Earthworms, as we know, are garden champions, cleaning the soil by eating their weight in organic matter every day and aerating it as they wriggle around, creating tunnels to ease root growth. They also improve soil moisture, remove fungal spores and stimulate microbial activity, which benefits ...

Fall is just around the corner, and some of my summer bloomers are beginning to wind down. But birds and other wildlife continue to need sustenance from plants, and I continue to need focal points in my garden. Fortunately, buttonbush, a sadly underused shrub, is filling both of our ...

Some of the most common questions I’m asked by backyard vegetable growers concern zucchini. The plants either produce like crazy, inspiring memes about gardeners anonymously leaving overflow harvests on their neighbors’ doorsteps, or they don’t produce any zucchini at all. Sometimes, ...

With much of the U.S. sweltering through heat waves, gardeners are seeing some dramatic changes. I’ve noticed them in my suburban New York garden, where the temperature this week has been exceeding 90 degrees Fahrenheit, with a “feels like” rating of nearly 10 degrees hotter, thanks to ...

The typical backyard food grower is familiar with planting greens, tomatoes, peppers, squash, herbs, berries and other staples, plus perhaps a few exotic crops that are difficult to find at the grocery store. Beverages, however, aren’t usually at the top of their lists. I’ve written about ...

In lawn care, as in politics, an extreme, black-or-white approach can be impractical and turn off the masses. But in the garden, at least, gray can be the perfect shade of green. Take, for instance, the No Mow May movement. Is it necessary to allow your entire property to turn into a weedy ...