AMERICAN GARDENER

Invasive vines in Florida have an unusually easy path to becoming a serious problem, since the state’s warm, humid, nearly frost-free climate lets tropical and subtropical species grow year-round instead of dying back each winter the way they would almost anywhere else in the continental United States. A surprising number of the vines on this … Read more

The best flowering vines for hummingbirds tend to share a specific flower shape, a long, narrow, tubular bloom that fits a hummingbird’s bill and tongue far better than the wide, flat flowers most bees and butterflies prefer. Red and orange tones are an added draw, since hummingbirds see that part of the color spectrum especially … Read more

Invasive vines that kill trees generally rely on one of 3 mechanisms to do it, and according to Mississippi State University Extension, a vine like bushkiller can grow into dense mats over a host’s canopy that block or reduce the quality and quantity of sunlight reaching the tree below. Others kill more slowly through sheer … Read more

Weeds that grow tall reach that height through a few genuinely different strategies, and according to University of Illinois Extension, some of the tallest native prairie plants in North America, the Silphiums, achieve their impressive stature through deep taproots and rough, sturdy stems built to survive decades in the same spot rather than the explosive … Read more

Types of weeds that grow like vines share a single defining trait, a climbing or trailing growth habit that lets them reach light and space other plants can’t, but the mechanisms behind that habit vary enormously from one species to the next. Some twine their entire stem around a support, some cling with adhesive tendrils … Read more

Weeds that grow in wet areas have adapted to conditions that would drown or rot the roots of most ordinary garden and lawn plants, from waterlogged ditches and pond margins to the soggy, poorly drained corner of a yard that never quite dries out. Several of the plants on this list are genuinely dangerous, since … Read more

Not every unwanted plant in a yard behaves the same way, and according to University of Florida IFAS Extension, weeds fall into 3 broad structural categories: broadleaf weeds, grasses, and sedges, each requiring a different approach to control. Broadleaf weeds are dicots with netted leaf veins and typically showy flowers, grasses are monocots with parallel … Read more

By December, most of the country’s fields have gone quiet under frost or snow, and nearly everything on this list either survived that cold on purpose or was pulled from the ground weeks earlier specifically so it would keep. According to Oregon State University Extension, root vegetables like turnips and beets are sweeter after a … Read more

Vegetables in season in November lean heavily on 2 overlapping categories: root crops and hardy greens still standing in the garden after repeated frosts, and the storage crops harvested weeks earlier that are only now reaching their best flavor or widest availability. According to Michigan State University Extension, root crops like carrots, turnips, beets, rutabagas, … Read more

Vegetables in season in October look noticeably different from a September harvest, since most of the warm-season crops that defined summer, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and zucchini, have either finished producing or been ended outright by the first hard frost in much of the country. What replaces them is a genuinely strong lineup of cool-season vegetables, … Read more