Simple Ideas for Better Homes, Gardens & Outdoor Spaces
My neighbor Gary spends every October weekend out there with a leaf blower strapped to his back like he’s suiting up for battle. Tarps everywhere. Forty bags of leaves lined up at the curb. By the time he’s done, his back is wrecked and his front yard looks like a golf course that got scared … Read more
Your fall greens are finally thriving, and then you spot it: a cabbage looper chewing lace through your kale, or a squadron of aphids setting up camp on your broccoli. Autumn pests don’t get the same press as their summer cousins, but they’ll wreck a cool-season garden just as fast if you let them. Here’s … Read more
Every September, my phone starts buzzing with the same panicked text from my neighbor Claudia: “Why are there tiny bugs flying around my pothos every time I water it?” My answer is always the same. Fall is moving day for bugs, and your houseplants just became the warmest, safest apartment building on the block. Here’s … Read more
Your hydrangeas are crispy. Your lawn is the color of toast. And your water bill looks like a phone number. I get it. Every August, my inbox fills up with the same question: “What can I plant that won’t beg for water all summer and still gives me a good show before winter?” Most people … Read more
The first cold snap hits and suddenly your patio turns into a wasteland. The cushions are still out there from July, getting crunchy with frost, and you’re stuck choosing between hibernating indoors for six months or figuring out how to actually use your backyard when it’s 50 degrees out. I get it. For years my … Read more
Nothing ruins a crisp October morning like stepping onto your garden path in your good boots and sinking into a puddle that’s somehow always exactly where your foot lands. Fall rain doesn’t mess around. It comes in sideways, it pools where you least expect it, and by November your once-charming stepping stone path is basically … Read more
Your yard turns gorgeous for about six weeks in fall, and then it gets dark at 5:30 p.m. and nobody sees it. That’s the problem I hear about more than almost anything else this time of year. Neighbors walk by in the daylight hours when you’re at work, and by the time you’re home to … Read more
My porch used to be a pumpkin graveyard by mid-November. Every year I’d buy the same orange gourds, watch them cave in on themselves after two frosty nights, and then scrape moldy squash guts off my steps with a putty knife. Not exactly the cozy autumn welcome I was going for. Then a neighbor gave … Read more
You bought the trees. You picked a sunny spot. And now you’re staring at three bare-root saplings wondering if “orchard” is too generous a word for what’s basically a sad little row of sticks in your backyard. I get it. Ten years ago, my “orchard” was two Honeycrisp trees planted six feet apart because I … Read more
Your neighbor’s porch is covered in fat, gorgeous mounds of orange and burgundy mums, and yours resembles a sad stick with three flowers hanging on for dear life. Sound familiar? I’ve been there. My first attempt at growing mums ended with a pot of crispy brown stems by mid-October, and I couldn’t figure out what … Read more