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Squirrels. They’re fluffy. They’re acrobatic. They’re also tiny, furry bandits with an insatiable appetite for everything you’ve painstakingly grown. For years, I battled them, convinced…

Honestly, the sheer amount of garbage advice out there about using chicken manure in the garden could choke a horse. People throw around terms like…

Honestly, looking back at my first few years trying to get plants to actually grow in my yard, I probably spent more money on snake…

Honestly, the first time I tried to tackle the weeds in my little patch, I thought it would be a quick job. A couple of…

Gardening books always make it look so easy, don’t they? Like you just sprinkle some seeds, water them a bit, and BAM! Instant Eden. Yeah,…

That first year, I spent $280 on tools I barely used. I thought having a sunny spot in a communal patch meant instant zucchini abundance….

Honestly, staring at a plain, sad garden gate can feel like looking at a blank wall. It’s the first thing people see, and for years,…

Honestly, I almost threw the whole thing out after the first week. I’d spent a ridiculous amount of cash on tiny rakes that bent, pebbles…

Honestly, some days I wonder if we’re all speaking different languages. You’re out there, trying to find that perfect little chap for your flower bed,…

Honestly, the whole ‘community garden’ thing can feel like a bit of a crapshoot when you first start looking into it. Everyone talks about the…

Chasing woodchucks out of my vegetable patch felt like a personal vendetta for years. They’d decimate a week’s worth of hard work overnight, leaving behind…

Honestly, the idea of ‘getting rid of a garden’ sounds like a crime against nature to most people. I get it. For years, I treated…

Honestly, I almost didn’t write this. My first few attempts at building metal raised beds looked like they were assembled by a drunken octopus after…

Frankly, staring at a postage-stamp backyard and dreaming of bountiful harvests can be utterly demoralizing. I’ve been there, believe me. That’s why figuring out how…

Honestly, I’ve wasted enough money on fancy fertilizers that promise the moon and deliver dust. You see those glossy ads, the ones with perfectly manicured…

Ever watch a squirrel? Little furry bandits, they are. They’ll tunnel under, climb over, chew through anything you’ve put up to protect your precious veggies….

Honestly, the amount of garbage I waded through when I first started trying to encourage pollinators beyond the usual suspects was infuriating. I’m talking about…

Honestly, the thought of leaving my precious plants to fend for themselves while I’m off sipping something cold is enough to make me cancel the…

Honestly, building a garden box can feel like a DIY rite of passage, but I’ve seen people way overcomplicate it. I remember my first one,…

Honestly, the first time a herd of deer decided my prize-winning petunias were their personal salad bar, I was ready to hang up my trowel…

I remember staring at my first garden plot, absolutely convinced I was going to conquer nature. I’d bought all the shiny plastic tools, the fancy…

Another morning, another fresh pile of… well, you know. My prize-winning petunias, once a source of pride, had become a designated litter box for every…

My first backyard project that involved digging more than a foot down was… a disaster. I’d seen these fancy ‘rain gardens’ online, all manicured and…

Honestly, this whole ‘how did satan get into the garden of eden’ thing gets blown way out of proportion. Most explanations feel like they’re trying…

That awful screaming sound? That’s the sound of me, about ten years ago, realizing I’d spent close to $400 on flimsy bamboo fencing and a…

That sad, lumpy tomato plant I baby-sat for three months in my first year of gardening? Yeah, that was me. I’d followed some online advice…

Honestly, the amount of conflicting advice out there on how often to water flower garden beds is enough to make you want to pave the…

Someone hands you a bushel of beans, still warm from the sun, smelling faintly of damp earth and chlorophyll. It’s a beautiful moment, isn’t it?…

Honestly, the first time I saw frost creeping across my tomato plants, I panicked. It felt like the end of the world, a swift, cold…

Honestly, trying to figure out how to garden in Arizona felt like trying to teach a cactus to swim. You see all these glossy magazines…

Honestly, I grabbed a copy of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s *The Secret Garden* on a whim years ago, mostly because it kept popping up in conversations…

Honestly, the whole “how high should I fill my raised garden bed” question gets blown way out of proportion by people who probably haven’t spent…

Honestly, I almost threw in the trowel. After my fourth attempt to get a simple pond bubbling without turning into a mosquito breeding ground, I…