A metallic green beetle about half an inch long has been quietly rewriting the shade in Virginia neighborhoods since 2008. Most people go years without spotting one. The adults nibble a few leaves and cause little harm. Their young are the real trouble, tunneling under bark where nobody can watch. By the time a tree…
Rotten eggs and soggy soil share the same chemical calling card. That sharp sulfur stink comes from hydrogen sulfide, a gas made by tiny microbes that work without oxygen. After a big Nor’easter rolls across Long Island, those microbes get their moment. Rain fills every air pocket in the ground, and the oxygen-loving crowd steps…
A tiny beetle flashing 10 to 20 quick amber pulses in a row went unrecorded by scientists for 43 years. Then it blinked right back into view in Virginia, and Virginia wasn’t the only place it turned up. I love that the comeback happened in an ordinary meadow after dark. Nobody needed a jungle expedition…
One popular nursery plant called a palm is actually an ancient cycad, and its seeds can seriously harm dogs. Another shelf favorite earned a rude nickname because chewing its leaves can make your tongue swell and make speaking painful. I have to admit, I once filled my windowsills with pretty foliage without checking a single…
A butternut picked in September can still taste sweet in March. Some varieties actually get sweeter in storage as their starches slowly turn into sugars. I love that a vegetable can sit quietly in a closet and improve with age. It feels like a reward for all that summer weeding. Still, many gardeners lose part…
Those tidy domes of fall color at the grocery store were often grown in a greenhouse on a strict schedule. Growers trick them into blooming by controlling how many hours of darkness they get each night. That greenhouse lighting schedule makes them look perfect for your porch, with every bloom opening on cue. It does…
Michigan State University turfgrass researchers once chopped up to 450 pounds of leaves per 1,000 square feet into test lawns, and the grass handled it just fine. That number still makes me grin. It means the pile of oak and maple leaves on your Maryland yard may not be a chore at all. Most of…
A single pod on this plant can go from tender to woody in just a few days. That speed surprised me the first time I watched it happen in my own garden. The plant is a cousin of hibiscus, and its flowers prove it. Creamy yellow petals with a deep red center open for about…
A pumpkin is about 90 percent water, which explains why a carved one can slump into mush in just a week or two. I still laugh at how fast that proud grin turns into a sagging frown. All that water and soft flesh hides a real gift for your yard. The rind, pulp, and seeds…
Some of the reddest creatures on your house right now are smaller than a pinhead. They march across warm siding by the hundreds, and squishing one leaves a rusty smear that looks alarmingly like spilled paint. I spotted my first wave on a bright October afternoon in Maryland. The south wall of my garage looked…
One bite of the wrong orange fruit can make your mouth feel like it’s wearing a wool sweater. Captain John Smith warned in the early 1600s that an unripe one would draw a man’s mouth awry with much torment, and that still holds up. Right now, these little globes are thumping onto sidewalks, trails, and…
Baby snakes born in late summer arrive with bright yellow tail tips that wiggle like juicy little caterpillars. They use that wiggle to lure frogs and lizards across Virginia yards close enough for a quick strike. Around here, those youngsters often show up in October, right when we are raking leaves and splitting firewood. Their…
Your shrubs look perfect one morning, then like a salad bar the next. If you garden in Virginia, you’ve probably met the culprit: a hungry, sharp-nosed deer. Fall is when deer bulk up for winter and move around more than usual. They rely on smell to sniff out food and danger from far away. That…
In the 1850s, Osage orange seed sold at high prices, and farmers paid it gladly. That seed came from a lumpy green fruit most people now kick off the road. Drive any gravel lane in Missouri this fall and you will spot them. They sit in the grass like wrinkled softballs, smelling faintly of citrus…
Who says spooky season has to end when the pumpkins leave the stoop? Some houseplants look like they crawled out of a haunted greenhouse, and they can keep the eerie mood alive all year. Inky black leaves, snapping green jaws, and pale rosettes that seem to glow in dim light add drama to any room….
A tree sold for decades as a tidy, fruitless street ornament is now popping up by the thousands in fields and ditches where nobody planted it. Late in the year, its leaves turn deep burgundy and hang on long after the oaks and maples have gone bare. I noticed them first on a gray November…
The hayloft echoes louder than it should, and your horse knows why. Virginia’s dry summer trimmed harvests and lifted hay prices sharply. Feed stores across the state now guard their bales like treasure. Winter approaches fast, and cold mornings are already here. Goats are sampling your coat sleeves while they review your choices. Horses, meanwhile,…
A sparrow with a pink bill and a white belly may have flown hundreds of miles to eat seed under your feeder. Some of these tiny travelers spent the summer in Canadian spruce forests, and now they have picked your yard for winter. Their arrival is easy to miss, and that is part of the…
A brown grocery sack in a chilly basement can hold next summer’s flower show. I’m serious. Gardeners have stashed leafless, soil-free plants this way for generations, and many wake up in spring ready to grow. The trick works because these sun-loving bloomers come from South Africa. Their thick stems store water and food, a bit…
Tree roots can keep growing in soil as cool as the low 40s, long after the branches look fast asleep. That means a tree planted this year is still building its root system well into fall. The low 40s figure surprised me the first time I read it. Bare twigs seem to say the job…
Frost can coat your lettuce even when the porch thermometer still reads a comfortable thirty-six degrees Fahrenheit. Cold air is heavy, so it sinks and pools near the ground while warmer air floats overhead like a lid. Clear skies make things worse because the soil loses its stored daytime heat straight up into space. A…
A black-capped chickadee can stash thousands of seeds in autumn and still remember where many of them went. That tiny brain actually grows new neurons each fall to handle the extra memory work, which still amazes me. So when those clever birds skip your yard, the reason usually has little to do with luck or…
A carved porch decoration from Halloween is roughly ninety percent water, so it softens quickly once the skin is broken or cut open. I love that the soft flesh carries potassium, nitrogen, and other minerals right back into the ground below. Indiana gardeners usually see their first hard frost in October, which means many vegetable…
A lump of hardened foam on your shrub branch can hold more than two hundred baby insects waiting for spring. I was amazed to learn that the female builds it in fall, forming the foam around her eggs as she lays them. The case starts out soft and bubbly, then dries into a tough tan…
A houseplant that stubbornly refuses to flower can sometimes be fixed by letting your living room get chillier at night. Many growers learn that a drop of about ten to fifteen degrees after sunset tells the plant to start budding. In Indiana, October is often when furnaces click on, and that steady indoor heat can…
Halloween is over, and your jack-o-lantern is having a rough morning. The grin is drooping, the eyes look a little sunken, and honestly, it’s giving “stayed out way too late.” (Same, pumpkin. Same.) Plenty of folks haul that soggy squash straight to the curb. But tossing it in the trash is like throwing away a…
A blood-curdling scream rips through the dark, and suddenly you’re wide awake with your heart pounding. Was that a person, a ghost, or something lurking by the shed? Families across Virginia hear strange whinnies, hoots, snorts, and shrieks after sundown. Most of these noises come from perfectly ordinary neighbors with fur or feathers. Owls chat…
Seeds from that custardy fruit can lose their ability to sprout if they dry out for a few days. I learned that the hard way after leaving a bowl of rinsed seeds on my kitchen counter all week. Those same seeds actually need months of cold, damp conditions before the tiny embryo inside will wake…
Every winter, tons of salt coat New York roads. Plenty of it lands on your shrubs. You might not notice anything wrong until spring. That’s when brown needles and bare twigs suddenly appear. By then, the damage is already done. A little planning this fall, though, can save your favorite plants. Knowing how salt sneaks…
Some trees lose water through their leaves on sunny January days, even while the ground stays frozen solid. Frozen roots cannot pull up fresh water to replace it, so the foliage slowly dries out from the tips. In Missouri, the damage often stays hidden until late winter or early spring, when brown patches finally show…
Your Virginia garden is hiding free money inside its crispiest, ugliest leftovers. Brittle pods rattling on the stalk are begging you to crack them open. Faded blooms hold slim black needles that outlast the winter ahead. Frost arrives soon, and it ignores your calendar. Cold snaps across Virginia can harm unripe seed heads and fruit….
A shrub whose branches freeze to the ground in a Missouri winter can send up fresh stems by June. The roots often stay alive underground, even when every twig above the soil looks brown and brittle by March. I love that this plant comes from the warm Mediterranean, yet some types handle St. Louis winters…
Tree roots can keep growing in soil as cool as about 40 degrees, long after the branches look bare. I find that fact exciting, because it means the underground part of a garden stays busy all fall. October soil often holds summer warmth for weeks, even while the air above it turns chilly at night….
Some of the showiest flowers in a fall garden come from mountains and tropical regions far warmer than most U.S. yards. Their thick, fleshy roots store water like tiny pantries, and that stored water becomes a problem when winter arrives. Frozen soil turns that water into ice crystals that burst the cells inside the roots….
Some of the logs stacked beside your house may hold sleeping insects that wake up as soon as they feel indoor heat. I was surprised to learn that a few warm days by the fireplace can be enough to stir them. Across Indiana, tiny wood-eating insects live in the soil and often travel into wood…
Sometimes an entire insect colony builds its wax comb right out in the open, dangling from a bare branch. I still remember spotting one in Indiana and thinking it looked like a pale, ribbed lantern hanging there. Each pound of that wax costs the colony roughly six to eight pounds of honey, according to extension…
Your garden just finished its summer marathon, and honestly, it looks a little winded. The tomato cages are leaning, the bean vines are crispy, and that one zucchini plant that tried to take over the yard is finally calling it quits. (Good riddance, buddy.) Plenty of Virginia gardeners would rather curl up with a blanket…
Tree roots can keep growing in soil as cool as 40 degrees. The branches above might look sleepy, but the action below is far from over. That detail changed how I garden. The air turns crisp right now across Virginia. The ground still holds a good chunk of summer heat. I love how a young…
Back in 1818, a plant growing in southern Indiana woods made the milk of local cows harmful to drink. Nancy Hanks Lincoln, the mother of Abraham Lincoln, fell sick from that milk in the fall of that year. Some of the most harmful plants in our yards look a lot like harmless wild carrot or…
A tick that doesn’t need a partner to start a family sounds like science fiction. For the Asian longhorned tick, it’s simply how life works. Females of this species can lay eggs all on their own, essentially making copies of themselves. One tick can turn into thousands, and that math gets scary fast for farmers,…
Leaving those brown, scraggly flower stems standing all winter can help a fall bloomer return in better shape next spring. The old stems trap snow and fallen leaves, which form a loose blanket over the crown of the plant. Purdue University Extension suggests waiting until spring to trim these plants in most Indiana yards, even…
Fallen needles carry free fragrance, and you usually bag them for the curb. Your pine needles and herb sprigs release rich aroma when warmed. Drop them in a pot of water and let the steam work. Their resin alone throws off a crisp scent that many candles struggle to match. Pine needles add a sharp,…
The torn bark on a young shade tree in October is often caused by an animal scratching its forehead. That rubbing leaves scent from glands near the eyes, which works like a signpost for other animals nearby. In Missouri, this habit peaks from late September through November, right when many people plant new trees. I…
A pruning cut made in October can wake up buds that should stay asleep until the cold months pass. Those tender new shoots often have little time to harden before the first hard freeze arrives in Missouri. I love that some berry canes plant themselves when their arching tips touch bare soil in early fall….
Some fireflies spend the winter as tiny larvae tucked under fallen leaves, waiting for warm spring nights to glow. Luna moth cocoons and the pupae of many other moths hide in that same brown layer, looking like crumpled bits of leaf. I was surprised to learn that yard trimmings made up about twelve percent of…
Some native bees spend the whole winter tucked inside hollow plant stems that gardeners often snip off in October. Small carpenter bees and mason bees lay eggs in those stems, and new bees emerge the following spring. I also love that dried seed heads left standing in the garden feed goldfinches and juncos through the…
The big spider that sprinted across my kitchen last October was most likely a wandering male. Mothers of this kind haul their young around on their backs for days, though, and I still find that fact a little amazing. These hunters also have eyes that glow green when you sweep a flashlight across an Indiana…
There’s a pumpkin still sitting in your garden, and honestly, it’s starting to look a little nervous. Halloween is days away, the nights keep getting colder, and Virginia’s weather has already thrown a few freezing curveballs this month. Maybe you planned to pick it last weekend. Maybe you wanted it to grow just a tiny…
Those crunchy October leaves under your boots might be hiding more than acorns and the occasional lost garden glove. Fall in Virginia brings cooler air, and some of our most venomous neighbors become surprisingly busy right now. I love autumn yard work, but I have learned to look twice before grabbing a woodpile or rake….
The smaller bird in a hooting owl pair actually has the deeper voice, and it is usually the male. I love that the larger female answers him with a higher call, so you can tell them apart by ear. In Indiana, these birds often lay eggs in late January or February, while snow can still…
Some of the tastiest snacks in a backyard can land you on the wrong side of state rules. I learned that tidbit while reading invasive plant lists, and my jaw dropped right onto my garden boots.New York keeps an official list of plants you cannot sell, buy, transport, or plant on purpose. A few of…
Most of the tiny curled bugs on an Indiana basement floor in October are drying out. They need damp soil to keep their bodies from losing water, so a dry concrete room works against them. Extension experts note that many of these critters wander in large groups during fall, often right after heavy rain. I…
Some small striped snakes in Indiana spend the winter packed together by the dozens inside a single crack underground. I still find it amazing that one hole near a porch step can hold a whole crowd of reptiles. Their move toward winter shelter usually picks up in October, once nights start dipping close to freezing…
A gray insect showing up on porches carries a raised half circle on its back shaped like a gear. I believe it looks like a tiny machine part, with about eight to twelve little teeth along the ridge. Fall is when the adults are biggest, often reaching more than an inch long after growing all…
An armored animal from the south now wanders Missouri yards after dark, poking its nose into soil. Its shell is made of bony plates covered by tough skin, and it cannot roll into a full ball. Each night it leaves behind neat little holes, often three to five inches wide, scattered across the grass. I…
Next summer’s flowers on many of these shrubs are already tucked inside the stems by early October. I still remember learning that fact, because it changed the way I approach my pruners each fall. Those papery flower heads also turn shades of tan, rose, and soft green as the weather cools down. Many gardeners leave…
One shrub in eastern woods opens spidery yellow flowers in late autumn, just as its leaves begin to fall. I still find that odd, because most flowering shrubs finish blooming long before the first frost arrives. Many red and purple fall leaves get their color from pigments called anthocyanins, which form mainly in autumn. Sunny…