plant care

7 Tricks for Keeping Roses Blooming Longer

October 21, 2025 by Teri Monroe Leave a Comment

Roses are the centerpieces of many gardens, but without proper care their bloom period can be shortened. Whether you grow hybrid teas, climbers, or miniatures, the key to long-lasting blooms is timing, nutrition, and smart pruning. With a few simple tweaks, your rose bushes can keep producing vivid, fragrant flowers well into fall. Here are…

From Paper Towel to Potting Soil: The Ideal Time to Transplant Your Seedlings

July 25, 2025 by Amanda Blankenship Leave a Comment

Growing plants from seed is a rewarding process, but it takes more than just patience—it requires timing and care at every stage. One of the most critical steps is knowing exactly when to transplant your seedlings into potting soil. Move them too early, and they may not survive the shock; wait too long, and their…

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….