Brett Horton

Your tomato plants have filled the bed with thick stems and green leaves. Yet when harvest time comes, you collect only a few tomatoes. It feels like a poor return for months of watering, tying, feeding, and checking for pests. Adding more plants may seem like the answer. But that creates more work and can … Read more

Your garden looks fine after watering. Then the afternoon sun arrives. The soil turns dry and hard. Weeds appear between your plants. Water may run across the surface instead of soaking into the root area. It can feel as if your plants need attention every few hours. That is why you may see experienced gardeners … Read more

Your strawberry plants flowered. Small green berries appeared. You waited for the sweet, juicy harvest you had pictured all spring. But the berries stayed tiny. Some tasted so sour that they were hard to enjoy. Others looked lumpy, pale, or dry. It is easy to blame the variety or reach for more fertilizer. That may … Read more

You walk into the garden expecting to pick a few cucumbers. Instead, several leaves look as if someone dusted them with flour. The spots may seem harmless at first. Then another leaf turns white. A few days later, the coating has reached nearby vines. When cucumber leaves are turning white, powdery mildew is often the … Read more

A yellow leaf can make you reach for the watering can within seconds. That reaction feels helpful. But it can make the problem worse. Yellow leaves on plants do not always mean the plant is thirsty. Wet roots, poor light, damaged roots, pests, and nutrient problems can all produce yellow leaves. Some plants also shed … Read more

Your rose looks healthy enough, but it is not doing much. The leaves may seem pale. New stems are growing slowly. Buds appear, then stop developing. You may be tempted to bury a banana peel beside the plant and wait for a sudden burst of flowers. This popular garden trick sounds reasonable. Bananas contain potassium, … Read more

Your pepper plants are tall and green, but the harvest is still disappointing. A few flowers appear. Some fall off. The peppers that remain seem small or slow to ripen. Then someone suggests adding Epsom salt. The old advice sounds simple. Mix the salt with water, pour it around the plants, and wait for a … Read more

You wait weeks for the first cucumber of summer. It looks green, firm, and ready to eat. Then you take one bite. Instead of tasting cool and fresh, it leaves a harsh flavor in your mouth. The rest of the fruit may go straight into the compost. It is easy to blame the seed variety. … Read more

Your tomato plant looks healthy at first. Then it keeps growing taller, darker, and leafier, but hardly any tomatoes appear. The problem may be sitting in the fertilizer bottle. Many gardeners feed tomatoes every week because the label makes frequent use sound helpful. That schedule can work in some containers. It can be far too … Read more