Welcome to our blog’s advice on growing plants. Here you’ll find tips to green your thumb, whether you’re new to gardening or want to take your skills up a notch.
We dish practical guidance from planting to harvest. Learn how to start seeds, deal with pests safely, and reap abundant veggies and blooms.
Our farming experts break information down into simple steps. Follow their instructions to grow thriving container or raised bed gardens that fit your space.
Stop by regularly as we add new posts to help your garden thrive! We want to see you succeed at urban farming right at home.
The short answer: southeast or east, visible from the house, angled so the water appears to flow toward you, not away, but the placement rule is only half the story once real fish and real water depth are involved.
Your house number is the first thing chi, mail carriers, and emergency responders all use to find you, and feng shui treats getting it wrong as more than just a curb-appeal problem.
A pool is the biggest single water feature most homes will ever have, in feng shui that means it can either be the best thing you add to your property or the thing quietly draining its luck, and either way, real safety codes apply the moment you fill it.
Your garden path isn’t just how you get to the door, in feng shui it’s the first thing that decides whether energy (and good luck) actually makes it inside with you.
A stone patio doesn’t turn dark by accident, moisture, algae, and old dirt all get trapped in the same porous surface, and the real fix is sealing it before the first heavy rain, not scrubbing it after.
Most mid-summer garden checklists are exactly that, a list, with no real explanation of why any of it matters. Here are the same 7 real tasks working garden designers actually do this time of year, plus the actual research behind 3 of them that most guides skip entirely. 1. Deadhead herbaceous plants Sarah Kay, an…
These aren’t trend forecasts, they’re working rules from practicing landscape designers, the things they build into every project regardless of what’s fashionable that year. A few of these touch ground we’ve already covered in 2026 garden trends, hard landscaping trends, and what’s actually new in landscaping, worth reading if this is your first stop, but three of the…
If you’ve already read about wellness gardens, natural stone permanence, and warm minimalist outdoor furniture, you’ve covered the trends everyone’s writing about right now. This piece covers 2 of those same themes from a genuinely different angle and named source, plus 3 real trends that aren’t showing up in most of the other 2026 roundups…
Hardscaping trend pieces are full of beautiful photography and quotes from architects, and none of them ever say whether a homeowner can actually build any of it, or when a project quietly crosses the line into needing an engineer and a permit. Here are 7 real trends showing up in 2026 garden design, with an…
Most heat-stress guides treat every plant the same way, water it more and hope for the best. That’s not quite right. A wilting houseplant, a struggling tomato patch, and a stressed backyard tree are three genuinely different situations with different fixes, and almost nobody actually names a recovery timeline you can hold onto while you…
Every “garden trends” roundup this year quotes the same handful of high-end landscape designers, and none of them tell you whether a normal homeowner can actually pull any of it off, or what it costs if you’re not hiring a design firm. Here are 5 of the real trends actually showing up in 2026 garden…
Most water feature guides tell you what to buy, a pump, a liner, a nice stone basin, and leave the actual placement as an afterthought. That’s backwards. Where you put a pond or fountain determines almost everything about whether it stays clear, quiet, and running, or turns into a green, clogged mess by August. Here…
Backyard trends usually swing one direction: newer, sleeker, more minimal. Right now they’re swinging the other way. Gravel courtyards, sunken conversation pits, wicker chairs, bullnose-edged planters, the stuff that filled 1960s and ’70s backyards is showing back up in 2026, and not as ironic kitsch either. People genuinely want the texture back. Two different readers…
Stop guessing and start growing—a complete succession planting guide for suburban gardeners who want fresh blooms from May through October. 🌿 Key Findings at a Glance You can have fresh-cut flowers on your kitchen table every single week from May through the first frost. That is not a fantasy. It is a planning problem, and…
Most patio inspiration you find online assumes things that aren’t true for a lot of renters. It assumes you can drill into the wall, paint whatever you want, or drop a few hundred dollars on furniture you might have to leave behind at your next move. That’s not the reality for most apartment patios and…
A front yard fire pit isn’t the same project as a backyard one, even though most articles treat them like they are. It sits closer to the street, closer to your own front-facing windows, and it usually has to work around a driveway or front walkway instead of an open lawn. And most of the…
Most “cute front yard” roundups are just pretty photos strung together. They don’t mention the two things that actually wreck a front yard’s whole look in real life: trash cans sitting out in plain view, and a curved path that eats up half the space you could’ve used for planting. Both come up constantly when…
Before any of the design ideas, here’s the thing almost every patio extension article skips: new concrete basically never matches old concrete’s color exactly. People try to force the match anyway and end up disappointed with a visibly patchy slab. The real fix isn’t better matching, it’s not trying to match at all. On a…
Almost every “pool ideas” article is one-sided marketing photography. Nobody tells you whether a sun shelf is actually worth the money, or whether you’d be happier with something else entirely. A recent 107-comment Reddit thread asking exactly that question turned into a genuinely useful, honest debate, real love for the feature sitting right next to…
Most “fountain ideas” articles show you pretty photos and stop there. Nobody mentions what actually owning one involves, winterizing it, keeping the water from turning green, dealing with mosquitoes, or the fact that it’s going to attract every bird (and possibly deer) in the neighborhood. This one covers both: real design ideas, and the honest…
Most tanning ledge articles show you the finished photo and stop. Nobody mentions that purpose-built ledge furniture typically runs $1,000 to $2,500, and it’s one of the most commonly regretted purchases pool owners make, or that the shallow water on a ledge runs noticeably warmer than the rest of the pool from sitting in direct…
Planting Along Garden Paths: Fragrant Pollinator Borders That Keep Bees Around
Why Privacy Trees Aren’t Growing as Fast as Promised
Why Landscape Designers Say You Should Never Use Small Plants in a Small Garden (7 Options)
L-Shaped, Sloped, or Just Plain Odd: 10 Tricks for Landscaping the Backyard Nobody Else Wants
Front Door Feng Shui: 6 Fast Fixes, Including the Real FBI Lock Data No Guide Mentions
10 Foolproof Ways to Build a Home That Stays Cool During a Heatwave
Retaining Wall Block Calculator: Blocks, Gravel, and the Height Limit Most Tools Skip
Fence Material & Cost Calculator: Posts, Rails, and Concrete for Any Fence Type
