Gardening & Landscaping

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 comes to anything with roots. … 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 whispering sweet nothings to a … 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 trees were shedding leaves faster … 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 under a massive, stubborn red … 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 weekend sweating and cursing while … 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 time for the garden to … 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 to the yard. Relying on … 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 to a garden center where … Read more

I remember the frustrating days of traditional gardening—spending entire Saturdays battling aggressive, deep-rooted weeds only to end up with a sparse harvest scattered across a huge, disorganized plot. It felt like I was working for the garden, not the other way around. If you’ve ever looked at your existing garden space and felt overwhelmed by … Read more

For years, I believed that a peaceful, rushing stream or a cascading waterfall was a luxury reserved only for people with sprawling estates. My own small backyard felt perpetually dry and quiet, a constant reminder that I couldn’t host a grand aquatic environment. Yet, what I truly craved wasn’t the visual magnitude of a lake, … Read more