protecting plants

How to Spot Rot in Stored Bulbs Before It Spreads Everywhere

November 25, 2025 by Brandon Marcus Leave a Comment

You open your storage box expecting to find a treasure chest of healthy bulbs ready for planting, and instead you’re greeted by a smell that can only be described as “garden doom.” Suddenly, your spring dreams flash before your eyes as you wonder which bulbs are salvageable and which ones have quietly turned into mushy…

How to Protect Tender Perennials From Sudden Frost

October 1, 2025 by Brandon Marcus Leave a Comment

You’ve babied those tender perennials all season—watering just enough, fertilizing with care, and proudly admiring the blooms like they’re your own leafy children. Then, bam! The weather app drops a frost warning out of nowhere, and your heart skips a beat. Nothing sends gardeners into panic mode faster than the words “sudden frost.” But don’t…

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…

How to Create a Wildlife-Friendly Fall Garden Cleanup

What if the best thing you could do for your garden this fall was actually less work? While many homeowners spend hours raking leaves, cutting back flowers, and hauling away plant debris, wildlife experts say some of those familiar cleanup habits could be doing more harm than good. Your garden may look like it’s shutting…

Why Leaving Seed Heads Helps Birds Through Winter

Before you grab your pruning shears and start cutting down every faded flower in your garden, there’s something worth considering: those dried, brown seed heads could be providing free meals for hungry birds all winter long. Fall garden cleanup is practically a tradition for many homeowners, but removing every spent flower can eliminate an important…

Why Some Garden Debris Should Stay Until Spring

That pile of dead leaves, dried flowers, and broken twigs might look like something you should haul to the curb before winter. But what if cleaning up every last piece of garden debris actually makes your yard less healthy? Many gardeners spend hours clearing flower beds each fall, believing that a spotless landscape will give…

The Best Way to Collect Zinnia Seeds Before Frost

Those beautiful zinnias that filled your garden with color all summer could provide next year’s flowers for free. But if you’re planning to save their seeds, there’s one mistake that could ruin your chances: waiting until a hard frost damages the flowers before collecting them. Zinnias are among the easiest annual flowers to grow from…