dahlias

10 Plants Gardeners Should Always Protect Before It Snows

January 24, 2026 by Brandon Marcus Leave a Comment

Winter is creeping closer, and that crisp edge in the air isn’t just a hint of snow—it’s a wake-up call for gardeners. Your garden may look peaceful now, but once frost and snow roll in, delicate leaves will blacken, stems will snap, and blooms will vanish if you’re not careful. Protecting the right plants before…

How to Save Dahlias and Cannas Before Frost Turns Them to Mush

November 9, 2025 by Brandon Marcus Leave a Comment

One minute, your garden looks like a late-summer dream come alive, with dahlias shining like jeweled fireworks and cannas standing tall like confident tropical dancers. Then, almost overnight, a cold snap slides in, the air turns sharp, and suddenly everything you love could collapse into soft, disappointing mush. Gardeners know this heartbreak deeply. The colors…

How To Get Free Seeds From The Government by Amanda Blankenship Seeds might seem like a small expense, but any seasoned…
Should I Use Enviro Ice On My Plants? by Kathryn Vercillo Every week, I receive food from Hungryroot. It's a great…
From Trash to Treasure: Transform Shredded Paper Into Garden Gold by Amanda Blankenship Should you use shredded paper as garden mulch? It might…
What Happens to Plants If You Use Enviro Ice on Them? by Amanda Blankenship About a year ago, I wrote our first article about…

Snakes in the Garden Aren’t Always Bad — Here’s When You Should Be Concerned

A snake sliding through the garden can turn a peaceful morning of tomato picking into a full-blown staring contest. But before grabbing a shovel or sprinting for the shed, take a breath: many snakes provide useful pest control by eating mice, voles, insects, frogs, and other small animals. In fact, some gardeners have a perfectly…

His HOA Approved His Front-Yard Food Forest — Then a New Board Fined Him $750

A front yard usually comes with an unspoken suburban assignment: grass, a few shrubs, maybe a tree that behaves itself. Michael Sherman of Chino, California, had a different idea, turning his lawn into a productive food forest filled with passionfruit, radishes, calendulas, sunflowers, aloe vera, Swiss chard and banana trees. His HOA initially approved the…

6 Ways to Protect Young Trees From String-Trimmer Damage

A string trimmer can turn a tidy lawn into a masterpiece, but that same spinning line can deliver a surprisingly nasty wallop to a young tree. One careless pass around a thin trunk can strip bark, expose living tissue, and create an injury that may cause problems long after the grass has grown back. Protecting…

7 Plants You Should Think Twice About Touching With Bare Hands

Gardening usually involves getting a little dirt under the fingernails, but some plants can make that hands-on approach a genuinely bad idea. Certain species can sting instantly, trigger an itchy rash hours later, or leave skin dangerously sensitive to sunlight. A pair of gloves can turn a questionable gardening decision into a very uneventful afternoon….