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These 7 plants will reward you with absurdly good displays if you cut them back now (and not everything else you feel like attacking) February is that strange, liminal month. Winter is technically still here, but it’s losing confidence. Snow is melting into slush, the sun suddenly feels like it remembers your name, and gardeners everywhere are pacing around their yards clutching pruners like they’ve been cooped up too long. This is the danger zone. Because February really is one of the best pruning windows of the entire year — if you know what you’re doing . And it’s also the month when well-meaning gardeners accidentally delete spring flowers like they’re clearing old photos from their phone at 2 a.m. Late winter pruning is powerful. It’s decisive. It sets the tone for the entire growing season. Do it right, and your garden comes roaring back with bigger blooms, stronger growth, and plants that look like they actually belong there. Do it wrong, and you’ll be staring at a whole l...

Here’s the thing about modern gardening: we like to think we’re adventurous, but most of us are just rearranging the same beige furniture in different rooms and calling it “design.” Hostas here. Hydrangeas there. Another ornamental maple because the garden center had them stacked like soda cases by the entrance. We nod solemnly about biodiversity while planting the botanical equivalent of cable TV reruns. Meanwhile, the planet is absolutely loaded with plants that could make our gardens more interesting, more resilient, more useful, and—dare I say—more fun. Tens of thousands of edible species exist. Thousands of ornamentals quietly mind their business, waiting to be noticed. And yet, we collectively decided that thirty plants are plenty, thank you very much. So this is a love letter to the ignored, the underplanted, the shrubs and perennials standing awkwardly at the edge of the nursery aisle while everyone else rushes toward the same five “safe” choices. These plants aren’t obscure...

(A snark-filled love letter to the green-thumbed, the green-curious, and the green-murderous among us.) Welcome to the Jungle (of Poor Decisions) So, you’ve decided to “get into gardening.” Bravo. You’ve binged enough home makeover shows to believe that a few strategically placed pots will transform your porch into a Southern Living photoshoot. You’ve bought soil that promises “moisture control,” and maybe even whispered to your plants like some kind of suburban druid. And yet, a week later, your fern looks like it’s auditioning for a zombie film. Let’s face it: container gardening is a gentle art — emphasis on gentle , because most people come in swinging. It’s the perfect middle ground between full-scale farming and the sad herb windowsill graveyard that happens in every apartment kitchen. The pros say it’s easier to control pests, moisture, and nutrients. The rest of us say it’s easier to move the corpse of your basil out of sight before guests arrive. But fear not. Gardening...

When Your Balcony Becomes an Identity Most people in Queens use their balconies the way nature intended: To store bikes they haven’t ridden since Obama’s first term. To host a family of feral pigeons who pay no rent. Or to pile up Amazon boxes until the recycling guys start leaving passive-aggressive notes. But not me. No, I looked at my 140-square-foot rectangle of cracked concrete, rusted railings, and neighbors smoking menthols three feet away and thought: “Yes, this shall be Eden.” This was not a project of reason. It was delusion, obsession, and pandemic boredom wrapped in reed fencing. And after years of failure, one sad pepper, and enough drowned seedlings to qualify me as a war criminal in the Geneva Convention of gardening, I finally cracked the code. Now I’m here to tell you how you, too, can cultivate chlorophyll-based delusions of grandeur. Chapter One: Potting Soil and the Gospel of Drainage Step one: soil. Or, as I call it, “dirt that costs as much as win...

Congratulations, garden warrior. You’ve made it through half of summer without setting your backyard on fire with a rogue citronella candle, and your hanging baskets only look like wilted salad three days past their prime. But wait—what’s that? Drooping leaves? Yellowing stems? An aura of sadness around your begonias? Well, you did what any proud plant parent would do in the face of chlorophyll-based distress: you watered the ever-loving hell out of them. Twice. Maybe three times. You turned your garden hose into an emotional support tool, and your plants into tragic martyrs of your good intentions. And now they’re even droopier. Welcome to the searing truth of mid-July: you might be killing your plants with kindness and a hose. The Dirt on the Dirt Here’s what Barbara Gillette tried—politely—to tell you in her article: that wilting doesn’t always mean thirsty. Sometimes it means your roots are screaming, drowning, and praying for a drought. But who listens to roots? They don’t...

Container gardening: it sounds so peaceful, doesn’t it? A verdant little Eden nestled in ceramic pots, lounging on your patio like it's about to star in a Better Homes & Gardens spread. Maybe you’re growing juicy tomatoes, cheerful petunias, or that one sad basil plant you insist on reviving like it’s a Disney princess under a sleep curse. But then summer hits. And suddenly your once-thriving container garden turns into a horticultural hostage situation. Welcome to the hot season—where your plants either get waterboarded or scorched into leaf-jerky before brunch. Let’s talk about how to stop your container garden from dying a crispy death this summer, courtesy of expert advice, hard-earned snark, and the occasional reality check. So Much to Love, So Much to Wilt First, let’s acknowledge the obvious: container gardening is a vibe . You get the illusion of control. You get to say things like, “I’m experimenting with heirloom zucchini.” You feel superior to people who just “l...

By your ever-so-cynical garden gossip columnist Remember Jack and the Beanstalk ? That fever-dream of a fairy tale where a poor kid climbs a giant vine into the clouds, robs a sky-giant blind, and gets away with it because apparently being vertically ambitious is a moral virtue? Well guess what? Jack wasn’t just a fairy tale icon. He was the O.G. vertical gardener. Long before Pinterest moms and HOA rule-benders started zip-tying cucumber trellises to their fences, Jack was up there in the clouds saying, “Why are y’all still growing cucumbers like peasants on the ground?” Let’s talk about vertical gardening. Not because it’s trendy or because we’re all suddenly interested in homesteading after two episodes of a HGTV marathon. No, let’s talk about it because it’s one of the few garden trends that actually makes sense. And also because if you tell people you're “training your zucchini to grow upright,” you sound like either a wizard or a dominatrix, and either way, you win. The...