Simple Ideas for Better Homes, Gardens & Outdoor Spaces
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My neighbor Carla once looked at my front bed in July, squinted at the wall of orange, pink, and magenta, and asked, “What did you do, rob a piñata factory?” That’s Mexican flowers for you. They don’t do subtle. They do loud, they do bold, and they keep doing it long after your delphiniums have … Read more
Crows picking apart your tomato seedlings the morning after you plant them. Pigeons treating your blueberry bushes like an all-you-can-eat buffet. If you’ve ever walked outside to find your lettuce bed stripped down to nubs, you already know the frustration I’m talking about. My neighbor Carla used to joke that her garden had a “birds … Read more
My third summer of gardening, I bought six “weatherproof” resin planters from a big box store. By October, two had cracked down the side from a single Kansas hailstorm, and by January, the other four were basically confetti after one hard freeze. I stood in my driveway holding a piece of broken plastic shaped like … Read more
My neighbor Carol used to stop by my porch every June just to stare at my pots. Not because they were fancy. Because they were blue. Real, honest, sky-colored blue, not the washed-out lavender that garden centers try to pass off as “blue” every spring. She’d point and say, “Okay, what is THAT, and where … Read more
Rose bushes have a reputation problem. Half the people I talk to think they need a fussy English garden and a full-time gardener to grow them. The other half stuck one sad rose bush next to their mailbox in 2019, watched it get leggy and diseased, and swore off roses forever. Both groups are wrong, … Read more
My mother-in-law once gifted me a bouquet of fresh peonies for my birthday, and by day four they were slumped over in the vase like they’d given up on life. I felt guilty tossing something so pretty into the compost pile after less than a week. That’s the moment I got obsessed with eternal flowers … Read more
You’ve got a postage-stamp backyard, three kids who are somehow always “bored,” and a Pinterest board full of play areas that need at least a quarter acre to pull off. Sound familiar? I get it. My own backyard is barely bigger than a two-car garage, and for years I thought that meant my kids were … Read more
You want color that comes back every single year without you replanting the same bed every spring. I get it. Annuals are pretty, but they’re basically renting flowers for one season and then paying full price again next year. Purple perennials solve that problem, and they do it in a color that pulls double duty. … Read more
Your patio looks tired. Your living room corner has been empty since you moved in three years ago. You want that vacation-house feeling, but you’re not sure if you can actually keep a palm alive without a Florida zip code. I get it. My first palm tree purchase was a $60 impulse buy from a … Read more
Your backyard is the size of a postage stamp, and every “zen garden” article you find online seems to assume you own three acres and a team of monks. I get it. My first attempt at a Japanese-style corner was crammed into a side yard so narrow I could touch both fences at once, and … Read more