Gardening Ideas

I’ve spent the last fifteen years engaged in a slow-motion wrestling match with Mother Nature, and let me tell you, Mother Nature usually wins. My fingernails haven’t been truly clean since 2011, and I once lost a pair of expensive pruning shears inside a particularly aggressive tomato plant for an … Read more

I’ve spent the last fifteen years battling a patch of dirt I call a yard, and let me tell you, I’ve committed every horticultural sin known to man. I once got so aggressive with a vertical mower that my backyard looked like a crime scene for earthworms. Then there was … Read more

Look, we’ve all been there. It’s January 2nd, the tinsel is looking a bit sad, and your poinsettia is starting to drop leaves like it’s getting paid for it. Most people treat these plants like festive paper plates—use once and toss. But I’m a bit of a hoarder when it … Read more

Look, if your lawn feels like you’re walking on a giant, waterlogged sponge, or if you can literally roll up your turf like a cheap rug, you’ve got grubs. I learned this the hard way back in ’12 when I thought my grass was just “tired.” I spent three months … Read more

I remember the summer I decided my backyard needed to look like a villa in Tuscany. I bought three overpriced olive trees, a truckload of gravel, and enough terracotta to bankrupt a small nation. Two weeks later, my “Mediterranean paradise” looked more like a dusty construction site, and my olive … Read more

If your backyard looks like the set of a low-budget horror movie—all dark shadows, damp moss, and a vibe that says “nothing lives here but spiders”—don’t throw in the towel just yet. I spent my first three years as a gardener trying to force sun-loving marigolds and zinnias to grow … Read more

I still remember the first raised bed I ever built back in 2011. I was young, broke, and had just read a magazine article about “intensive gardening.” I marched myself down to the big-box hardware store, loaded up a rickety cart with those heavy, greenish-tinted 4x4s, and spent a whole … Read more

I used to think that November marked the “death” of my garden. I’d look out the window at a sea of brown stalks and gray mulch, sighing as I waited for the first tulip of spring. But then I realized I was looking at gardening all wrong. Winter isn’t a … Read more

Winter in the garden can feel like a standoff between your hope for fresh greens and the reality of a biting frost. I’ve spent many mornings scraping ice off glass panes, wondering if my seedlings would survive the night without me caving in and running an expensive extension cord out … Read more

I’ll be honest: I used to spend my Saturday mornings in a state of mild resentment toward my lawnmower. It was loud, it smelled like gasoline, and it felt like I was pouring money and water into a green rectangle that didn’t give much back. That frustration eventually led me … Read more