In recent culture, we’ve had Hot Girl Summer, Hot Vax Summer, and now I give you Hot Geranium Summer. Catchy, right? No? Well, I admit it could use a little finessing. I’ll work on. It has been the summer of the geranium on my front porch, though. There are geraniums as far as the porch is long. How many geraniums are too many geraniums for one house? Is it five? I hope it’s not five because I now have five planters filled with geraniums. I’m not talking about a cute little planter you can fit in your windowsill. I’m talking about the type of planter that is so big it…

Seedling maple trees have a cool trick to protect their fragile new leaves from the sun. They can make their own “sunscreen.” Are you kidding me? I wish I could do that. I learned that cool fact this week after riding the rollercoaster of “will it or won’t it live” for a volunteer maple tree we’ve been watching grow. The emotional investment is getting out of hand. The Maple Tree’s Origin Story In the summer of 2025, we noticed a maple tree was growing out of a potted fern we had on our deck. This wasn’t completely unexpected since there is a giant maple tree in our backyard. What was…

We were doing yard work near the road recently and a neighbor walked by and said, “Hey, Man! Your flowers are so pretty.” “Thank you!” we both responded in unison as if we had everything to do with those flowers blooming. I’m fairly certain he was referencing the rhododendrons since they were in full bloom then. Truthfully, I had nothing to do with the rhododendrons blooming. I didn’t even plant them. We have three of them and I think they are older than me. Not that my kids would believe that since I was born in the *GASP* 1900s. Anyone born in the 1900s must be ancient according to them.…

Now that spring is here, many of us will be looking for excuses to be outside and gardening gives us so many excuses. Too many, really. It’s the overachiever of reasons for us to be outside. Between the weeds and the thirsty plants, it could be your full-time job. But wait. You probably already have one of those. Same. I found some fun outdoor gardening finds recently and between Mother’s Day, Easter, birthdays, etc. These are great ideas to treat yourself or someone else. Check them out! Brass Rabbit Spigot Handle | Etsy I’m into bunnies lately, so this brass rabbit spigot handle caught my eye, but it comes in…

I love buying the hydroponic lettuce from the grocery store. Did you know you can plant your hydroponic lettuce in soil, if it still has a rootball, and it will continue growing? Lettuce try it and see what happens! I don’t have a particular green thumb, so if I can do this, so can you. Here’s my simple process for getting hydroponic lettuce to grow in soil.  First, don’t pick all of the leaves off the lettuce before you want to plant it. Leave some healthy leaves on the plant. I have the best success with the lettuce continuing to grow if I plant it within two weeks of buying…

I brought our porch plants inside for the winter approximately six months ago. How many porch plants survived the winter inside on our sunporch? *drumroll please* Technically speaking, all of them. Not-so-technically speaking, our green pepper plant might be on its last leg due to pests but I haven’t given up watering it hope yet. While the pepper plant might be dropping out, the ferns are the overachievers of the group. I really wish they’d dial it back a notch. They’ve already been trimmed multiple times this winter and in the below picture, you can see their current state. To describe it delicately, they are bustin’ out of their britches,…