped counting the harvests. Raspberries are faster to establish and produce generously in their second season. Strawberries are the most accessible entry point: inexpensive as starts, forgiving about soil quality, and available in everbearing varieties that fruit from early summer through mid-fall.

A gardener who stops buying berries from the grocery store and instead grows three to five blueberry bushes alongside a raspberry row and a strawberry patch has built something that functions like a small annuity: low-maintenance, self-renewing, and increasingly productive over time.

Perennial Herbs: The Most Underestimated Food Source in Any Garden

If there is one category of perennial food plants that every gardener should prioritize, it is herbs. Rosemary, thyme, sage, oregano, lavender, and chives are all hardy perennials that return year after year with little to no input. A $3 plant purchased this April may still be producing culinary herbs in fifteen years.

According to The House and Homestead's guide to edible perennials, most culinary herbs are extremely low-maintenance beyond occasional pruning and light fertilizing. Many, including mint, oregano, and lemon balm, actually grow better when contained in pots because they spread aggressively if given open ground. This makes perennial herbs among the most patio- and balcony-friendly food plants available: full culinary value from a single container.

Chives are especially worth calling out. They tolerate cold, bloom attractively in spring, and attract pollinators. Their flowers are edible and mildly oniony, making the entire plant useful from root to tip across the full season.

Jerusalem Artichokes: Grow Them, But Contain Them

Jerusalem artichokes, also called sunchokes, are among the most productive perennial vegetables available to home gardeners. According to the North Carolina Cooperative Extension, they grow throughout most of the United States, reaching 5 to 10 feet tall and producing substantial yields of flavorful tubers that can be roasted, mashed, or eaten raw with a flavor somewhere between water chestnut and potato.

The yield is real. However, do not plant sunchokes in open ground unless you plan to dig the entire bed every fall. Their rhizomes spread aggressively, and any piece of tuber left in the soil will produce a new plant the following spring. Every experienced grower recommends a large container or a clearly bordered, dedicated bed. Treat them like a productive, delicious houseguest who will absolutely overstay the visit without firm limits.

Sorrel: The First Green of Spring (And the Last of Fall)

Sorrel is an argument for paying attention to what your garden can do before and after the main growing season. This lemony, tart leafy green is often one of the very first edibles to emerge each spring, and it frequently persists well into fall. Rural Sprout describes its flavor as citrusy, bright, and tart, with a fruitiness that brightens fish dishes, soups, and salads.

The variety to seek is French sorrel, which is milder and less bitter than common sorrel. Start it from seed, give it a permanent spot with reasonable drainage, and it will return every year. It grows in partial shade, tolerates neglect, and fills the role of a fresh cooking green during seasons when most other greens have either not yet arrived or already bolted.

Garlic Left in the Ground: A Permanent Allium Patch

Most gardeners grow garlic as an annual, harvesting all the bulbs in summer and replanting in fall. But garlic is, at its core, a perennial. As Garden Betty's perennial vegetable guide explains, leaving bulbs in the ground allows them to divide and regrow year after year, producing edible garlic greens in early spring, flavorful scapes in late spring, and full bulbs in summer, all without replanting.

Softneck garlic, the most common grocery store variety, performs well as a perennial in Zones 6 to 10. Hardneck garlic, with a shorter shelf life but more complex flavor, is perennial all the way to Zone 0. Many growers use a hybrid approach: harvest most bulbs annually, replant a portion, and let a section of the bed grow undisturbed as a permanent allium patch.

Fruit Trees and Nut Trees: The Long Game Worth Playing

No category of perennial food plant produces more food per square foot over time than a well-chosen fruit or nut tree. A single established apple tree can supply applesauce, fresh fruit, juice, and storage apples for an entire family for decades. A hazelnut tree, once mature, produces baskets of nuts annually with minimal attention.

The initial investment is real: fruit trees require more space, take several years to mature, and most varieties need a cross-pollinator planted nearby. Self-fertile exceptions include many peach, tart cherry, and some pear varieties. According to The House and Homestead, the volume of food that a single established fruit tree can produce is remarkable, and nuts, being high in fat, protein, and calories, are among the most nutritionally dense perennial food sources available.

For gardeners with limited space, a semi-dwarf apple, a single fig, or a container-grown Meyer lemon represents a perennial food investment that begins paying back within a few seasons and does not stop.

Stop Replanting All of Your Food Every Year

The argument for perennial food plants is ultimately an argument for thinking about your garden in years rather than months. Every asparagus crown you plant is the beginning of a twenty-year harvest. Every blueberry bush is a long-term food investment that does not require a renewal fee.

Timing does matter. Asparagus crowns and strawberry plants establish best when they go into the ground during cool weather, well before the heat of summer. Perennial herbs planted early in the growing season will begin producing within weeks and every season after that. The sooner you get perennial food plants into the ground, the more time they have to build strong roots before their first winter.

For small spaces, chives, sorrel, strawberries, and most herbs grow beautifully in containers. Sunchokes and horseradish should be in containers regardless of garden size. A sunny balcony with a few well-chosen pots can support a productive, self-renewing food garden with no replanting required.

The smartest move any gardener can make is to dedicate even a single bed, a single row, or a single large container to something that will still be feeding them ten years from now.

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Every trip to the nursery carries the same risk: bringing home a problem disguised as a plant.

A single infested specimen can introduce spider mites or scale insects to every healthy plant in your garden. A root-bound tree can look fine for two years, then fail slowly and expensively once those circling roots begin to strangle the trunk. And a perennial that looked lush on the display table can collapse within a week if it was already stressed by disease or poor care before you bought it. Catching these problems at the nursery takes less than two minutes and can save you hundreds of dollars over the life of your garden.

Before you spend a dollar at any nursery or garden center, learn to read the red flags experienced gardeners spot before they ever reach for their wallet. Most of these checks require nothing more than your eyes, your hands, and a willingness to flip a pot upside down.

Here are the 12 red flags that matter most.

1. Roots Circling the Bottom of the Pot

This is the most important inspection you can do, and it costs nothing. Gently tip the plant and slide it out of its container — nursery staff fully expect this. If the roots have formed a dense, tangled coil around the outer edge of the root ball, the plant is root-bound. Iowa State University Extension warns that an excessive number of circling roots is one of the most significant quality problems to watch for in container plants, particularly in trees and shrubs, where root problems can cause long-term damage.

Circling roots that form in a nursery pot don’t straighten themselves out after planting, warns Penn State Extension. Left uncorrected, they can grow into girdling roots that slowly strangle the trunk over the years, causing otherwise healthy-looking trees to decline and die with no obvious explanation.

2. Dark, Mushy, or Foul-Smelling Roots

Healthy roots are white or light tan, firm, and evenly distributed throughout the soil. If the roots you see are brown or black, soft to the touch, or carry a sulfurous, rotten odor, the plant has root rot. This is not a problem you can fix with better watering at home. Walk away and leave these plants on the shelf.

3. A Soil Ball That Falls Apart

If you slide a plant out of its pot and the soil crumbles and falls away from the roots immediately, the plant was recently moved into a larger container to disguise the fact that it needed repotting. As Iowa State University Extension explains, buying these plants is simply paying more for extra soil. There is no established root relationship with the new medium, and the plant will struggle to settle in.

4. Yellowing or Mottled Leaves

Leaves should be vibrant and consistent in color for the species. Widespread yellowing or leaf mottling can indicate overwatering, underwatering, disease, or a root system so compromised that the plant can no longer move nutrients properly.

A few brown leaf edges are usually harmless stress from container life; a plant with broadly yellowed, patchy, or dropping leaves is showing you something more serious. J&J Garden Center notes that leaves appearing stunted, distorted, or unusually small compared to others on the same plant may indicate stress or disease.

5. Spots, Patches, or Powdery Coatings

Dark or discolored spots, black lesions, and white powdery coatings on leaves are classic symptoms of fungal disease. Powdery mildew and fungal blight can spread to every plant in your garden once they arrive. Do not buy a plant with these symptoms, regardless of how minor the affected area looks at the nursery.

6. A Plant in Full, Glorious Bloom

This is the counterintuitive one. Most shoppers reach straight for the plant with the most flowers. Experienced gardeners do the opposite. A plant in full bloom has already committed its energy to reproduction, leaving less in reserve to overcome the stress of transplanting.

Choose plants with more buds than open flowers; they’ll outperform the showier option within a few weeks and establish far more reliably. Birds & Blooms advises specifically selecting plants not yet in full bloom for this reason.

7. Sticky Residue on the Leaves or Surrounding Surfaces

A sticky, shiny coating on leaves or on the shelf beneath the plant is honeydew, or the excrement of sap-sucking insects like aphids and scale. The University of Florida IFAS Extension notes that sooty mold, a black fungal growth, often develops on honeydew deposits and is a reliable secondary indicator of infestation.

If you see stickiness, check the undersides of every leaf before you go any further.

8. Fine Webbing Between Leaves or at Stem Joints

Spider mites build delicate webbing on the undersides of leaves and at stem junctions. They are nearly invisible to the naked eye, but the webbing is not. The University of Florida IFAS Extension identifies stippling (i.e., small, light-colored specks on the tops of leaves) as an early sign of mite feeding damage. One infested plant brought home can spread mites to your entire collection within weeks.

9. Ants Moving Around the Plant

Ants don’t eat plants. They farm the insects that do. If ants are actively moving around a plant at the nursery, they are almost certainly harvesting honeydew from a hidden aphid or scale infestation. University of Missouri Extension confirms this relationship: ants are drawn to the sweet honeydew secreted by aphids and soft scales, and their presence on a plant is a reliable signal that a pest problem exists. This is one of the most commonly overlooked red flags at any nursery.

10. Weeds Growing in the Container

Weeds in the pot are not a minor cosmetic issue. They are a direct indicator that the plant has been sitting in its container for far longer than intended. As Birds & Blooms explains, weeds in a nursery container are a reliable sign that the plant may already be root-bound and potentially in decline from sitting too long. A plant that has overstayed its welcome at the nursery is a plant already under stress before it ever reaches your garden.

11. Bone-Dry or Waterlogged Soil

Press your finger an inch into the potting soil. Completely dry soil pulling away from the container walls, or soil saturated and smelling of standing water, both indicate poor nursery care. Iowa State University Extension is direct on this point: plants with overly dry or wet soil are often an indication of poor care and should be avoided. The plant’s root system has already been stressed, and you have no way of knowing for how long.

12. Missing Root Flare, Bark Damage, or Double Leaders in Trees

For trees and shrubs, three structural red flags deserve specific attention. The root flare, or the visible widening where the trunk meets the roots, should be visible at or above the soil surface. If it’s buried, the tree has been potted too deeply and is already at risk for trunk rot.

Look also for bark damage, deep scrapes, or open wounds on the trunk, which invite disease and structural weakness. Finally, trees with double leaders (two competing main trunks) have a built-in structural defect that rarely resolves on its own. Iowa State University Extension recommends selecting trees with well-spaced branches and no double leaders as a baseline quality standard.

The Two-Minute Check That Saves Your Garden

Nursery shopping often feels like an abundance. Every table is full, the colors are spectacular, and it’s easy to load up a cart in twenty minutes and feel optimistic. But the plants that thrive in the garden and come back each year are the ones that were healthy to begin with.

The good news is that this whole inspection takes two minutes, not twenty. Tip the pot, check the roots, glance at the leaf undersides, press the soil, and look for webbing or stickiness. Then step back and look at the overall plant: reach for the one with more buds than blooms, the smaller container over the larger one, and the plant that looks quietly healthy rather than dramatically beautiful.

If a plant has one minor flag, that’s a judgment call. If it has two or more, move on. At a reputable independent nursery with attentive staff, the healthy options are there, you just have to know where to look.

A little skepticism at the nursery is the most productive thing you can do for your garden this spring. The plants worth bringing home are the ones that pass the inspection, not the ones that caught your eye first.

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Your garden is half empty right now, and every day you leave it that way is costing you money.

Most gardeners assume that once July hits, planting season is over. The tomatoes are in, the peppers are growing, and the rest of the beds sit bare until next April. That assumption is the single most expensive mistake in home gardening. By walking away from your garden in midsummer, you are throwing away three to four months of productive growing time, the equivalent of abandoning a third of your garden’s annual output.

The vegetables you plant this month will actually taste better than nearly anything you grew in spring. According to Iowa State University Extension, cool-season crops like carrots and beets develop markedly sweeter flavor when they mature in the cooling temperatures of fall, because frost triggers the roots to convert stored starches into sugars. That flavor upgrade comes on top of the financial benefit. A well-planned fall garden started from $20 to $30 worth of seeds can produce $600 or more in fresh vegetables that you would otherwise buy at the grocery store, according to research from Michigan State University Extension.

The eight vegetables below are the ones to start right now, before July ends. Most of them mature in 30 to 80 days; they thrive in the cooler weather ahead, and several of them will keep producing well past the first frost. If you have been gardening for decades or if you are starting for the first time this weekend, this is the most forgiving, most rewarding planting window of the year.

1. Kale

Kale is the single best vegetable to start in July for a fall harvest, and it is not close. While most crops surrender at the first frost, kale gets sweeter. The cold triggers a chemical process that converts stored starches in the leaves into sugars, a survival mechanism that happens to make kale taste remarkably better than anything harvested in summer.

Plant kale seeds directly in the garden now and expect baby greens in about 30 days. For mature leaves, plan on 55 to 75 days. According to Gardening Know How, “kale sweetens nicely as it matures in cold weather and especially after a frost,” and in Zones 6 and above, wide varieties continue producing through winter. A single packet of seeds costs about $3 and will produce greens worth $40 to $60 at the grocery store.

Harvest the outer leaves regularly, and the plant keeps producing for months. That is the kind of return on investment that makes fall gardening worth every minute.

2. Carrots

If you have only ever eaten store-bought carrots, you do not actually know what a carrot tastes like. July-planted carrots mature just as the first frosts arrive, and that cold snap transforms them. According to Iowa State University Extension, the cooling temperatures of fall cause carrots to develop a significantly sweeter flavor as starches convert to sugars in the roots.

Carrots need 70 to 80 days to mature, which means a mid-July planting hits the sweet spot for an October or November harvest. Raised beds work best because carrots need loose, rock-free soil to develop straight roots. Keep the seedbed consistently moist during germination; carrot seeds are notoriously finicky about drying out.

Leave a few carrots in the ground under heavy mulch after the first frost. Many experienced gardeners report that overwintered carrots, pulled in January or February, are the sweetest produce they have ever tasted.

3. Beets

Beets are the overachievers of the fall garden because they give you two harvests from one seed. You eat the roots roasted, pickled, or sliced into salads, and you eat the greens sautéed or raw. That dual yield stretches your grocery savings further than almost any other crop.

Sow beet seeds directly in the garden in July and expect to harvest in 50 to 70 days, depending on the variety. As Ross Pearson writes in Homes & Gardens, beets “offer two harvests in one: roots below and edible leaves above” and develop better flavor as autumn temperatures improve their sweetness. Thin seedlings to two to three inches apart; overcrowding produces woody, undersized roots.

One packet of beet seeds costs around $2. A comparable amount of fresh beets and beet greens at the grocery store would run you $15 to $25. That is the kind of math that makes fall planting feel less like a hobby and more like common sense.

4. Bush Beans

Bush beans are the fastest way to fill your freezer before winter. They germinate explosively in warm July soil, mature in just 50 to 60 days, and produce heavily right up until the first frost kills them. According to Gardening Know How, “bush beans germinate well in warm soil, and they grow fast,” with consistent harvesting encouraging ongoing production.

The financial return is hard to beat. A $3 packet of bush bean seeds can yield 10 to 15 pounds of green beans, worth $30 to $45 at current grocery prices. Keep picking every few days, and the plants respond by producing even more.

As a bonus, bush beans fix nitrogen in the soil, actually improving it for next spring’s crops. You are feeding yourself now and fertilizing your garden for free at the same time.

5. Radishes

If you need proof that July planting works, radishes will deliver it in less than a month. Wide varieties go from seed to harvest in 25 to 30 days, making them the fastest vegetable in the garden by a wide margin. According to Homes & Gardens, “fall-grown radishes are usually superior to spring crops” because cooler conditions produce crisper roots with milder flavor.

Sow a short row every two weeks through July and August for continuous harvests. Radishes grow in beds, raised beds, or containers as shallow as six inches. They are the ideal confidence builder for anyone who has never planted a fall garden before.

The cost is almost laughable. A packet of radish seeds runs about $2 and produces dozens of radishes. The same quantity at the grocery store would cost $8 to $12, if you could even find them that fresh.

6. Lettuce

Stop buying $5 bags of salad greens that wilt in your refrigerator after three days. Lettuce planted in July matures in 30 to 45 days, and you can start harvesting baby greens even sooner. As Jessica Sowards of Roots and Refuge writes, “homegrown lettuce tastes completely different from lettuce you get in the grocery store, and growing it yourself will save you a fortune.”

The secret to July-sown lettuce is choosing heat-tolerant varieties and providing a bit of afternoon shade until temperatures cool. Once established, fall lettuce avoids the bolting that plagues spring crops and stays tender for weeks longer. Sow a new row every two weeks, and you will have fresh salad greens from August through the first hard freeze.

A single packet of lettuce seeds can replace $50 to $80 worth of store-bought salad over the course of a fall season. That is not a rounding error in your grocery budget; that is a meaningful difference.

7. Turnips

Turnips are the most underrated vegetable in the fall garden, and The Old Farmer’s Almanac has been saying so for over a century. July-sown turnips mature in just 45 to 70 days, and both the roots and the greens are edible. According to Colorado State University Extension, turnips can be “planted in July for a fall harvest” with a typical maturity of about 50 days.

Young turnips harvested at golf-ball size are sweet, crisp, and nothing like the oversized, woody specimens that gave this vegetable its undeserved bad reputation. Roast them, mash them, or eat them raw with a little salt. The greens are packed with vitamins and cook down beautifully.

For gardeners who remember their grandparents growing turnips in the fall, this is a tradition worth reviving. The flavor improves after a light frost, the plants are nearly indestructible, and a $2 packet of seeds replaces $20 or more in root vegetables and cooking greens.

8. Broccoli

Broccoli takes longer than the other vegetables on this list, but it is worth the wait. Start seeds indoors right now, in mid-July, and transplant the seedlings into the garden about six weeks before your first frost. According to Iowa State University Extension, broccoli is classified as a hardy crop that “will survive temperatures in the mid to lower 20s°F” and is “frequently harvested after the first frost.”

The advantage of fall broccoli over spring broccoli is significant. Fall-grown heads are denser, more flavorful, and far less likely to be destroyed by cabbage worms, which are less active in cooler weather. Professional gardeners know this, which is why many commercial growers actually prefer fall production.

A single broccoli plant can produce a large central head followed by weeks of side shoots. At $3 to $4 per head at the store, three or four plants can easily save you $20 to $30 on broccoli alone. Start the seeds indoors in a cool room and move them outside when the worst of the summer heat has passed.

What to Do This Weekend

The most important step is finding your average first frost date. The Farmer’s Almanac frost date calculator makes this simple; enter your ZIP code, and you will have the date in seconds. Count backward from that date using the “days to maturity” on your seed packets, then add 14 extra days. That two-week buffer, what experienced gardeners call the “fall factor,” accounts for the slower growth that comes with shorter days and cooler soil.

Before planting, work a few inches of compost into the beds where your spring crops have finished. Mulch after planting to keep the soil cool and moist. Water consistently, especially during the first week after sowing; seeds need steady moisture to germinate in July heat. If temperatures are above 90°F, consider a simple shade cloth over newly planted beds until seedlings establish.

The most overlooked truth in home gardening is that fall is actually easier than spring. The pests are winding down, the weeds grow slower, and the weather is moving in your favor rather than against you. For gardeners who find the July and August heat exhausting, fall harvesting happens in the most comfortable weeks of the year.

As a homeowner, you already know that surprise expenses can arise at almost any time, like having to replace your HVAC system. However, many people don't have to replace their heating and air conditioning units because they have been stolen.

But that's an experience that one Georgia homeowner said she had to endure twice in one month, when thieves hit her DeKalb County home twice in about a month, loading the units into an SUV and driving away with them, leaving her without any AC.

She shared her story with 11 Alive, including footage from her home's security cameras that shows the brazen robberies in full view. 

Woman Says a Thief Stole Two HVAC Units from Her Home

A Georgia homeowner has been left feeling frustrated after she says a thief came to her home twice over the past month, stealing her HVAC system from right next to her house. She shared video footage from her security cameras, which shows a man using a car jack to lift the cage covering the unit so that he could access the system before he loaded it into the back of his SUV.

"I always feel like someone's watching me," the homeowner confided in the news station. "It's scary. I don't feel comfortable in my home." 

But the back-to-back thefts are taking more than just an emotional toll, the homeowner says she's out about $20,000 as well. 

"I have the cameras, I have the locks," she said. "I had the cage around it, and it's kind of getting to the point of what else I can do." Unfortunately, she doesn't think this is the first time her home has been targeted. While she admits she just moved into the property, she says she hasn't even been there long enough to make her first mortgage payment, but her neighbors have told her that they think that the previous owner struggled with the same issue.

There Has Been a Rise in HVAC Thefts 

The Georgia woman isn't exactly alone in her plight. According to WCC TV, a home security company, HVAC units have been targeted thanks to the expensive materials used inside the systems, like copper, brass, and bronze. That has caused thieves to target the units, stealing them to sell them to people who scrap them for the valuable metals inside. 

To keep them safe, WCC TV recommends taking some of the steps the Georgia homeowner already has, including using a security system. Additionally, the website suggests adding fencing to the perimeter of your yard and adding locks wherever possible.  Adding an alarm system that triggers the police is another option, as is making your unit more visible to the surrounding area, making thieves think twice about how likely they are to get caught while they're cutting the HVAC unit loose. 

Hopefully, this additional news coverage will help the Georgia woman find a solution to her problem. If not, she may want to consider some of the tips from WCC TV to keep her new unit safe, just in case the thieves come back for a third time. 

If you live in the U.S. and have noticed an orange tint in the air, you're not alone. That's because the smoke from the massive Canadian wildfires has drifted down to the U.S., blanketing large parts of the country in a smoky haze. According to The Guardian, 20 states were experiencing the effects of the smoke as of July 16. That amounts to millions of Americans who are under a variety of different types of air quality alerts, with local municipalities warning some residents in hard-hit areas to stay indoors. 

The smoke is being sent down to the states thanks to more than 180 active wildfires, with no end in sight. That's created a dangerous situation for Americans, especially those in some of the hardest-hit cities in the north. In fact, one U.S. state was said to have the worst air quality in the world at the moment, earning it an unwanted title that came along with warnings for residents. 

Other cities are making masks available to those who can't stay inside, trying to ease the effects of pollutants. 

Keep reading to find out if your state is being affected by Canada's wildfire smoke, and if so, when you can expect some relief. 

Canada's Wildfire Smoke Reaches the U.S.

@nbcnewsLarge swaths of the Northeast were in the red “unhealthy” air quality index category before dawn Thursday, a prognosticator of conditions to come as smoke from Canadian wildfires hits its thickest point over the New York area. The smoke is expected to linger at least through Friday.♬ original sound - nbcnews

Nearly two dozen states are experiencing the effects of the Canadian wildfires, according to NBC News. This is causing "unhealthy" air quality indexes for many places before the sun came up on Thursday. The dangerous smoke can be seen in areas from the northwest to the northeast, with New York reporting heavy smoke in certain areas of the state. 

The Guardian says that air quality alerts were issued for areas of Wisconsin, Michigan, Washington D.C., Maryland, Virginia, Colorado, West Virginia, Delaware, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, Vermont, Minnesota, and North Carolina. 

Those in certain areas like Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey were put under high alerts as the air in the region became "unhealthy," according to the publication. Meanwhile, people in parts of Illinois and Michigan were told that the air was "very unhealthy," and those in parts of Wisconsin and Minnesota were told that their air was "hazardous." 

Meanwhile, Detroit residents were informed that their air reached extreme pollutant levels on Thursday, as IQAir determined that it had the worst air quality in the world.  

Wildfire Smoke Will Remain for the Rest of the Week

A midday July 16 report from IQAir says that conditions will begin to improve by the weekend, thanks to changing wind patterns, but that people living in the affected areas could continue to see smoky conditions for the next 10 days. That is, of course, if the wildfires remain active in Canada and some northern U.S. states. 

Additionally, a heat dome that has settled over the central U.S. could cause timelines to shift, since it is keeping smoke trapped at lower elevations and forcing it southeastward.

Vulnerable populations who are worried about possible smoke exposure should check their local weather stations to find out exactly what conditions are like where they live, and when they can expect relief. 

What do you do when your neighbors are unwittingly destroying your property? Take it to the internet for some much-needed advice, naturally. One Reddit user posted a photo of a bedsheet burned by a cigarette butt; they say their upstairs neighbor flicked it off a balcony while the sheet was drying below. The post went up in the r/mildlyinfuriating community and drew about 18,000 upvotes and more than 500 comments. Commenters were near-unanimous that the bigger issue is fire risk, not the ruined sheet -- but it's still a situation that shouldn't be happening.

The most upvoted replies told the poster to report it to their landlord or building management. Many pointed out that a lit butt landing on fabric is a common way apartment fires start, and several urged the poster to raise it before it happens again. Others said the neighbor should be made to replace the sheet.

Some of the most striking comments came from smokers. Several said they smoke or used to, and that they could never understand tossing a lit butt from a balcony, describing the habit as careless and entitled. A few shared their own systems for disposing of butts safely, including carrying a small tin or using a can filled with sand or water.

A handful of commenters described fires that started exactly this way. One said a butt flicked into a garden started a small fire, which, minutes later, cost a fence panel. Another described a balcony butt at a high-rise that blew back onto a lower balcony, set dried shrubs alight, breached a patio window, and gutted an apartment. Those accounts are anecdotes, though they line up with what fire data shows about discarded cigarettes.

Why a Tossed Cigarette Butt Is a Fire Risk

My upstairs neighbor threw their cigarette butt from their balcony and burned my bedsheet while it was drying.
by
u/Low_Jacket_3307 in
mildlyinfuriating

Discarded cigarettes are a leading cause of deadly home fires, not a minor nuisance. Smoking materials account for about 5% of reported home fires but roughly 23% of home fire deaths, according to the National Fire Protection Association, which makes them the leading cause of home fire deaths in the US. Most of these fires start when a discarded or unattended cigarette ignites something combustible nearby.

Bedding and other soft materials are among the most dangerous things a butt can land on. A lit cigarette that contacts cotton sheets, upholstery, or a mattress can smolder undetected for a long time before it breaks into an open flame, which is part of why these fires turn deadly. A sheet drying on a balcony below a smoker is close to a worst-case setup: a lightweight, flammable fabric sitting in the exact path of a falling butt. The poster's scorched sheet was the outcome that stopped short of a fire.

What Can Actually Be Done About It?

Reporting it is the step commenters kept returning to, and it is the practical one. Many leases and buildings prohibit smoking on balconies or throwing anything off them, so a note to the landlord or property manager creates a record and can prompt enforcement. Photos of the damage and the butt help establish what happened. Some jurisdictions also treat tossing a lit cigarette as illegal littering or a fire-code violation, which a local fire marshal's office can address.

Getting the neighbor to pay for the sheet is a smaller, separate matter. If a conversation does not work, the same documentation supports a claim, and a small-claims court exists for damage of this size, though the amount rarely justifies the effort. The advice worth skipping is the retaliation some commenters suggested, like throwing butts back onto the neighbor's balcony, which only adds a second fire hazard. The reason to act is the one the thread kept circling: the next butt might not land on a sheet.

Houses are expensive, and they aren't getting any cheaper. A new Virginia law will make it easier for homeowners to build an accessory dwelling unit, such as a backyard tiny house, garage apartment, or in-law suite, on their property. Gov. Abigail Spanberger signed the measure this week, and it takes effect on July 1, 2027, according to Virginia Mercury. Once it does, homeowners will be able to build an ADU by right rather than depending on their local government to approve it.

The law is Senate Bill 531, from Sen. Kannan Srinivasan of Loudoun and Sen. Saddam Salim of Fairfax, both Democrats. The two previously introduced versions of the bill were introduced several times before it passed this year, after earlier bipartisan attempts failed. Salim said he was glad the state was moving forward with practical housing options.

Under the new rules, localities will be required to permit ADUs in areas zoned for single-family homes and to cap permit fees at $500. The law also blocks localities from imposing the large setback requirements that usually apply to bigger homes. It removes an older requirement that the people living in an ADU be related to the occupants of the main house.

That last change matters for how the units can be used. Dropping the family-relation rule means a homeowner could rent an ADU to someone who is not a relative, which opens it up as a source of rental income or lower-cost housing. Supporters have framed the law as a way to add housing supply in a state where slow or restrictive local zoning has contributed to a shortage.

What the New ADU Law Actually Changes

The core shift is from local discretion to a statewide by-right standard. Before this law, Virginians who wanted to build an ADU were at the mercy of their local government, which could deny a permit outright or set fees high enough to make a project impractical. Starting July 1, 2027, localities must allow ADUs in single-family zones and cannot charge more than $500 for the permit.

Two other provisions lower common barriers. By barring the oversized setback rules that apply to larger homes, the law removes a requirement that can make a small backyard lot unbuildable, and by eliminating the family-relation rule, it lets homeowners rent to non-relatives. The bill applies statewide, which is significant because not all Virginia localities allowed ADUs before, leaving access to depend on where a homeowner lived.

Why Virginia Passed It Now

The law arrived amid a housing supply shortage and affordability pressure that state leaders have been trying to address. ADUs have drawn interest as a way to add homes on land that already has houses on it, and as a way for families to house an aging parent or an adult child. The Virginia Mercury noted that restrictive local zoning and permitting decisions have contributed to the supply crunch and to ongoing friction between state and local governments over land use.

The bill drew support from groups that do not always line up together. Housing Opportunities Made Equal of Virginia, a fair-housing organization, called the law a shovel-ready tool, according to its policy director, Laura Dobbs. The Pacific Legal Foundation, a property-rights law firm that challenges what it calls government overreach, backed it as well, with policy counsel Jamie Cavanaugh describing it as the freedom to use your own property. The ADU measure was one of a slate of housing bills Spanberger signed this year.

When it comes to inheritances, things can get a bit murky between family members. One Reddit user has asked for an outside perspective after their mother requested a third of the inheritance coming to them from their grandparents' trust. The poster, asking the r/Inheritance subreddit, explained that the sum in question could reach roughly half a million dollars.

The money comes through a trust the poster's grandfather set up years ago. After he died, everything passed to their grandmother. Her death two months ago made the trust irrevocable. The trust divides the assets equally between the poster's uncle and their father. Their father died of cancer before their grandmother did, so his half is now being split between their parents and their sister.

Before he died, the father told his two children that his share would go to them and that they needed to make sure their mother was taken care of with said money. The poster said their mother cared for their father through his cancer and through years of alcoholism earlier in the marriage. There was no life insurance. The poster said they want to honor their father's wish.

However, the mother is not in any financial trouble. The poster said she's in her 50s, earns six figures, owns a home she recently bought with a mortgage on it, has retirement savings, and travels often. The poster also noted that the money is their grandparents' life savings rather than their father's, and that the grandparents could have left something to their mother directly if they had wanted to. The poster said they fear a flat refusal could cost them the relationship, and that they do not want to decide "based only on guilt or emotion."

Why the Father's Share Passed to His Children

Mom wants part of my inheritance
by
u/bussalosauce in
inheritance

When a trust names a beneficiary who dies before the assets are distributed, many trusts and state laws send that person's share down to their descendants instead of their spouse. That's an arrangement usually known as "per stirpes," and it is why the father's half went to his two children instead of to his widow.

The mother was married to a named beneficiary, though she was never a named beneficiary herself. That means she passed her by. Commenters were split on what that means. Many argued the grandparents would have named her if they had meant to include her, while a smaller group argued she was excluded only by the timing of her husband's death, and that she would have shared in the money had he outlived his mother.

What Are the Tax Rules on Giving Away an Inheritance?

The most upvoted reply told the poster to look into the tax consequences of both the inheritance and any gift, which is sound advice. An inheritance is generally not taxed as income to the person who receives it. Passing a massive share to someone else afterward is a separate transaction that has rules all its own.

In 2026, a person can give up to $19,000 to any one recipient without triggering gift tax consequences, according to Kiplinger, so that means sharing cash is a bit simpler when you abide by these rules. Anything beyond that must be reported to the IRS on Form 709. When a gift tax does apply, the giver pays it, not the recipient. A transfer on the scale the poster described would require a return, which is part of why commenters urged them to consult an estate attorney or tax professional before committing to anything.

As far as the decision that needs to be made in the end here, well, that's going to have to ultimately be up to the OP - and they're now well-equipped with information to figure out what to do.

What happens when your HOA begins to price you out? That's the question many homeowners in the Magnolia Cove subdivision in Sherrills Ford, North Carolina, are facing. They're staring down a monthly HOA increase from $350 to $1,250, along with a $10,000 special assessment on their property. Several residents, some of them retired, told WSOC they won't be able to afford the hike.

The increase compounds a climb that residents say has already been pretty steep for them. Homeowners said the dues were already high at $158 a month four years ago. They said the money is supposed to go toward lawn care and a pool that was never built. Homeowner Jill Menson said the increase has upended her livelihood: "I spend nights crying because this is just ruining my life."

Residents said the developer is also the HOA president, which creates a bit of a conflict. There are 80 homes in the neighborhood and only 20 owners, and several of the properties are now rentals. Homeowner Stephanie Roebuck said she would never have bought in had she known the area would later become a rental community. Residents are also beginning to question how their money is being spent.

Homeowner Mike Brokaw said a lack of transparency has already produced litigation that he believes could have been avoided if the association had taken the time to answer questions. The association's attorney, H. Weldon Jones III, told WSOC the assessments are being raised to fund the association's operations. He said the developer had been covering those costs for years because of the owners who were delinquent on their assessments or just not paying them at all. Homeowners said the next association meeting will be virtual, that questions must be submitted in advance, and that they will not be allowed to vote on the increases at all.

Why the Property Developer Still Controls the HOA

The developer serving as HOA president is nothing new. In a new community, the developer, called the declarant in North Carolina's statutes, usually controls the association board until enough lots have been sold to other owners. With 80 homes and 20 owners in Magnolia Cove, that leaves a declarant in control under what we usually see with a standard arrangement.

That structure is what lawmakers have been looking into, though. A proposal before the General Assembly would cap the declarant control period, ending it at the earliest of 120 days after 75% of lots are conveyed to other owners, two years after the declarant stops offering lots for sale, or two years after the last development right to add lots is exercised, according to the UNC School of Government. The same measure would require board elections within 60 days of the 25% and 50% conveyance marks, and it would bar payments to board officers except as the bylaws expressly allow.

What Are North Carolina Lawmakers Doing About HOA Power?

North Carolina HOAs operate under the Planned Community Act, Chapter 47F of the state's general statutes, which governs how associations are created, what powers they hold, and how they collect assessments. The state has no single agency that regulates homeowners' associations. WSOC has reported separately that lawmakers are weighing bills to limit HOA power.

House Bill 444 is the measure that's drawn the most attention. It would bar a board from raising the budgeted common expense liability by more than 5% after the budget is ratified without approval from a majority of owners, according to the Legislative Reporting Service. It would also cap fines at $2,500, require at least 10 days' notice before a hearing, and mandate mediation before certain disputes reach court. None of that resolves what happens in Magnolia Cove this year, and the homeowners there have started a GoFundMe to cover attorney fees. In other words, there are things in motion to potentially combat these fees, but not a single solution at this time for what is understandably a very complicated situation.

If you have a lot of small pots around that you want to use for something, or if you only have room for small plants in your space, let's look at the best indoor plants for small pots.

While any plant can start small, some will grow larger over time and need bigger pots and more space for their roots to continue to grow. But other plants will always remain small.

These small plants are great for small pots. It could be that you don’t have a lot of space to place your plants in your home, but you want to bring them in. Or it could be that you want to bring a couple of small pots to your office desk or some other location where you don’t have a lot of room.

Small houseplants are good for a lot of reasons. Let’s explore.

Best Indoor Plants for Small Pots

When choosing small pot plants, look for those that won’t grow more than about 12-15 inches or so. You also want to look for plants that don’t grow especially large roots or that won’t easily become rootbound if you don’t move them to bigger pots. There are many beautiful plants to choose from that will stay small and do great in smaller pots.

When you choose the right plants for your space, you can appreciate them more. Being low on space doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice plants. You can place them:

• On a bedside table
• On a desk or bench
• In a vertical planter
• In a terrarium
• From a hanging planter
• From a wall planter
• On a small wall shelf
• In or around the bathtub (may need to move when bathing)
• On a bookshelf
• And many more!

Now, let’s take a look at those plants:

1. Painted-leaf begonia (Begonia rex)

This is a great choice for small pots. The begonia is small, with beautiful colors that help it stand out against regular green plants. It’s called “painted leaf” because of the colors in the foliage of this plant.

This is not always the easiest plant for new houseplant hobbyists since it can be a bit finicky but if you put some time into learning its water and lighting needs, you will be very pleased with this one.

2. Peperomia (Peperomia obtusifolia)

Peperomia is sometimes also called “baby rubber plant”. This flowering plant is native to Florida, Mexico, and the Caribbean. The best thing about this cute little plant is that there are so many different varieties; you could have a bunch of them, and they’d all still look different. They’re very easy to care for and just need to be watered when the first layer of soil gets dried out. They do well in bright, indirect sunlight.

3. Nerve plant (Fittonia)

Another great choice for small plants is the nerve plant. They are very pretty and come in a variety of colors and patterns. They do have high humidity and water requirements, and they are not considered the easiest plants to care for. They can be a bit high-maintenance, but once you get the hang of it, they will thrive. They’re also really great for growing in a terrarium if that’s something you want to explore.

4. Moth orchid (Phalaenopsis)

Orchids are great for small spaces, on a bedside table, or even in a bathroom on the counter. Moth orchids are very beautiful, and the blooms last for months.

They’re easier to care for than you might think from looking at the delicate plant. A good rule of thumb: don’t overwater, and be sure to dilute a little fertilizer and add it every few weeks. Keep it in a well-draining orchid soil, and you’ll be all set!

5. Flamingo flower (Anthurium)

The first time I bought anthurium was totally on a whim. I had no experience with this plant, and I saw it at my local grocer’s produce section. The shiny red flowers were so beautiful, and I just had to bring one home with me.

They grow to about 12-18 inches tall, and they are very low-maintenance, making them a good plant for small spaces and busy plant owners. They enjoy bright, indirect light, so keeping it near a window but not directly in it is a good idea. And they need well-draining soil, but be sure not to water too much. This is the most common way that they are killed.

6. African violets (Saintpaulia)

Another great plant for small pots is the African violet. They are small, green, and have flowers that bloom in shades of purple, pink, and white, although purple seems to be the most commonly recognized. They grow easily in most soil types, but they don’t like it when their leaves get wet, so don’t mist them. Try bottom-watering instead. The plant will “drink” what it needs.

7. Aloe vera (Aloe barbadensis)

Most people are familiar with aloe as a plant that can soothe burns, small cuts and scrapes. It’s a low-maintenance succulent that looks good in any space and can fit in small pots easily. Because it can store moisture in its leaves, it doesn’t need to be watered too much. It’s very easy to propagate the small “pups” that grow at the base of the plant, and you can put those in their own small pots and have even more over time. They do well in a window but can also tolerate low light pretty well.

8. Baby toes (Fenestraria rhopalophylla)

Another cute little houseplant to consider for small pots is baby toes. Called this because of how it looks, it's perfect for a small space, or for adding to an arrangement of other succulents. It will tolerate a wide range of light conditions, so you can have it in front of a bright window or on a side table in a corner. Use well-draining succulent soil and don’t overwater.

9. Jade plant (Crassula ovata)

Next on the list is the Jade plant. These are low-maintenance plants that live for years in the same pot. They do prefer well-lit areas, and the soil should be allowed to dry out between each time you water. The small, well-rounded leaves are plump and cute, and jade will look great in any type of pot.

10. String of pearls (Senecio rowleyanus)

String of pearls is another type of succulent that gets its name because it resembles cascading green pearls. While they do have the ability to grow larger, they start small, and you can keep them in a small pot and then propagate, if needed, as they start to get bigger. It’s a type of vine, so it will creep or fall when placed in a hanging basket. It’s a very unique, attractive plant that requires little maintenance.

11. Chinese money plant (Pilea peperomiodes)

Next on our list is the Chinese money plant. This cute little green plant has disc- or pancake-like leaves that bring a new dimension to your other green houseplants. They look great alone on a desk or table, or grouped up with other plants. Care is fairly easy, and they will produce offshoots that you can share with friends or propagate and put in more small pots.

13. Flaming Katy (Kalanchoe blossfeldiana)

Another great blooming plant for small pots is the Flaming Katy. This is a winter-blooming succulent, and it’s sure to bring some sun and smiles to your plant collection. It’s small and can flower for many months if you give it enough light and also prune the blooms that are spent/dead.

While some people will treat it like an annual and toss it when the blooms are done, it is fairly easy to care for it so that it re-blooms for you. Plus, the green itself is just pretty in a small pot, even in between blooms.

14. Polka Dot Plant (Hypoestes phyllostachya)

The polka dot plant got its name from the obvious polka dot patterns on its leaves. The white pops out from the green and makes this plant a real beauty, no matter where you place it. The speckles can also be pink, red, yellow, or lighter green. It can grow in a small pot or in a terrarium. It really loves high humidity, so if your air is dry, you’re going to need to mist frequently.

15. Pothos (Epipremnum aureum)

While pothos can grow to a very large size, they are very easily trimmed back and can be propagated and made into new, smaller plants. I have lots of cuttings from my pothos in other small pots all around my house, and I often give them to friends and family, too. Because it is such an easy plant to grow and it’s very forgiving of neglect, it’s good for even beginners.

16. Cacti

There are so many different types and varieties of cacti, and they all work wonderfully in small spaces. They are low-maintenance, super easy to care for, and pretty much a set-it-and-forget-it type of plant. Many grow slowly and stay small, meaning you can keep them in small pots for many years to come. They can tolerate different lighting levels, but be sure not to overwater. This is the #1 reason for people killing their cactus.

The Best Indoor Plants for Small Pots

This is really just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to small pot-friendly indoor plants. There are so many species and varieties to choose from that you will never fall short of great ideas. We hope that some of the ones on this list appeal to you and that you find some that fit your lifestyle and your decorative tastes. Plants add value to our lives and our living spaces in so many ways, and it doesn't take a large plant to make a dramatic impact. 

Now that you know about all of these great indoor plants for small pots, you can start building or adding to your own collection. The flexibility that you have with small pots allows you to get creative about what you use and where you place them. They’re perfect for anyone with limited space, and you can enjoy them for many years to come.

Talk about unwanted neighbors. A San Antonio woman says that a commercial dumpster has brought a plague of rats into her neighborhood. She shared her story with local Fox News station FOX SA Puro San Antonio, taking reporters on a tour of the parking lot where the dumpsters are located.

The problem? The commercial property backs right up to her backyard, which has allowed the rats easy access to her property. Not only that, but she says even bigger issues are starting to arise as a result of the dumpster's location, and unwanted human visitors are also starting to move in.

Unfortunately, she says that the company isn't willing to do anything about it, so now she's asking the local news for help.

Here's what we know about the situation.

Rats Have Infested a Woman's Yard Thanks to a Commercial Dumpster

Teresa Gonzales became aware that there was a problem after she says her dogs, Maggie and Ivy, who she says alerted her to rats on her patio. The dogs watched the rats all night, the first time they saw them, and Gonzales says she was quickly able to trace them back to the open dumpster located just behind her fence.

The dumpster, which belongs to a company located on the property, is reportedly left open with "trash scattered everywhere," which lures them in. 

"The rodents are now living underneath my shed, which is making a problem for me because I don't want them in my yard, much less my house," Gonzales explained, noting that she had a doggy door for her pups, and she's especially worried that they will eventually make their way inside.

Not only that, but the homeowner told the Fox News station that the open dumpster was drawing unwanted two-legged guests as well, and that people were showing up to illegally dump trash and to look for food scraps as well.

When she contacted the company about the dumpster, she said they hadn't responded to her complaints. Fox News then called local Code Enforcement officials, who have given the owners a notice of violation and ordered them to fix the situation within 14 days, or else they will be hit with fines. 

Rats Can Cause Problems in Your Home

Gonzales is right to want to avoid a rat infestation in her home, since the Plunkett's Pest Control blog says they can cause all kinds of issues, including creating fire hazards, spreading diseases (like Tularemia and Hantavirus), and structural damage.  

The pest control company says that the best way to avoid the damage is to prevent them from entering your home in the first place, which includes exclusion methods like closing off entry points and cleaning up trash and waste that could attract them to your property, like the conditions that Gonzales alleges the dumpster behind her home is creating. 

One California town is getting tired of seeing the wrong items thrown into the trash. So, in an effort to stop Sacramento residents from mixing their recycling and organic waste, the town is now employing inspectors who will check through residential trash cans to make sure everyone is separating their waste accordingly.

The decision comes as the state works to reduce methane emissions. And while inspectors will be checking just a small sampling of the trash around town, residents shouldn't worry about what will happen if they make a mistake.

That's because there aren't any plans to fine or cite violators.

Instead, Sacramento officials hope this will be a teaching moment for residents, allowing them to learn how to reduce those short-lived pollutants and improve the air quality across the state. 

Officials to Start Inspecting Trash in Sacramento 

According to local news station KCRA 3, Sacramento is hiring inspectors to check trash bins that have been set out on the curb for garbage pickup to make sure that residents are separating organic waste, regular trash, and recycling. This is in accordance with state law SB 1383, which requires local jurisdictions to reduce their methane emissions. 

"We conducted the same reviews last June, and we found high contamination levels of, you know, issues like plastic bags in recycling, garbage in the organics," Jesa David, a city representative, told the publication.

And while they won't be fining people who aren't following the rules, they will be letting them know how their inspections went. "Any container that we touch will either get a 'great job' tag or a 'let's sort this out' tag," David continued. "But either way, we want to provide education and make sure everyone knows the resources that they have available to sort their waste correctly."

Whose Trash Will Get Inspected?

There are 130,000 residents who receive city trash services in Sacramento, and David says that just 4,800 of the households will be included. 

While that may seem like a small number of bins to check, when combined with last year's efforts, it should hopefully allow them to reach (and teach) more residents. According to a report that was updated in March 2026, the Environmental Protection Agency found that methane made up 12 percent of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions as of 2022. Much of this emission comes from human-related sources, which include raising livestock and leaks in natural gas processes. 

The Environmental Defense Fund notes that methane is a "potent greenhouse gas" and says it's responsible for things like wildfires and extreme droughts, two things California has been dealing with for years. Hopefully, this move will help lower those emissions and stall some of those effects, giving residents a little more peace of mind.

A permitting mistake made by previous homeowners may cost a Florida woman her home. The Little Havana homeowner has reached out to CBS News for help after she says she was hit with a $55,650 code enforcement lien. Only her attorney says that she should've never been hit with the fines in the first place.

Instead, it sounds like the people she purchased the property from may have violated the City of Miami's codes, prompting inspectors to get involved. 

And while the homeowner admits to having made a mistake by hiring contractors to help repair her roof without a permit, she doesn't think that she should be punished for mistakes that the previous owners made when they made updates to the property.

Here's what her attorney has to say.

A Florida Woman Faces Foreclosure Over Code Enforcement Lien

A Little Havana homeowner and her attorney argue the City of Miami fined her for code violations tied to work completed before she bought the home. https://t.co/EUmaM7ISo2

— CBS Miami (@CBSMiami) July 14, 2026

Angelica Martinez shared her story with CBS News after code inspectors from the City of Miami came by her house in 2024. They stopped after noticing a crew working on a few things around Martinez's house, including pouring a driveway, building a fence, and performing roof work, all without a permit. 

This resulted in the code enforcement lien, which Martinez says she shouldn't be responsible for since she wasn't the one who had the fence and driveway work done. Instead, she says that the fence and driveway were both completed in 2018, when the previous owners had work done before listing the property for sale.

"It's just a mistake—a very expensive mistake they're making me pay for," Martinez told the publication, adding that she hired an attorney to check the title to make sure there weren't any liens on the property before she bought the house. 

"Zero violations existed," she recalled of the purchase process. "My attorneys reviewed the whole history of the house. There was no issue whatsoever." 

Homeowners Can Be Held Responsible for Work Done by Previous Owners

Martinez contacted a lawyer about the violations, and they spoke with CBS News about the story, confirming that homeowners can be held liable for code violations, even if they were originally made by the previous owners. However, the City of Miami alleges that this isn't exactly what happened with Martinez's story. 

The Code Enforcement Department released a statement to the local news station, telling them that Martinez was given 120 days to comply with the violation notice before she would be assessed a fine of $150-per-day. The statement alleges that she failed to bring the property into compliance, nor did she request additional time for the work to be done, resulting in the massive lien. 

As a result, Martinez and her lawyer say that she is stuck in the house, unable to make additional repairs or sell the property until the lien is removed. While she will have another chance to take her case before the courts, she has a hearing scheduled for Sept. 22 there's no way of knowing whether she will get good news or not.

While this story may be terrifying for anyone who has purchased a home, it serves as a good reminder of how important it is to undergo a title inspection before you buy a property and to check with the local zoning offices to see if any permits have been pulled by the previous owners. Otherwise, you may find yourself with an unwanted and expensive surprise down the line.

Out of all of the sounds a homeowner dreads hearing, buzzing may be among the least worrisome noises. However, one Texas homeowner learned the hard way that even buzzing can spell bad news, especially when it's accompanied by the sight of bees flying into (and out of) the walls of your home.

That's what a League City, Texas man discovered while trimming trees near his house. While hiring an exterminator can be a costly gig, having bees removed tends to require a special touch, which can get pricey as well.

So, this Texan turned to Click2Houson for help and was able to get some assistance relocating the bees.

Here's the buzz.

Man Discovers Bee Colony Living in His Home

A day of household chores turned into an expensive adventure for Ron Humason, who says he discovered that a colony of bees had taken over a corner of his house. "I was out trimming some trees the other day, and I noticed some bee activity coming in and out of the front of the house," he recalled to the local NBC News station.

And while Humason says he knew he needed to get help to safely remove the bees, he struggled to find an affordable solution, so he called the news channel's community advocate reporter, Mario Diaz, who was able to help him find a local bee removal service. 

Diaz documented the process of the bee removal from viewers, explaining that the colony's status first had to be confirmed, then the company had to remove the siding from the home, using special equipment to then vacuum what amounted to tens of thousands of bees from the League City home. 

The company then took the bees to their new location, where they would be able to establish a colony somewhere a little more permanent. 

Bee Removal Can Get Expensive

While things like your location and the location of the colony can cause costs to fluctuate, This Old House says that you can pay between $150 and $500 to have bees removed from your property. When you look at specific types of bees, those prices can go up or down, with honey bees being among the most expensive to move, at between $75 and $2,000.

That being said, relocating bees safely and professionally is usually worth the money. Between the benefits bees provide to the environment as pollinators and the damage that an infestation can do to your home, it's usually worth the extra money to hire a pro to move these critters when they start living inside your home.

Most Americans expect to pay more to host a backyard barbecue this summer, according to a survey released by the discount grocery app Flashfood. The poll, conducted by The Harris Poll on the company's behalf, found that 85% of Americans think hosting a cookout will cost more this summer than it did last year, Supermarket News reported. More than half, 53%, said they are worried about the cost of hosting summer events because of food prices.

That means people will likely have to change the way they meet up and entertain each other. About a third of Americans with summer hosting plans, or 34%, said they'll instead ask guests to bring something rather than provide all the food themselves. That means more of the traditional barbecue cookouts will effectively turn into potlucks instead.

Flashfood's chief executive, Jordan Schenck, used the survey to pitch the fact that rising food costs shouldn't get in the way of summer gatherings. Flashfood is an app that sells discounted groceries nearing their sell-by dates. It has a direct interest in the kind of price anxiety the survey measured, so it has a reason to hope that it can offer cheaper groceries.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture also forecasts that grocery prices will keep rising in 2026, with several cookout staples under continued pressure. Plus, the American Farm Bureau Federation put the average cost of a Fourth of July cookout for 10 people at a record $73.82 this year.

What a Fourth of July Cookout Actually Costs

The holiday has come and gone, but the prices have still lingered for many budgets. The Farm Bureau's cookout number is the one to look at, because the group has tracked it the same way for years. Its 2026 survey priced a spread for 10 people, including burgers, chicken breasts, pork chops, cheese, buns, and sides, at $73.82, a record and an increase over last year. That works out to about $7.38 per person.

The Farm Bureau's survey is an informal price check rather than an official index, with volunteer shoppers collecting prices across the country. Its value is in the trend it captures year to year. The direction it shows, staples climbing again in 2026, matches the USDA's own forecast for food-at-home prices, which lends the cookout figure more weight than a single retailer's snapshot would carry.

Why Grocery Prices Keep Climbing

Food-at-home prices have been rising steadily, and the pressure has not eased in 2026. Supermarket News has reported that grocery prices increased for the fifth month this year, and that more shoppers are leaning on savings and credit cards to cover the bill. That combination, higher prices and thinner cushions, is the backdrop to the cookout anxiety the Flashfood survey picked up.

Meat is often the biggest line item at a cookout, and beef in particular has stayed expensive, which pulls up the total for anyone grilling burgers or steaks. Hosts have a few levers to pull, including buying store-brand versions of sides and condiments, choosing cheaper proteins like chicken over beef, and splitting the load through the potluck approach, which a third of survey respondents said they already plan to use. None of that reverses the underlying prices, though it does spread them out.

Power poles can be precariously placed, and many of them are in areas we don't particularly want them in. But what if the electric company decided it was going to take over your yard and build a brand new one, all without your consent? One Ashburn, Virginia, homeowner could lose roughly a third of her property to a high-voltage transmission line built to feed Loudoun County's data centers.

Virginia's State Corporation Commission approved Route 3A for Dominion Energy's Golden to Mars project on June 29. That project would send 185-foot poles through the Loudoun Valley Estates subdivision, including the backyard where Vicky Hu has lived for 20 years. According to NBC Washington, the pole slated for her yard would stand taller than the Statue of Liberty.

Hu said the route would carve a corridor 100 to 150 feet wide through her land, take out around 400 trees, and consume about a third of her property. She has been fighting the plan for more than a year. Speaking about the data center boom driving the project, she told NBC Washington, "People are angry with data centers, because we've been sacrificed."

The Loudoun County School Board called itself out of summer recess for a special meeting on Monday night at Rock Ridge High School. Roughly 50 people signed up to speak, and public comment ran almost entirely against Route 3A. The board then voted to authorize its lawyers to begin formally challenging the project.

Why the School Board Has a Say

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ui-oJV1eLY8

In Virginia, a utility cannot build transmission lines on school property without the school board's approval, which is what gave an elected education body a role in a power project. State regulators had originally opted for Route 4, which affects the fewest homes. However, that route would run along schools near Rock Ridge High School and Rosa Lee Carter Elementary School.

Homeowners then found a way to give the board some leverage over Route 3A as well. The Loudoun Valley Estates homeowners association deeded 12 acres of its own land, as well as a walking path students use to reach school, and the school board accepted it. Bryan Turner, the attorney representing the HOA, told WUSA9 this idea was meant to give the board the same authority to block 3A that it had already used against Route 4.

What Data Center Growth Is Costing the City

Loudoun County holds the largest concentration of data centers in the world, with about 250 online and roughly 100 more in the pipeline. That growth has delivered billions of dollars in tax revenue to the county. It has also driven the demand that Dominion says makes the line necessary. PJM, the regional grid operator, identified a need for additional transmission in the area and asked Dominion to build it.

Residents are seeing the costs of their own. Dominion recently warned customers to expect electric bills to rise by roughly $8 a month. Homeowners have pressed for the lines to be buried. Governor Abigail Spanberger signed a bill this spring authorizing four pilot projects for underground 500-kilovolt transmission, though nothing so far indicates Golden to Mars would be one of them. What happens next depends on whether the commission acts before July 20 or lets its approval of Route 3A stand.

A woman who says a new family next door has ruined her evenings with loud music and late parties is wondering if she's being unreasonable to complain. Wanting an opinion on whether her reaction was justified, she took to Mumsnet to see what others said. She posted on July 10 in the Am I Being Unreasonable forum, and the thread pulled in more than 300 replies. About 60% of the readers sided with the woman.

The woman said she lives in a row of period terraced houses she used to consider peaceful. The family that moved in last year eats outside and plays heavy dance music through dinner and into most evenings, she said, often all day at weekends, with their large bifold doors left open so she can hear their kitchen conversations from her own yard. She said she can no longer enjoy her own outdoor space.

She said the household throws tons of frequent parties, some with as many as 30 guests, that run until around midnight, with tons of loud sounds. One of the loudest, she said, was a second birthday party with roughly 30 people that went past midnight. Kids kick footballs into her yard and come get them themselves, and she said she's overheard the family discussing buying a projector to watch a match outside, which obviously could make for an issue.

She said that she's asked them to lower the music three times. They ignored her when they had guests, she said, or told her politely that it was not late, once at 8 p.m., after the music had been thumping since about 2 p.m. They did turn it down when she complained at 9 a.m. on a Sunday. She described feeling "angry and helpless at the same time," said she has mostly stopped eating outside, and said she has thought about moving, though she can't really afford to.

Why the Complaint is So Divisive

Many replies were sympathetic to the woman. Several in the replies shared their own histories of living beside loud neighbors. And many said that, while the neighbors are inconsiderate, they're not doing anything that the police would act on. One user recounted resolving a similar situation by leaning out a window and asking the family next door to quiet down. That got an apology and a bunch of flowers, though she noted it helped that those neighbors were renting and worried about a landlord complaint.

Some said the neighbors hadn't done anything wrong. One user compared the complaint to griping about a passenger reclining an airplane seat. Another pushed back on the woman's description of her street as one of the nicer ones in the area. The woman accepted the point, agreeing that the noise would be irritating anywhere -- and that it wasn't just about where she was located or her financial status.

Can a UK Council Do Anything About Daytime Noise?

One sympathetic commenter told the woman that councils will not act on noise between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m., and that is a common misconception rather than the law. GOV.UK says councils can investigate statutory nuisance complaints and deal with noise produced at any hour of the day or night. The 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. window belongs to a separate, narrower system under the Noise Act 1996, which lets councils issue warning notices for night-time noise over set decibel levels. Statutory nuisance under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 has no such cutoff.

Courts have held that noise from the ordinary and reasonable use of a home is not a statutory nuisance, so everyday living sounds do not qualify. An environmental health officer weighs how long the noise lasts, how often it happens, how loud it is, and what time of day it occurs. The usual first step is to keep a noise diary for at least two weeks and bring it to the council's environmental health team. That's close to what one commenter suggested when she pointed the woman toward her council's environmental officer. Anywhere else in the world, though? Your experience is going to vary wildly. 

Mini-splits are growing in popularity around the U.S., as they offer homeowners a more energy-efficient way to keep their homes comfortable, and they are often more affordable to use than some of those older air conditioning window units.

Of course, that is only true when you purchase newer models and have them professionally installed. Otherwise, you may end up like one Redditor whose botched install could cost him a ton of money down the road.

He claims that the person who installed the product never connected the drain hose, which means that the water the mini-split has been pulling out of the air has been draining into the walls of his home.

Not only is this the perfect recipe for mold growth, but it may be destroying his mini-split as well.

A Man Said His Mini-Split Smells Musty After Having it installed.

Reddit user @PrgrmMan took to the r/heatpumps subreddit to ask for help after spending $15,000 having a mini-split installed on the second floor of his 2,000 square foot house. After noticing that the drain didn't seem to be putting out much water while it was running, the OP called the installer to have him come back out to troubleshoot the unit, which is when he learned that the drain hose had never been connected. 

"Now I've noticed the unit is making a chirping sound, and the water drains outside, bit fairly slowly," he wrote. "The unit seems to struggle to keep the house at 55% humidity, but in the evening will swing to 62%. When it does this, I notice a musty smell coming out of the unit."

The OP says that the installer is coming back out in a week, but he's looking for advice on what he can do in the meantime, and what he should ask the installer when they arrive.

People Gave the OP Plenty of Advice to Consider

Reddit really delivered for the OP, and he was quickly given plenty of advice on how to proceed. "I would make sure the indoor unit is properly sloped towards whichever side the drain is connected to," one person wrote. "It should not be perfectly level." The OP then quickly acknowledged this comment, saying that he confirmed it was level at the time of the install. 

Another person offered advice for the annoying sound the unit was making, telling the Redditor to keep the fan in "auto mode" to avoid the chirping. 

Unfortunately, one Redditor shared a sobering take on the whole situation, writing, "If they [didn't bother] to connect the drain line, there will be other stuff they missed."

Mold Can Develop Quickly Behind Walls

While none of this was likely the info that the OP was hoping for, it is important to note that a water leak can cause mold to grow pretty quickly. According to the Root Busters plumbing blog, water can create mold in as little as 24 to 48 hours. Since the OP's issue has been happening for a few weeks now, it's likely that he may need to have another expert out to confirm whether or not there's an issue.

While this could be a frustrating (and expensive) situation, hopefully the HVAC technician is bonded and insured, which will make it easier for the OP to get the financial help he needs in order to repair any damage that could be lurking within his walls.

A popular shade-loving perennial plant, hostas (Hosta spp.) come in multiple cultivars and some spectacular colors.

If you love an eye-catching garden foliage plant, you can’t go wrong with planting some hostas. Once you have decided which hostas you will grow, it’s time to determine which plants would be best suited to grow alongside them as companions.

The best companion plants for hostas include bleeding hearts, astilbe, Japanese forest grass, hydrangea, azalea, Siberian bugloss, Japanese painted fern, coral bells, and impatiens.

These plants have similar growing needs and will enhance your hosta garden with their appearance. Let's take a closer look.

9 Great Companion Plants For Hostas

Hostas are herbaceous perennial plants that thrive in full to partially shady conditions. They require well-drained, rich, and fertile soil and grow in USDA hardiness zones 3 – 9. Hostas are clump-forming plants that produce long stalks which extend above their lovely foliage, with attractive flowers in pink, lavender, and white, depending on the hosta variety.

Hosta's best feature is its foliage, which comes in different shades of gold, green, dusky blue, chartreuse, or beautifully variegated. There are endless options of plants from which you could choose companions for hosta plants.

1. Bleeding Hearts (Lamprocapnos spectabilis)

Bleeding hearts are shade-loving plants that bloom in the spring. Some varieties, including the fringed-leaf kind, will bloom throughout the summer if grown in the right conditions. Bleeding heart plants prefer partial to full shade, moist and rich soil, and grow optimally in USDA hardiness zones 2 – 9.

The bleeding heart’s fine texture will complement your hosta’s bold texture. These two plants are shade-loving, and their growing preferences are similar, making them the perfect companion plants. Learn more about growing bleeding hearts.

2. Astilbe (Astilbe spp.)

Astilbes are lovely perennial plants that are easy to grow, making them a popular choice for gardeners. They produce airy foliage and stiff, tall stalks that hold their plume-like flowers in various colors, including purple, pink, red, and white. These plants can happily survive in partial shade in moist, loamy soils and grow optimally in USDA hardiness zones 3 – 8.

Astilbes are another excellent addition to any shade garden. The flowers these lovely plants produce are stunning when paired with hostas, especially when interspersed with dwarf hostas in front of them and larger hostas behind them.

3. Japanese Forest Grass (Hakonechloa macra)

Japanese forest grass is a beautiful ornamental grass that is slow-growing and thrives in shady areas. Optimal growing conditions include partial sunlight and well-drained, moist soil in USDA hardiness zones 4 – 9.

It produces lance-shaped, arching green or variegated leaves that cascade out of a mounding clump. The leaves grow to approximately 10 inches long, and the plant gets 24 inches wide and 18 inches tall.

This shade-tolerant ornamental grass adds visual layers and depth to any garden. Its angular foliage adds texture to the leaves of most nearby plants, but especially the leaves of a hosta. The color difference between the yellow tones of the ornamental grass and the blue and green leaves on the hosta makes for a beautiful sight.

4. Hydrangea (Hydrangea spp.)

There are many hydrangea varieties from which to choose. These plants are quick growers and, depending on the type, produce flowers in various colors, including pale green, white, red, maroon, and shades of blue and pink. These plants like full to partial sunlight; any soil will do for them, but they prefer USDA hardiness zones 5 – 9.

Hydrangeas are the perfect companion plants for hostas, as their beautiful flowers provide the perfect texture and color contrast to the foliage of the hosta. Their easy-to-care-for nature and ability to survive in most soil types make them attractive additions to any garden.

Love hydrangeas? Here's more information about growing and caring for hydrangeas:

• How to prune hydrangeas
• Most popular types of hydrangea flowers

5. Azalea (Rhododendron spp.)

Azalea produces elliptical leaves and lovely bell-shaped or tubular flowers, depending on the variety. The flower color range is spectacular in shades of pale pink to white, red, and purple. These small shrubs can happily survive in partially shady conditions with well-drained, light soils in USDA hardiness zones 3 – 9.

Azaleas share similar growing preferences with hostas, making them perfect candidates for companion growing. The small stature of the azalea makes it an excellent choice for smaller gardens, with its lovely, colorful flowers adding extra color to your garden when your hostas are not in bloom.

6. Siberian Bugloss (Brunnera macrophylla)

Siberian bugloss is a beautiful perennial that produces a lovely ground cover out of its heart-shaped, dark-green leaves. The pretty blue flowers with white centers rise on stems above the plant in the spring and last approximately four weeks.

The optimum growing conditions for this plant include complete to partial sunlight, but it will also happily survive in full shade. They prefer well-drained, moist soils and thrive in USDA hardiness zones 3 – 8.

Siberian bugloss is a popular choice for a shade garden as a ground cover, and as it shares similar growing preferences with hostas, the two make lovely companion plants. The leaves of the hosta, coupled with the beautiful, tiny blue flowers of the Siberian bugloss, provide your garden with a wonderful texture and color contrast.

7. Japanese Painted Fern (Athyrium niponicum)

Japanese painted fern is one of the most beautiful varieties of ferns, sporting silvery, triangular leaves that have a shade of gray-green, with purplish midribs. These variegated ferns are slow-growing perennials that prefer partial to full shade, well-drained, moist soils, and thrive in USDA hardiness zones 3 – 8.

The lacy leaves on this fern contrast with the larger leaves on a hosta. The color tones also add texture and feel to a tropical garden setting. The two plants share similar growing requirements, making them excellent choices for companion plants.

8. Coral Bells (Heuchera spp.)

You can choose from multiple varieties of coral bells. Their leaves are hairy, lobed, full to semi-evergreen, and come in an array of spectacular colors, including gold, lime green, rose, purple, and more.

Their flowers are rich in nectar and are great for attracting hummingbirds, butterflies, and bees into your garden. This plant grows optimally in full to partial sunlight, with well-draining, moist, and rich soils, in USDA hardiness zones 4a – 9a.

Coral bells and hostas share similar growing conditions preferences. The small flowers the coral bell produces are stunning and help make your shade garden more spectacular. The leaves of the coral bell will also provide a lovely contrast to your hosta in texture and color.

9. Impatiens (Impatiens spp.)

Impatiens are popular garden additions loved for their brightly colored flowers and their love of shady areas. In most places, you can grow these plants as annuals, but in USDA hardiness zones 10 – 11, you can grow them as perennials.

They produce flowers in vibrant colors and pastels, including pink, white, red, coral, violet, yellow, and purple. These plants prefer to grow in rich, well-draining soils in full to partial shade.

Interspersing impatiens between your hostas adds stunning color arrays during the spring months. The great thing is that once the flowers are no longer in bloom, the leaves of your hostas will cover up the dying foliage of the impatiens.

More Shade-Loving Plants to Pair With Hostas

The above are just a few of the many plants that combine beautifully with the gorgeous hosta foliage. But there are many more plants for a shady garden spot bordered by hostas. Here are just a few more ideas:

• begonias
• periwinkle
• sweet woodruff
• alliums
• clematis
• grape hyacinth
• alyssum
• pansies and/or Johnny-jump-ups
• coleus
• tulips
• chives
• and more

Hostas are an excellent choice for any shade garden with their spectacular foliage and range of colors. When planning your hosta shade garden, choose companion plants that share similar growing requirements and will contrast nicely with your hostas.

Houseguests are fine to invite over when you're putting together a fireworks show at home. But when that guest is a bear, and you're using the fireworks to get it to leave, well, not so much. One homeowner in Kamisunagawa Town, Hokkaido, Japan, used fireworks to drive a wayward bear away from his house on July 11. The man called the police to report the animal on the grounds of a residence, according to DotDotNews, citing Sapporo Television. Police responded to the call, obviously bewildered at how this situation occurred.

The caller stayed inside the house and watched the bear through a window from about 65 feet away. Police said the animal measured about 5 feet long and had been wandering through the home nonchalantly. The homeowner then set off fireworks in an attempt to get it to leave.

The bear, understandably spooked, moved off through a field inside the residential area. It traveled southeast and then finally left the property. There were no injuries, though the bear's pride may have been wounded, to be fair.

The homeowner's affected dwelling sits on the edge of a residential district. Police said they were staying vigilant in the surrounding area for additional animals at the time as well. This particular encounter lands in the middle of a record surge in bear activity across Japan.

Why Bear Encounters Are Surging in Japan

A record 230 were killed or injured by bears in Japan since April, putting more pressure on the government to intervene as the animals push deeper into areas where people live https://t.co/NExnDzVPaE

— Bloomberg (@business) December 6, 2025

Japan is coming off its worst year on record for bear attacks. Roughly 238 people were injured by bears in 2025, and 13 of those attacks were fatal, according to Japan's environment ministry, as reported by Britannica. Sightings tell the same story: the country logged 36,814 of them between April and October 2025, close to double the previous fiscal year's total, per The Japan Times. Even Tokyo recorded 142.

Several pressures are pushing bears toward towns. Poor acorn and beechnut crops have sent them out of the mountains in search of food, while abandoned farmland and shrinking, aging rural populations have expanded bear habitat and closed the distance between the animals and people. Fewer hunters remain to manage the numbers. Japan sent Self-Defense Forces to Akita Prefecture in late 2025 to help set and check traps, and the environment ministry set aside ¥3.4 billion, which is about $22 million, to try to stave off more bears.

How Are Japanese Residents Supposed to Respond?

Noise is the standard first line, which is what the Kamisunagawa homeowner reached for. Under rules that took effect in September 2025, Japan permits certified shooters to fire on a bear immediately when it threatens human life in urban or semi-urban areas, a change from a system that required layers of permission and could take hours or days. Those rules still call for non-lethal deterrents to be tried first, alongside road closures and crowd control.

The homeowner's response fits that pattern. He stayed inside, called the police, and used noise instead of confronting the animal. Hokkaido's only bear species is the Ussuri brown bear, a subspecies of the same animal known elsewhere as the grizzly, and roughly 12,000 of them live on the island, according to The Wildlife Society. Bear activity in Japan typically eases through July and August before climbing sharply from September into November.

Thousands of dead fish have been floating in a pond in west Wichita, two days after a mass fish kill. Now, residents say the stench has finally worked its way indoors. The fish are now decaying with maggots feeding on them, KWCH reported. Neighbors say they want the mess cleaned up, but aren't exactly sure who's supposed to do it.

Lisa Wentworth, who lives in the neighborhood, said the odor is pulling through air conditioners and into houses, where it's nearly impossible to get rid of the smell. She said she has no idea what the decay is doing to the water or to the wildlife around it. Wentworth also added that residents can't just bag the fish into their household trash to get rid of the smell, lamenting that nothing about the situation seems safe or sanitary.

One homeowner, Brick Stevenson, offered a theory about what happened. He said he believes fish from outside the neighborhood crowded into the pond after recent stormwater releases and used up the oxygen, suffocating them to death. He said the kill took out bass, perch, crappie, and minnows, along with the larger fish, and he thinks the city should replace them.

The Chadsworth Homeowners Association said it's working with the City of Wichita's Stormwater Division, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, and Fish and Game. The association said there are concerns that a city pump station may have contributed to the fish kill and to erosion in the neighborhood. It also said the HOA is currently the party responsible for coordinating the cleanup, which leaves homeowners managing the aftermath. KDHE collected water samples on Friday, and the results had not been released as of Sunday.

What Causes a Fish Kill Like This?

Oxygen depletion is one of the most common causes of large summer fish kills. Warm water holds less dissolved oxygen than cool water. When something pushes that level down further, be it an algae die-off or a sudden crowding of fish into one body of water, the fish suffocate and end up dying.

This is close to Stevenson's theory. He believes the stormwater releases pushed outside fish into the Chadsworth pond and that the crowding drained the available oxygen. Testing is what would confirm that or rule it out, which is why the KDHE samples matter. Those results have not come back yet.

Who's Actually Responsible for the Cleanup?

The HOA said it's working on coordinating the cleanup while making clear it does not believe that it's actually where the responsibility belongs. In its statement, the association said it's pushing for solutions that address both the environmental damage and the ongoing erosion affecting homeowners.

The organization added that the board weighs improvements such as fountains against keeping dues low and avoiding special assessments. Residents want the pond cleared regardless, with Wentworth saying the mess is "getting worse and destroying more wildlife" while it sits. Either way, all of the residents are likely ready to have something done about the rancid smell.

Did you know you can grow nutrient-packed superfoods right outside your door? You might have considered starting a garden for cost savings or fun, but what about all the nutritional benefits of growing produce in your yard?

It's no secret that homegrown produce is more nutritious than store-bought options because it's harvested at peak ripeness. Home gardening enhances dietary quality and encourages people to eat more fruits and vegetables. Plus, you know what is (or isn't ) sprayed on them. And the best part?

Many of these "superfoods" are easy to grow and packed with nutrients your body needs to stay strong and healthy. Whether you have a big yard or just a few pots or buckets on your patio, growing superfoods at home can save money and boost your health.

Let's take a look at 14 powerful superfoods you can start growing today.

1. Kale

Kale is one of the most nutrient-rich vegetables on the planet. It's rich in vitamins A, C, and K, as well as calcium, iron, and antioxidants. Kale is among the top "powerhouse" vegetables for nutrient density per calorie. It is also low in calories but keeps you full (thanks to its fiber content), making it perfect for healthy eating. It's great eaten raw, cooked in sauces with other vegetables, blended in a smoothie, or whatever your heart desires.

Growing kale is easy, and it doesn't mind cold weather, so you can plant it early in spring or late summer. It grows best in full sun with well-drained soil and can even survive light frosts. This leafy green thrives in containers or garden beds, making it perfect for small spaces. Harvest outer leaves regularly to encourage growth, and you'll have fresh greens for months. Plus, it’s pest-resistant, meaning fewer chemicals and more organic goodness!

2. Blueberries

Blueberries are famous for their high levels of antioxidants, which help fight inflammation and protect the brain. Studies from Harvard University show that eating blueberries regularly can improve memory and delay mental aging. They’re also high in vitamin C, fiber, and manganese.

These berries grow well in acidic soil and need full sun for the best fruit production. You’ll need to plant more than one bush for better pollination and bigger harvests. While they take a couple of years to mature fully, the wait is worth it. Once they start producing, a single bush can give you several pounds of berries each year. Yum!

3. Spinach

Spinach is a leafy green packed with nutrients like iron, magnesium, and folate. It's also known to support eye health and reduce blood pressure. Fiber present in spinach is insoluble, which keeps your belly full for an extended period, and it also helps with constipation. Personally, I find it easier to mix into a variety of dishes than kale, thanks to its mild flavor.

I love pestos, smoothies, soups, and tossing them on a sandwich. Spinach is a cool-weather crop that grows fast, ready to harvest in as little as 30 days. It thrives in partial shade and moist, rich soil. You can plant it several times a year, giving you fresh greens almost year-round. Fresh-picked spinach tastes sweeter and has more nutrients than store-bought versions.

4. Garlic

Garlic isn't just a flavor booster—it’s also a natural superfood. It contains a compound known to lower cholesterol, fight infections, and support heart health. Research shows that regular garlic intake is linked to a lower risk of cardiovascular diseases. I love throwing it into all my soups and sauces. Keep a chopped jar of garlic with honey for those pesky sore throats and colds this winter, too.

You plant garlic in the fall, and it grows slowly over the winter. By summer, you’ll be pulling up bulbs ready to dry and store. It doesn't take much space, and it helps repel pests in your garden. Additionally, once harvested, garlic can last for months if cured correctly and can be used in tons of recipes.

5. Sweet Potatoes

Sweet potatoes are rich in beta-carotene, a powerful antioxidant that your body turns into vitamin A. According to the World Health Organization, vitamin A is crucial for maintaining healthy vision and a robust immune system. They grow best in warm weather and need about 90–120 days to mature. You can plant slips (baby shoots) in loose, sandy soil and give them full sun.

Once harvested, they store well for months and are incredibly versatile in cooking. Sweet potatoes offer a sweet, filling, and nutrient-rich option for your garden.

6. Broccoli

Broccoli is loaded with vitamin C, calcium, and a cancer-fighting compound called sulforaphane. A study found that sulforaphane may help slow the growth of cancer cells. It’s also great for bone strength and immune support. Remember, you can eat all parts of the broccoli plants too (stems, flowers, etc.).

This cool-season crop is best planted in early spring or fall. It requires full sun and consistent watering to produce large, healthy heads. With a bit of patience, you can harvest fresh broccoli in about 60–70 days. It's tasty raw, steamed, or stir-fried—and it keeps more nutrients when fresh-picked from your garden.

7. Strawberries

Strawberries are not just sweet—they're also packed with antioxidants, vitamin C, and manganese. Research shows that eating strawberries may reduce inflammation and lower heart disease risk. That sounds like a great excuse to eat them fresh, throw them in a smoothie, or make a homemade pastry!

These berries can grow in garden beds or containers, making them perfect for small spaces. They need full sun, rich soil, and regular watering. With proper care, strawberry plants can produce fruit for several years. Homegrown strawberries are fresher, sweeter, and free of harmful pesticides.

8. Tomatoes

Tomatoes are a superfood packed with lycopene, an antioxidant that supports heart health and may lower cancer risk. According to Harvard Health, adding more tomatoes to your diet may be a natural and straightforward way to lower blood pressure and protect your heart. Salsa, bruschetta, and tomato sauce, anyone?

My daughters' personal favorite is straight from stem to mouth (for cherry tomatoes). Tomatoes need plenty of sunlight—at least 6 to 8 hours a day—and well-drained soil. You can grow them in pots or garden beds with some support, like cages or stakes. There are wide varieties to choose from, including cherry, roma, and beefsteak. Fresh tomatoes add flavor and nutrition to almost any meal.

9. Carrots

Carrots are well-known for supporting eye health because they're high in beta-carotene. Consuming carrots may help reduce the risk of age-related vision loss. Carrots also offer fiber and vitamin K1. Eat them raw or throw them in a vegetable soup or stir-fry to get your dose.

They grow best in loose, sandy soil and need full sun. Sow seeds directly into the soil and keep the area moist. In about 70–80 days, you can pull up fresh, crunchy carrots. Growing them at home also lets you try colorful varieties like purple, yellow, and white carrots.

10. Beets

Beets are rich in nitrates, which help lower blood pressure and boost blood flow. Studies have found that beet juice can reduce blood pressure within 3 hours. They're also high in folate, iron, and fiber. They're delicious on a goat cheese and arugula salad or any other way you want to enjoy them.

Both the root and leafy tops are edible and nutritious. Beets grow best in cooler seasons and well-drained soil. You can harvest baby beets early or wait for full-size roots. Whether roasted, juiced, or added to salads, homegrown beets are a colorful, heart-healthy addition to your plate.

11. Peas

Peas are a great source of plant-based protein, fiber, and vitamins like A, C, and K. According to Healthline, peas support healthy digestion and help balance blood sugar. They also provide antioxidants. Another great one to eat straight off the vine, or throw in a salad or soup. Peas prefer cool weather, so plant them in early spring or fall.

They grow quickly and do well on trellises or fences. You can harvest them in just 60 days. Eat them raw, steamed, or in soups—fresh peas taste sweeter and have more nutrients than store-bought ones.

12. Bell Peppers

Bell peppers come in vibrant colors and are rich in vitamin C—one pepper can give you over 150% of your daily value (way more than an orange!). They're also packed with antioxidants, which help fight inflammation. These warm-weather plants need full sun and rich, well-draining soil.

Start seeds indoors or buy young plants to transplant. With proper care, each plant can give you many crisp, colorful peppers. They’re delicious raw in salads or cooked into stir-fries, sauces, or stuffed meals.

13. Cucumbers

Cucumbers are low in calories but high in hydration and vitamin K. They're also rich in antioxidants, which support heart and skin health. Cucumber promotes healthy skin and joints. Plant in warm soil after the last frost, either bush varieties for containers or vining types for trellises.

Consistent watering prevents bitter fruit. Harvest regularly to keep plants productive—some varieties can grow an inch per day!

14. Zucchini

Zucchini is a super low-calorie food that's high in vitamin A, potassium, and fiber. According to WebMD, it can help improve digestion, lower blood sugar, and support eye health. It also contains antioxidants, such as lutein and zeaxanthin. Try them in a stir fry or as a replacement for noodles.

Zucchini plants grow fast and produce lots of fruit in summer. Give them space, sun, and water regularly, and they'll reward you with plenty of harvests. Pick them young for the best flavor and texture. You can grill, roast, or spiralize them into healthy veggie noodles.

When creepy crawlies find their way into your home, grabbing a shoe or a bottle of bug spray is a natural response. But what should you do if they’re in your garden? Spraying them with a stream of poison may not be the best solution.

Even if you’re not a fan of bugs, some insects are great for your garden – pollinating the flowers, eating bad insects, and even decomposing matter so your plants can absorb all the best nutrients.

It may surprise you to know that of all the insects flying and crawling around your garden, Robin Sweetser states in The Old Farmer's Almanac, that only about a tenth of them are destructive.

The other 90% are either harmless or beneficial! Allowing those little garden helpers to continue their heroic deeds will create a healthy, balanced ecosystem in your garden.

The Heroes of Your Garden, According to Experts

Most people recognize that bees and butterflies are great to have on and around your plants, but there are many other beneficial insects you may not know about.

We gathered expert advice from entomologists, horticulturists, master gardeners, university extensions, and entomology departments – like Cornell and Ohio State University – so you can attract and keep the most helpful bugs in your garden. Here are just a few you will want to know about!

1. Ground Beetles

Not all beetles are the same! When I lived in Kentucky, we had an awful time when Japanese beetles invaded. They devastated our plants and trees until we found a reliable way to kill them. Even though these flying beetles can be destructive, there are lots of predatory beetles out there that will eat other destructive insects in your garden. Sweetser explains that ground beetles consume insects like caterpillars, nematodes, slugs, and silverfish.

University of Minnesota Extension entomologists Jeffrey Hahn and Stephen Kells explain that ground beetles are common beetles that rarely fly. They are found in many environments, from forests and fields to shorelines and agriculture. You probably won’t see ground beetles because they come out at night to hunt, but they are working hard to keep your garden healthy.

2. Ladybugs

You may not be a fan of Asian lady beetles if they find their way into your house every fall. But all ladybugs (including Asian lady beetles) can be helpful in your garden because they devour other pests. According to West Virginia University (WVU) Extension entomology specialist Carlos Quesada, ladybugs eat bugs like aphids, whiteflies, and spider mites. Sweetser says a ladybug larva can eat up to 40 aphids an hour! However, when Asian lady beetles flock together (which they always seem to do), there is potential for crop destruction, so watch out for that!

To attract ladybugs to your garden, keep in mind that they’re looking for pollen and prey. Daniel Johnson from Northern Gardener suggests planting flowers! If you’re mainly planting vegetables and fruits, consider planting a perimeter of flowers around them to entice ladybugs. Calendula, cosmos, and geraniums are just a few smart choices. Herbs like chives and dill are great, too.

3. Green Lacewings

Try attracting green lacewings to your garden to feed on nectar and pollen. They’re not just great pollinators – after laying eggs, their larvae hatch and go to work, feeding on pests like young caterpillars, aphids, and even insect eggs.

Landscape designer and garden writer Deb Courtner suggests planting goldenrod, coreopsis, yarrow, cosmos, marguerite daisies, and Queen Anne’s lace to entice green lacewings to your garden.

4. Praying Mantises

The praying mantis is another predatory insect that will hunt down those pesky bugs. Quesada says they’re not as beneficial as ladybugs and green lacewings because of their cannibalistic side. They kill nearly half of their mates, which leaves few to oversee your garden. But they still help by eating pests like moths, flies, and beetles.

Sweetser notes that they will, unfortunately, eat beneficial creatures like bees, butterflies, and even hummingbirds! Your garden is its own little balanced ecosystem after all. As a kid, I was told that a praying mantis would cut off my finger if I picked it up! That’s not true, of course: they’re pretty harmless to people. But since they could bite if confused, it’s best to leave them alone to do their good work.

5. Hoverflies

Hoverflies are excellent pollinators that enjoy pollen and nectar, so don’t swat at them! They look like small yellow jackets, but with only one pair of wings and no stinger. Andrea Kautz and Mary Gardiner from the Ohio State University Department of Entomology note that hoverflies are often mistaken for sweat bees, especially since some are attracted to human sweat and may land on your skin. But unlike sweat bees, hoverflies do not sting or bite.

Their larvae are beneficial too, but for another reason. Sweester shares that these baby insects suck the life (literally) out of caterpillars, beetles, aphids, and thrips. Lidia Komondy from the Cornell Department of Entomology says that just one larva can consume as many as 400 aphids while it’s developing! To welcome this helpful bug to your yard, consider planting parsley, dill, or clover.

6. Dragonflies

If you can attract dragonflies to your garden, you will be thrilled to see the mosquitoes starting to disappear! Kate Streit from ABC News says one dragonfly can snatch up 100 of those blood-thirsty monsters per day.

To attract dragonflies to your garden and yard, remember that they are aquatic insects, so having a pond or fountain in your yard is helpful. Streit explains that water should be two feet deep, which is too deep for mosquito larvae to survive. A bubbler is a good addition if there is no fountain, as well as floating vegetation. Dragonflies like meadow sage and black-eyed Susans, too.

7. Robber Flies

Don’t shoo robber flies out of your garden! They may look a bit intimidating, but they are generally harmless to people. While they can bite, they aren’t aggressive toward humans and will only act in defense if threatened.

According to Galveston County Master Gardeners, these interesting insects are one of the few that can snatch their prey out of the air! Robber flies snack on wasps, grasshoppers, and beetles – just to name a few. The adults and their larvae both eat voraciously, but one downside is that they don’t discriminate in their choice of insects. So, you may lose some beneficial garden bugs while robber flies are around. Still, their benefits outweigh any negatives and help maintain a balanced ecosystem in your garden.

8. Parasitic Wasps

When I first started growing tomatoes, I was horrified to find two gigantic, bright green caterpillars – covered in white, fuzzy, egg-looking things – on my plants! I didn’t know it at the time, but those huge caterpillars were hornworms, and the cocoons were parasitic wasp eggs.

Parasitic wasps are super small warriors in the garden. They infect garden pests by laying their eggs inside or on them. When the larvae hatch, Quesada says they feed on the host and reproduce inside their bodies (gross but cool how nature works). Eventually, the host dies.

Trichogramma wasps are one type of parasitic wasp that lays its eggs inside the eggs of garden pests, so the pests can’t reproduce. Joe Julian, an entomologist and Colorado State University Extension director, suggests planting umbrella-shaped flowers and herbs, like zinnias, yarrow, fennel, and dill, to draw parasitic wasps.

9. Spiders

For a healthy, balanced garden environment, don’t kill the spiders! Yes, they can be creepy-looking, but they are fantastic at hunting pests that will destroy your plants. They are technically arachnids, not insects, but they’re excellent for natural pest control. Sweetser points out that spiders consume a large number of live insects because they are drawn to movement.

Horticulturist Dr. Greg Grant says jumping spiders and wolf spiders are stealthy hunters that eat insects hiding in mulch and leaves on the garden floor. Orb-weaver spiders spin large webs across plants to catch flying bugs, like mosquitoes and flies.

10. Moths

You’ve probably heard of butterfly gardens (maybe you even have one!), but have you ever considered a moth garden? Despite their less-than-favorable reputation, Conserving Carolina explains that moths and their caterpillars are an essential food source for wildlife, like birds and bats. You can increase biodiversity by attracting these fascinating, often-overlooked pollinators. But you might have to ditch the dream of a picture-perfect garden and welcome a bit of leaf-nibbling channel your inner Very Hungry Caterpillar and you’re on the right track!

You can create a Moon Garden to welcome moths by planting strongly scented plants and night-blooming flowers, such as Moon Flower and Tina James Magic Evening Primrose, and white or light-colored plants. Silvery plants, like Lamb’s Ear, will also light up beautifully in the moonlight.

Ditch the Pesticides?

While beneficial insects help maintain a healthy and balanced ecosystem in your garden, you are still likely to need pesticides occasionally to deal with large pest outbreaks. When that happens, Penn State Extension suggests choosing a pesticide with little or no residual effect.

Why? Because while pesticides target pests, they can also harm the helpful bugs you’ve worked to attract, and you don’t want the damage to continue after the pests are gone.

Solar panels are touted as a sustainable way to lower your electric bill while also helping out the environment. But these panels can be a big investment for many, which means some homeowners have high expectations when they have them installed.

Take one Redditor whose solar panels didn't quite meet his expectations, for example. They shared data from their system on the popular r/solar subreddit, asking whether there was an "issue" with it.

Fortunately, some of the more seasoned solar panel users were able to quickly jump in and explain what was happening with the system, offering reassurance and a bit of a crash course on how these panels work.

The good news is that it sounds like the panels are working as designed. Whether that is the answer the Redditor was looking for remains to be seen.

Homeowner Asks Reddit About Lackluster Solar Panel Performance

Reddit user @skaw3334 shared a screenshot from their 8kW solar panel system in the r-solar subreddit, asking why they weren't getting the "sustained generation" they had expected. "I’m located in central Mass. Maybe this is just what it is in this area," they wrote, asking if there might have been an issue with their system.

"For example, today, it’s been quite sunny out without a lot of cloud coverage, and I haven’t peaked above 6 kW," the post continued. "Then you can see on June 27. There were spikes up to 7 1/2, close to 8 kW, but they were very brief."

One of the top-rated comments was from someone who was able to share that the system was working as expected, explaining the difference between the ratings and what you can realistically expect from a residential panel.

"The thing is, '400W' panels don't often actually output 400W," they wrote. "That's a lab rating called the STC rating. In the real world, you expect around 80 percent of that number, which is published as the NOCT rating."

Hot Weather and Other Conditions Change How Much Solar Panels Produce

Other solar panel users were quick to jump in and explain what was happening, with one Redditor sharing how hot weather and your own home's electric usage can change things. "Hot weather makes them produce less," they wrote. "And they can only produce what your house can consume, or the grid will accept."

The story went viral, and The Cool Down reported on the story, furthering the explanation and sharing that while a system could be listed as "8-kW," that rating is used to document what was found in lab conditions. In the real world, conditions will vary, which will cause that figure to fluctuate.

That being said, The Cool Down says that people who feel like their solar panels aren't living up to their expectations should review the installer's paperwork for the exact specifications and projected production, and then use several days or months' worth of actual data from the panels to see if they meet those expectations.

It sounds like, more often than not, this information matches up over the long run. But when it doesn't, homeowners should call the company that installed the panels to troubleshoot their issues.

If you've been feeling like housing costs are getting out of control lately, you're not alone. And while many people are talking about the unaffordability crisis facing both renters and homeowners, a new study has found that things are far more serious than many people may have expected.

That's because the moving company HireAHelper just released its findings from a June 2026 study, in which the company determined that there are only three states in the U.S. where people can afford to live. The study is going viral, with publications like The Independent covering the news.
The company says it reached these findings by looking at a combination of household incomes, median home prices, and five-year projections.

And the bad news is that some regions will likely become completely out of reach for potential buyers by 2031.

Only Three States Meet Affordability Requirements for Homeowners

As the U.S. housing crisis continues to grow, HireAHelper says that only three states offer affordable options for people looking to buy a home: Louisiana, Minnesota, and Iowa. These are the only three locations where the median cost of homeownership (which currently sits at $25,082 a year) is less than 30 percent of the average income in the state ($75,246).

Additionally, the report found that the average time it takes to save for a 20 percent down payment is now 10.2 years when you're able to put 10 percent of your annual income aside to purchase a house. While some states take less time to reach this milestone, Iowans average 7.3 years at that rate, and Texans average 8.1 years. Most states take even longer, including California, Hawaii, New York, and Washington state.

The Median Home Price is Expected to Climb

According to the study, the median U.S. home price is expected to reach $527,525 by 2031. That will amount to a 35.1 percent increase over the next five years. Unfortunately, HireAHelper doesn't believe that wages will follow suit, which means that homeownership may become completely out of reach for people living in certain states by 2031, including California, Vermont, New York, New Jersey, and Rhode Island.

It may feel hard to look for a silver lining in light of this news, but some will benefit from the rising home values. For instance, those who already own a home will continue to build their equity at a staggering rate, especially in those states where values are increasing rapidly.

Additionally, retirees or those who are looking to downsize will also benefit, since they will likely be able to sell their property at a great profit, especially if they purchased their home prior to 2020.

One of the benefits of living in a homeowners association (HOA) is knowing that there's someone there to make sure that your neighborhood always looks its best. However, the downside is that you never know when your home could end up in your HOA's crosshairs, requiring costly upgrades to keep up appearances.

That's what one woman says happened to her after she received a letter from her HOA demanding that she repaint the trim along her roofline because the color no longer matched the rest of the home. 

Now, she's asking why her home was singled out when other similar homes in her neighborhood weren't, including her neighbor.

Here's what she found out. 

A Las Vegas Woman Is Upset After Receiving a Notice From Her HOA

A Las Vegas woman reached out to local ABC News station KTNV after she says she received a letter from the Mountain's Edge Master Association, ordering her to repaint the trim along her roof. And it's not because the paint is damaged or peeling. Instead, the HOA told Dr. Shawntae Collins that the color was off.

"It said the painting on the first floor and the second floor were different," Dr. Collins recalled in an interview. However, the homeowner wasn't necessarily upset that she got the notice, but instead, she was confused as to why not everyone else on her block did. 

"She told me that she cited 167 homes in the Mountain's Edge area... okay, that's a good answer, but it's not concrete," she continued. "Because those 167 homes are selected. Like you selected me, but not my neighbor who has the same color home."

Neighbors Spoke Out About the Letters

Dr. Collins told ABC News that she believes the paint job would cost about $800, which is a figure her neighbor said he couldn't afford. 

"If they're getting a letter, then I would absolutely be worried about getting a letter," Dr. Collins' neighbor Ryan Crawford told the publication, adding that it would be a tough pill to swallow due to the costs. "I mean, that would pretty much be a whole check for me... so yeah, I would be set back."

ABC News says that they reached out to the association for a comment but were told that the HOA doesn't discuss community issues with the media.

But Dr. Collins maintains that she isn't upset with the HOA's decision, she just wants more clarity when it comes to how the rules are applied. "I believe in HOAs, and they offer integrity in the community," she said. "They have good things that they offer, but this over-policing and non-transparency and singling out is concerning."

States Are Fighting Back Against HOAs

Dr. Collins' complaints aren't anything new, and some states are trying to put power back into the hands of homeowners living in HOAs by cracking down on associations accused of over-regulating neighborhoods. For example, Georgia recently signed a Property Owners' Bill of Rights into law, which will change what types of regulations HOAs can enforce, and when they're allowed to fine residents. 

Whether that ends up being a good thing for neighborhoods or a bad thing remains to be seen, but for now it's clear that people like Dr. Collins want to see more transparency when it comes to how HOAs are policing neighborhoods. 

It's no secret that housing costs have been on the rise since 2020, putting the dream of homeownership out of reach for many.

However, legislators believe that they have found a solution to the housing affordability crisis, or at least a way to help offset some of the struggles many are experiencing, and they passed a bill aimed at increasing construction, expanding financing eligibility, and limiting just how much real estate Wall Street can buy. 

Now that the legislation has become the law of the land, many hopeful homeowners are wondering what this means for them. 

Keep reading to find out what you need to know about the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act.

The Housing Act Became Law on Saturday

New housing law targets affordability — what it means for homebuyers and sellers https://t.co/EoWzTD6Cu0

— CNBC (@CNBC) July 11, 2026

The bipartisan 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act was passed by Congress on June 23. Donald Trump declined to sign off on the legislation or use his veto powers, so the act quietly became law on Saturday after a 10-day waiting period. 

According to CNBC, the legislation includes dozens of different measures that are being put in place to make U.S. housing more accessible and affordable. Some of the main provisions include limiting how many single-family homes large investors can purchase. 

The bill will also change the way manufactured homes are regulated, including "chassis requirements," potentially reducing costs associated with purchasing these homes by between $5,000 and $10,000.  

Additionally, this bill makes way for a pilot program designed to help people looking to take out a mortgage for less than $100,000. Not many lenders offer these smaller loans due to the increased costs these companies face when writing them, and this four-year pilot program could help free up more funds for buyers. 

How Will the New Housing Bill Help You?

When it comes to exactly how this will help boost homeownership across the country, the experts are divided. That's because the New York Times notes that the housing affordability crisis needs to be fixed at a more local level, not a federal level. Additionally, the publication says that the bill doesn't go far enough when it comes to providing the money that the average person needs to purchase a house.

But that doesn't mean the news is all bad. For example, PBS celebrates the way that the bill will support rural renters who would have access to more subsidies and offer more assistance to low-income Americans who need financial help with home repairs. 

Only time will tell exactly how much this bill helps with the housing crisis, especially since some of the biggest benefits of the bill will take time to realize. For now, many people are just relieved to see our country's lawmakers working together to help ease the financial struggles many Americans are facing today.

You have beautifully landscaped your house, carefully designing and implementing the garden of your dreams.

But the unsightly utility box continues to stick out, seemingly mocking you every time you step outside to enjoy your lovely garden.

How can you possibly disguise the necessary eyesore? After all, it's designed for, well, utility, not aesthetics.

As you brainstorm landscaping ideas to hide utility boxes, take a look at this list of tips and ideas for beautifying even the most awkward utility box.

Landscaping Ideas to Hide Utility Boxes

Before planting around the utility box, take a closer look at the ominous labels posted on it. Along with frightening warnings about electrocution, there should be a notice about obstructing access to the box. You need to know how far away shrubs and structures should be, as well as whether there are underground cables. If this information is not clearly posted on the utility box, contact the company and ask.

Anything planted or built too close to the box could restrict necessary airflow or be ripped out in the event of emergency repairs. And if there are underground cables, you risk damaging them by digging in the area or planting anything with extensive roots.

Plus, once again, plants directly above the cables will need to be ripped out for any repairs. But don't fret! There are many creative ways to disguise utility boxes while keeping them accessible.

1. Arrange Potted Plants

A container garden is a great way to add plants around a utility box. Potted plants do not require digging, which could damage underground cables, and they can be moved rather than destroyed when workers need to access the box. It's a win-win!

Larger pots can hold taller, more concealing plants, and long, narrow containers can even hold hedge plants, such as bamboo, small shrubs, or even trellised vines.

Keep in mind, though, that the bigger the pot, the heavier and more difficult it will be to move. Use lightweight potting mix and place the containers on casters, if possible, to make moving them easier.

2. Erect a Screen

If you're concerned about plants getting damaged in case of utility maintenance or repairs, a screen might be the way to go. Many attractive possibilities exist, from elegant lattice screens to rustic do-it-yourself structures.

Erect the screen at a safe distance from the utility box, and ensure it is easily removable or open for sufficient access to the box. You can even purchase a simple, movable screen or create a DIY wood screen yourself, such as one made out of old bifold closet doors coated in pretty outdoor paint.

Add a garden statue in front of the trellis and a few cottage garden flowers, and you've got a beautiful garden that needs little maintenance.

3. Use a Trellis

Similar to the idea of a screen, a trellis will help hide a utility box, with the added benefit of supporting a beautiful vine. Choose a decorative trellis that will be attractive and conceal even in the winter months, when it may not be covered in foliage. As with a screen, ensure it is far enough away from the box to enable easy access.

Fast-growing, flowering vines like trumpet vine (Campsis radicans) or clematis will fill in a trellis quickly with their verdant foliage and bold blossoms. Both of these vines are also perennials, which means they will help disguise the utility box year-round.

4. Plant Shrubs

If you can safely plant around the utility box, consider putting in a row of tall shrubs or small trees. Choose species with shallow, unobtrusive root systems if cables are nearby, and avoid planting directly over them. Keep the mature size in mind when calculating the proper distance from the utility box.

A tight, orderly row of arborvitae or boxwood will certainly do the trick, but a mixture of evergreen shrubs and flowering varieties will provide both concealment and beauty. Choose a variety of heights, colors, and bloom times, and maybe plant a few flowering annuals or perennials in front of the bushes as well.

5. Grow Ornamental Grasses

Like shrubs, ornamental grasses grow tall, wide, and dense, effectively hiding utility boxes. Many have winter interest as well, meaning they can be left standing during the dormant months.

Perhaps the most significant benefit of tall ornamental grasses is that, as long as cables won't need to be dug up, the grasses can simply be cut down for any repairs to the utility box. And unlike with shrubs and many other plants, you can rest assured that the grasses will soon grow back as big and beautiful as ever.

6. Build a Cabinet

Utility boxes attached to a wall can be covered with a cabinet that you build yourself or hire a local carpenter to install. Put up a small cabinet just large enough to encase the box, attach it to the wall, and stain or paint it to match or complement the rest of the house.

Alternatively, a much larger cabinet can rest on the ground and not only enclose the utility box but also serve as storage for gardening tools and other items. You might even be able to put a hose reel in there and hide two unsightly items with one simple solution!

7. Cover With a Faux Rock

What could be easier than plopping a fake rock over the ugly utility box? No minor construction, no potentially destructive digging, no stress. Of course, this only works with free-standing utility boxes, and they have to be small enough for a faux rock to cover. But it's a beautifully simple solution, and some of those fake boulders can be pretty convincing.

Carefully measure your utility box before selecting a faux rock, and double-check with the company to confirm that covering the box won't cause any problems. Once it's installed, you might add a layer of mulch around your new boulder and plant some shallow-rooted annuals for a pretty warm-season color.

8. Install a Fence

A section of a pretty picket fence can both disguise a utility box and provide an attractive backdrop for bright flowers and wispy ornamental grasses.

On the other hand, a privacy fence will completely conceal the box, and it can be painted to match other structures in your yard or decorated with a mural. Even if you can't plant anything around it, you can still paint some cheerful flowers on the fence!

Remember to install an access gate if you're completely enclosing the box with a fence, and take care when digging holes for the posts.

Ready to be rid of that ugly utility box? You may not be able to chuck it, but you can cleverly disguise it with one or more of the above ideas for beautifully hiding utility boxes. Once everything is in place, you might even forget that eyesore was ever there!

Out of Sight, Out of Mind

You are sure to find an easy solution that works for your needs. From a corner fence to a wooden barrier, carefully placed potted plants, or prickly shrubs, the first thing you need to do is plan out your project.

Remember to allow easier access to the utility box, and if you plant flowers, don’t plant anything in a no-dig zone or where it will grow too close to wires or become dangerous. If you’re unsure at all, always call your power company to do a survey and show you where the underground lines are.

If you have an ugly electric box in the front of your home, around the side of your house, or on the house wall, you can use faux rocks, beautiful flowers, and even a larger shrub to hide it from view. You can use a surrounding wall and blend it into other landscaping ideas from this list, and add in some flowering plants or plant bushes to help hide it.

Once you learn the best way, you can put these DIY projects into action and improve your home’s curb appeal. Keep in mind that proper care of the area in and around the utility box is important, but you can blend this into part of your front yard landscaping (or side or back yard) and create a seamless, beautiful look that covers the view of utility boxes from others. 

You have tried meditation. You have done the breathing exercises. You have taken the PTO, stared at your inbox anyway, and wondered why you still feel like a phone that never fully charges. Burnout is not a productivity problem. It is a disconnection problem, and an unlikely fix has been sitting right outside your back door.

Gardening. Not as a weekend chore, or as a hobby for retirees. Gardening is a legitimate, research-backed antidote to the relentless overstimulation of modern life.

The science that has emerged over the past decade is specific enough to no longer be ignored: regular gardening increases overall well-being by 55%, according to ZME Science. It measurably lowers cortisol, the hormone responsible for keeping your nervous system in a low-grade state of alarm. It reduces depression and anxiety with no prescription, no side effects, and no subscription fee.

Why Burnout Makes You Crave the Garden (Even If You’ve Never Gardened)

The reason burned-out people are drawn to gardens is not sentimental. It is neurological.

Psychologists call it attention restoration theory: the modern world demands constant, focused, effortful attention that is depleting. Every notification, every decision, every open loop is another withdrawal from a limited cognitive account.

Nature, by contrast, holds your attention effortlessly. Your prefrontal cortex, the part of your brain that manages everything and is exhausted from the effort, gets to rest. A garden provides this restoration in a form you can access in your own backyard in fifteen minutes.

But gardening goes further than passive exposure to green. When your hands are in soil, and your eyes are watching whether the tomatoes need water, you are also not tracking your inbox, your to-do list, or whatever is quietly wrong with the world. Gardening forces attention outward in a way that is psychologically distinctive. You do not choose to stop ruminating. The garden simply makes rumination structurally impossible.

“The active engagement of nurturing plants, making decisions, and seeing results over time adds a unique layer of meaning and satisfaction that passive time outdoors does not,” says Sarah Thompson, a professionally registered horticultural therapist. That distinction matters. You are not just sitting outside. You are participating in something that responds to your attention, rewards your consistency, and grows regardless of what is happening in your inbox.

A University of Colorado-Boulder study put numbers to this: participants who gardened reported lower stress, stronger social connections, a 7% increase in fiber intake, and 42 more minutes of weekly physical activity compared to the control group, all without trying to achieve any of those outcomes. They were just gardening.

So, let's look at 12 things the garden gives you that your job never will. 

1. A cortisol reset you can feel within minutes

Multiple studies confirm that time in garden settings measurably lowers cortisol, the primary stress hormone. Unlike a meditation app, the garden does this without asking you to focus on your breathing. It just happens.

2. A biological antidepressant in the soil

The bacterium Mycobacterium vaccae, found in ordinary garden soil, activates the same serotonin pathway targeted by a class of common antidepressant medications. Getting your hands in the dirt is not a metaphor for feeling better; it is the mechanism.

3. Progress you can see with your own eyes

In a world of invisible deliverables and endless revision cycles, the garden offers something radical: visible, undeniable growth. You planted it. It grew. That feedback loop is more restorative than it sounds.

4. A place where you cannot be interrupted

Gardeners almost universally report that their phones stay in their pockets while they work, not by willpower, but because the garden makes the phone irrelevant. For anyone who has tried and failed to disconnect, this is not a small thing.

5. Exercise that doesn’t feel like an obligation

Light gardening burns roughly 330 calories per hour, comparable to dancing or golf. The movements are varied, which reduces repetitive strain. And, hopefully, you will not notice the time passing, which is the opposite of a treadmill.

6. Something to look forward to every single morning

Not a Zoom meeting or a deadline. A plant that was not quite ready yesterday. This daily forward orientation is a quiet but significant antidote to the low-grade dread that characterizes burnout.

7. A reset for your relationship with time

Burnout warps time: everything is urgent, nothing feels meaningful. Gardening reinstates natural rhythms: the week the peonies open, the morning the first tomato turns, and the season that comes around again, regardless of your workload. Many gardeners describe this as the first time in years they felt time slow down.

8. Mastery that compounds year over year

Unlike most professional skills, gardening knowledge accumulates visibly. Each year, the soil improves, the instincts sharpen, and the results get better. The sense of mastery this produces is qualitatively different from the treadmill of workplace achievement.

9. Community that asks nothing of you

Community gardeners consistently report that strangers become friends faster in a garden than almost anywhere else. The shared focus makes conversation easy, even for people who find social settings exhausting. Connection without performance; for burned-out people, that distinction matters enormously.

10. Brain protection you’ll be grateful for later

An Australian study found that gardening outperformed walking, formal education, and moderate alcohol intake in protecting against dementia. It simultaneously engages memory, problem-solving, planning, and fine motor skills: cognitive exercise with literal roots.

11. Better food without a single meal plan

Gardeners eat more fiber, more fresh vegetables, and more food at peak nutritional value. Not because they are trying to. Because they grew it, and it is right there.

12. No yard required. No expertise either

Evidence of gardening’s mental health benefits applies to window boxes, balcony containers, and community plots. A few herbs in a kitchen window deliver a measurable benefit. The barrier to entry is a single seed and the willingness to begin.

How to Actually Start (Without Making It Another Project)

Here is the mistake most burned-out people make with gardening: they approach it the way they approach everything else. They research it, plan it, buy too much, and create a new source of pressure from something that was supposed to reduce pressure. Do not do this.

Start with one container, one herb, or one packet of seeds. Radishes are ready in a week, which is the fastest possible proof of concept. If you have a porch, a windowsill, or a fire escape, you have enough space.

The goal is not a garden. Not yet. The goal is to spend fifteen minutes outside, hands in the soil, and phone in your pocket (or, better yet, left inside). The rest follows on its own schedule — which is, as it turns out, exactly what your nervous system has been waiting for.

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Garden gnomes were banned from the Chelsea Flower Show for over a century. Take a moment with that.

Now, the whimsical, the joyful, and the "that's a bit much, isn't it?" choices that real gardeners have been making for generations are finally getting the credit they deserve. This summer, the most fashionable thing you can do in your garden is exactly what you've always wanted to do: more.

For decades, "good taste" in garden design meant restraint: a few well-placed specimen plants, a neutral palette, negative space treated as a design feature rather than a missed opportunity. Maximalism was dismissed as clutter, while gnomes, painted birdhouses, and mismatched thrifted planters were written off as kitsch rather than craft. But that hierarchy was always more about who got to decide what counted as tasteful than about what actually made a garden feel alive. The cottage gardener layering in one more self-seeding poppy, the grandmother with a shelf of ceramic frogs by the back door, the collector who can't walk past a flea market urn, they were never behind the trend. They were the trend, decades before anyone with a magazine or a Chelsea medal was willing to say so.

What's changed isn't the gardening; it's the permission. Social media flattened the old gatekeeping, letting maximalist, personality-packed gardens rack up the kind of engagement that stark minimalist landscaping never did, and design tastemakers followed the audience rather than the other way around. The result is a rare moment where the "correct" style and the style most people actually wanted all along have finally lined up.

Why 2026 Is the Year to Stop Playing It Safe

Maximalism is a confirmed top garden trend for 2026. According to Garden Design magazine, the philosophy is uncomplicated: more layers, more personality, more color, more surprise. “If it makes your heart sing,” writes Rebecca Sweet, “then all the better.” The manicured, neutral, everything-matching garden of the 2010s is being replaced by something that looks lived-in, layered, and genuinely personal.

As Sweet, a landscape designer, explains, the maximalist garden “bursts with surprises, personality, and delight.” That’s not a description of a catalog purchase. That’s a description of the kind of gardening your grandmother did before anyone told her it was too much.

The singular worry most gardeners have about going quirky is that it will look cluttered or “junky.” But there is a real and learnable difference between a joyful, curated collection and a disorganized mess, and we’ll get to that. First, here are 14 ideas worth stealing.

1. Rehabilitate the Garden Gnome

The gnome’s comeback is not a rumor; it’s backed by data. According to Gardening, Etc., the #gardengnome hashtag had accumulated over 17 million TikTok views by 2022. Today’s gnomes strike yoga poses, hold tiny coffee cups, and meditate under solar lights. Whether you go folkloric or maximalist-cheeky, a gnome is now a design statement. Place one among your tallest plants so it appears to be peeking out.

2. Turn Old Tools into Sculpture

A  collection of old shovels, rakes, and rebar can be assembled into birds, crows, or abstract creatures and staked directly into the garden. The most charming versions, popularized by the website Empress of Dirt, use shovel heads as wings, hammerheads as beaks, and large metal washers as eyes. No welding is required for simpler versions; the parts can be wired or bolted together. Rust is not a flaw here; it’s the finish.

3. Turn a Ladder into a Plant Stand

An old wooden ladder or tiered cart, painted in a bold color and leaning against a fence or wall, becomes a tiered plant display with almost no effort. The key is varying your pot sizes: largest at the base, smallest at the top. This gives the eye a clear path upward and makes the whole arrangement look intentional rather than accidental. A coral-painted ladder loaded with trailing petunias and succulents is a centerpiece that costs almost nothing.

4. Make a Mosaic Art Piece

Turn a thrift-store bowling ball, stepping stone, or flower pot into a stunning art piece by covering it in broken tile, mirror glass, or other colorful mosaic pieces that rival anything sold in a garden center for roughly three dollars and an afternoon. Apply tile adhesive, press in your mosaic material, grout, and seal. The result is a genuinely beautiful piece of art that catches light from every angle and photographs magnificently against any plant background.

5. Convert Old Boots into Planters

Rubber boots and old leather work boots are ideal succulent and annual containers. They drain reasonably well, hold their shape, and look like exactly the kind of thing someone with a wonderful garden would do on a Tuesday afternoon. Tuck them at the base of a fence post, line them up along a path, or hang them from a hook on a garden wall. A pair of rain boots in a vivid color, overflowing with trailing calibrachoa, has stopped more than a few strangers in their tracks.

6. Mount Flowers on Your Fence

If your fence is the most boring thing in your garden, a Saturday afternoon and a box of plastic party trays or planters can fix it. Paint them in saturated colors, fill them with flowers or herbs, and mount them with simple hardware. The result is weatherproof, near-indestructible, and genuinely delightful. This colorful idea from Sadie Seasongoods has been replicated thousands of times and works in every style from graphic and modern to folk-art cottage.

7. Turn Thrifted Furniture into Planters

Old nightstands, dressers, and clawfoot bathtubs have all been successfully converted into garden planters. The clawfoot tub gets perhaps the most dramatic transformation: placed in the center of a garden bed and overflowing with zinnias or trailing vines, it reads as sculpture. Line the inside with landscape fabric, fill with quality potting mix, and plant generously. Good Housekeeping documented this exact project from restoration nonprofit The Restore; the results were anything but ordinary.

8. Hang Mason Jar Solar Lanterns

Solar-powered LED lights dropped into recycled mason jars and hung from tree branches, fence posts, or a pergola create a completely magical evening-garden moment for almost no money. The jars soften and scatter the light in a way that bare solar stakes never do. A cluster of five or seven jars at varying heights, hung with simple wire or jute twine, transforms any corner of the garden after dark.

9. Paint Your Garden Gate a Fun Color

Your garden’s first impression is its gate, and the greatest waste of a garden gate is leaving it the color it came in. Cobalt blue, saffron yellow, deep coral, or forest green; any strong, saturated shade signals to anyone approaching that something worth seeing is behind it. BHG calls a decorative garden gate a strong visual anchor. The paint cost is negligible. The impact is immediate. This is the single fastest transformation on this list.

10. Stack a Garden Totem from Found Objects

A garden totem is a vertical pole of stacked found objects: old lamp parts, glass bowls, ceramic insulators, colored glass orbs, and vintage finials impaled on a rebar stake and sealed together with weatherproof adhesive. Totems add height, color, and pure personality to an otherwise flat garden bed. One totem in an unexpected spot, particularly in a shady corner that needs a focal point, does more work than a dozen small pieces placed separately.

1q. Place a Mirror in a Shady Corner

An outdoor-appropriate arched or rectangular mirror mounted on a garden wall or fence performs two feats at once: it bounces light into dark corners and creates the illusion of a gate or doorway leading somewhere beyond. House Beautiful UK calls it a space-expanding trick. Surround it with draping ivy or climbing roses, and it reads as entirely intentional.

12. Line a Path with Painted Rocks or Button Stepping Stones

River rocks painted with flowers, ladybugs, and caterpillars are an almost zero-cost garden art project that children can participate in, and the imperfection is part of the charm. For a more architectural version, rapid-set concrete poured into bowl-shaped molds and painted creates “button” stepping stones that photograph beautifully and last indefinitely. Seal all painted rocks with exterior-grade varnish so they don’t fade in the first rainstorm.

13. Install a Wood-Scrap Scarecrow and Change Its Outfit Each Season

A folk-art scarecrow built from reclaimed wood scraps and dressed in old clothes is more than seasonal decor; it is a year-round installation that can be re-dressed for spring, summer, fall harvest, and the holidays. The scarecrow becomes a conversation piece, a focal point, and a running joke that visitors look forward to checking on each visit. Use entirely found and recycled materials; the handmade quality is the whole point.

14. Let One Corner Go Completely Maximalist

The most important quirky garden decor idea is permission itself. Choose one corner of your garden and commit to filling it with everything you love. Stack the mismatched pots. Hang the found-object mobile. Add the gazing globe, the gnome, the boot planter, and the painted rock border. It will become the corner every guest gravitates toward.

The Secret to Making Quirky Look Curated, Not Cluttered

The difference between a joyful maximalist garden and an overwhelming one comes down to three principles that experienced gardeners apply intuitively. First, every grouping needs a tall anchor. A single vertical element, whether it is a ladder, a totem, a tall pot, or a climbing support, gives the composition structure. Second, vary your heights: never place five objects at the same level. Third, and this is the piece most beginners skip: leave it alone for a few days before deciding if it works.

Color cohesion is more forgiving outdoors than indoors because plants do the work of tying things together. If you are genuinely unsure whether a grouping works, a coat of the same bold paint color applied to three mismatched objects will unify them immediately.

The Best Quirky Garden Decor Costs Almost Nothing

Every idea on this list has a version that begins at a thrift store, ends in your recycling bin, or both. The bowling ball gazing globe costs three dollars. The fence flowers cost the price of a can of spray paint. The Mason jar lanterns require only jars and a pack of solar tea lights. The old boots were going in the donation pile anyway.

What experienced gardeners know, and beginners sometimes don’t, is that a single well-placed piece with genuine personality will outperform an entire matching patio set from a box store every time. The goal is not a catalog. The goal is a garden that looks like you.

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