My aunt handed me a good luck plant in a little glass vase the week I moved into my first apartment. I didn’t know a thing about plants back then, and I definitely killed a few before this one stuck around. Three years later, it’s still sitting on my kitchen windowsill, taller than when I
I always enjoyed growing tomatoes and peppers until I noticed itchy skin after pruning them one summer. At first, I ignored it, but the irritation returned every season. That experience made me curious about allergy to nightshade plants and how different people react. Tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, eggplant — this stuff is in basically every meal,
When we bought our house, the front of it looked bare — just bare mulch hugging the foundation and a single overgrown shrub blocking half a window. I had no idea where to start, so I spent a weekend at the local garden center asking the staff what foundation plants would actually work for our
A few years back, my uncle let me help manage a small field behind his property. I thought growing a field of plants would be simple—toss some seeds down and let nature do the rest. I was wrong. That first season, half the field turned yellow from poor drainage, and weeds took over the other
When I moved into my first apartment, I was determined to fill it with plants. I started with succulents—big mistake for someone with no south-facing windows. A friend suggested I try a fern house plant instead, saying ferns actually love lower light and humidity. I picked up a Boston fern from a farmer’s market, hung
Last spring, I walked into a local nursery looking for something a little different — something that would stop people in their tracks when they saw my front porch. That’s when I spotted it. Tucked between rows of ordinary petunias and marigolds sat a stunning dragon flower plant, its snapdragon blooms reaching upward like tiny
A few years ago, I thought all sage plants looked pretty much the same until I visited a local plant nursery. I was surprised to see different types of sage plants with unique leaf colors, fragrances, and growth habits. I brought home common sage, purple sage, and pineapple sage to see how they performed in
Last spring, I spotted a hanging basket on my neighbor’s porch that stopped me in my tracks. It was overflowing with lush, ruffled blooms in shades of coral and hot pink. I had to know what they were. “They’re double impatiens plants,” she said, snipping off a spent stem like it was nothing. I went
The first time I tried dahlia tuber planting, I made nearly every mistake possible. I put tubers in the ground too early, buried them too deep, and watered immediately after planting. By June, half had rotted without producing a single shoot. The following spring, I started fresh with better research and completely different results. By
While reorganizing my plant shelf last winter, I noticed my curly lipstick plant had dropped nearly all its flower buds—and I had no idea why. I had been watering it regularly, keeping it near a bright window, and even misting it occasionally. After some digging, I realized I had made a classic mistake: I moved