Organic Gardening News

August feels like the wrong month to be putting seed in the ground. For most vegetables, it is. Perennial wildflowers run on a different clock – many of them need a long cold, damp spell before they will germinate at all. That is exactly what happens to seed left sitting outside from now through March.

Direct sown seeds handle that process unassisted. No refrigerator space, no damp paper towels sealed in a bag. The tradeoff is patience. A few of these bloom their opening summer, though plenty spend year one on roots and only turn up properly the season after.

Perennial Seeds Worth Scattering This Month

Everything below takes cold and wet without complaint, which is the main thing to ask of anything left outdoors from September on. Zones listed apply to established plants, and seedlings in their first winter are more fragile than that.

1. Purple Coneflower

(Image credit: Mieneke Andeweg van Rijn / Getty Images)

Coneflower seed does better sown thick than sown carefully. Germination runs uneven even under decent conditions, so scattering more than seems reasonable is standard. A hand-powered spreader from Home Depot throws it further and more evenly than a fist can. Hardy through zones 3 to 9, it likes sun and soil that drains. Heavy clay that stays wet all spring rots the crowns early on. First-year plants stay low and leafy. Flowers turn up the second summer, then keep arriving for years with hardly any input.

Warm Summer Echinacea Seeds & Plant

2. Black-Eyed Susan

(Image credit: Heather Love / 500px / Getty Images)

Not much colonizes bare dirt faster. Black-eyed Susan is short-lived, usually behaving like a biennial across zones 3 to 7. It reseeds freely enough that a patch renews itself with no replanting. Surface-sow it. The seed needs light, and burying it is the single most common reason a scattering fails. Thin mineral soil works better here than a rich bed. Think of it as the crop that holds a spot while everything slower makes up its mind.

Indian Summer Rudbeckia Seeds

3. New England Aster

(Image credit: AlpamayoPhoto / Getty Images)

By the time asters open, most of the meadow has already called it a year. That late bloom is the point. It also lands as monarchs move through much of the country. Zones 4 to 8 covers most of the range. New England aster gets tall – 3 to 5 feet (1 to 1.5m) is normal – and flops over when the soil is too rich. Seed dropped on packed sod mostly washes away. Open the surface with a bow rake from Walmart, then scatter. That gives it somewhere to lodge.

Eden Brothers New England Aster Seeds

4. Butterfly Weed

(Image credit: Mike Redmer / Shutterstock)

Moving this one rarely ends well, which is the argument for scattering it where it will stay. Butterfly weed sends down a deep taproot early and resents disturbance after that. These are best suited for zones 3 to 9. Dormancy breaks only after a properly cold, damp stretch. A sowing that sits out all winter tends to beat anything attempted in spring. Progress above the surface looks slow that opening season. Push a few marking flags from Amazon in around the patch, because the seedlings are easy to mistake for weeds come April.

Eden Brothers Butterfly Milkweed Seeds

5. Lanceleaf Coreopsis

(Image credit: RobinOlimb / Getty Images)

Lean soil and full sun. There is not much else on the list for this one. Lanceleaf coreopsis is happy anywhere from zone 4 to zone 9 and often flowers its debut season, filling the gap while slower species are still working underground. Once settled, it takes over the reseeding itself. Deadheading is arguably counterproductive here, since letting seed fall is how a stand thickens up. Drought barely registers. Give it the driest strip on the property.

Eden Brothers Lance-Leaf Coreopsis Seeds

6. Wild Bergamot

(Image credit: Brian Woolman / Shutterstock)

The smell arrives before the flowers do. Crushed bergamot foliage gives off a sharp oregano-mint note. That oil is a good part of why deer walk past it. Rated for zones 3 to 9, it creeps by rhizome once established. Gaps get filled rather than held as one tidy clump. Surface-sow this one too. Powdery mildew turns up on crowded plants in humid summers, so spread the seed over a wide patch instead of concentrating it in a corner.

Eden Brothers Bee Balm Seeds - Wild Bergamot

7. Blanket Flower

(Image credit: Iva Vagnerova / Shutterstock)

Poor soil is a feature here, not a problem to fix. Blanket flower burns out fast in rich, damp beds. It hangs on for years in the gritty stuff nothing else will touch – roughly zones 3 to 8. Light triggers germination, so press the seed into contact with the surface rather than covering it over. Bloom tends to come the same year from an August sowing. The plants stay low and wide, useful along a path edge where anything taller ends up leaning across.

Eden Brothers Blanket Flower Seeds

8. Wild Blue Indigo

(Image credit: Mariola Anna S / Shutterstock)

Patience is the price of admission here. Wild blue indigo (also known as false indigo and baptisia) can take three or four years to flower from seed, which puts a lot of people off. Whatever comes out the other side often outlives the gardener who scattered it. It sits comfortably in zones 3 to 9. That seed coat is hard enough to need a winter outdoors to soften, and the taproot runs deep enough that relocating a plant later is off the table. Nick the seed lightly before sowing to hedge the bet.

Everwilde Farms Blue Wild Indigo Seeds

Dahlias are well known for putting on a spectacular show. By August, many varieties are bursting into vibrant parades of unabashed beauty. But even though they are late-season bloomers, and can theoretically delight well into fall, continued flowering is by no means a sure thing as fall approaches. Heat stress, mildew, and pests can all have an impact, not to mention just keeping those blooms standing upright.

Depending on when yours started blooming (not to mention your local climate), even the most prolific dahlia varieties might be starting to fade or flop by the tail end of summer. They’ve been hard at work putting out new growth, buds, and flowers, after all. While expending all that energy, the various perils of the season can take their toll. So while this is their prime time, it doesn’t mean you can take a step back.

The good news is that it’s really easy to stay on top of things, so your dahlias keep dazzling for as long as possible. Whether you grow sprawling varieties, pompons, or compact patio cultivars, devoting 20 minutes this week to a few thoughtful tweaks will encourage more buds and hence more beautiful dinnerplate blooms. Here’s how to keep your darlings healthy, upright, and flush with color right up to first frost.

Quick Dahlia Tasks in August

Before jumping into these easy wins, take a few minutes to check your soil moisture and environmental conditions. Dahlias originate from Mexico and Central America, where they thrive in warm days, cool nights, and free-draining soil. In temperate areas (USDA hardiness zones 3-8), or warm southern zones ( 9-11), their shallow root systems are vulnerable. Container-grown dahlias face even harsher conditions, as pot soil can reach scorching temperatures that can stop root absorption.

Dahlias need consistent moisture to continue blooming. Light, daily sprinkles will dry out quickly and don’t allow water to penetrate deeply enough to reach all the roots. Focus on watering less often (2-3 times per week) but more deeply. Water at the base to keep leaves dry and to discourage fungal infections. To get a really good sense of conditions at root level, test the moisture at a 4-inch (10cm) depth, using a simple probe like the highly rated XLUX Soil Moisture Meter, available from Amazon.

(Image credit: Martin Wahlborg / Getty Images)

Before hitting this checklist, it’s also a good idea to check and refresh the mulch around your dahlias. Where it looks dry, replace it with a 2-inch (5cm) blanket of shredded bark, such as Vigoro Premium Brown Wood Shredded Mulch, available at The Home Depot. Mulching can reduce soil moisture loss by up to 40%, giving your plants a more stable basis for the following jobs. Make a little time for these tasks now, and you’ll add loads of extra time to your dahlia’s blooming life and intensity.

1. Deadhead Flowers and Trim Back Stems

(Image credit: Libby Double / Getty Images)

Deadheading is a simple trick to keeping your dahlia blooms burgeoning into fall. Leaving spent flowers on their stems means plants start putting energy into making seeds – and essentially stop flowering. So aim to remove faded flowers right away, and make this task a twice-weekly feature. Rather than snipping just below the flower, cut just above the next set of healthy leaves. This encourages branching, resulting in bushier growth with more opportunities for flowers to develop and bloom.

To make clean cuts through thick, fibrous dahlia stems without crushing delicate vascular tissue, use razor-sharp snips like Fiskars Micro-Tip Pruning Shears from Walmart for precision trimming that won’t tear at tissue. Collect spent blooms and leggy trimmings cleanly as you move down the border. You’ll be amazed how quickly these faded heads can accumulate, so go for something sturdy, like the KingWillow Wicker Basket from Amazon which is both practical and elegantly rustic. Expect to see fresh side shoots pushing new buds within 7-10 days of pruning.

If you get confused between new buds and spent heads, here’s a quick check. The round, marble-like buds are the fresh flowers, while the pointed, squishy cones are the spent blooms that have already shed their petals. Distinguishing between the two is vital when working through heavy-flowering cactus and semi-cactus varieties. Get this right, and your future showstoppers are well on their way.

2. Switch to a Bloom-Boosting Fertilizer

(Image credit: Valeriy_G / Getty Images)

Dahlias are heavy feeders and benefit from regular feeding through the growing season. While you may have used a balanced fertilizer earlier in summer, now is the time to focus on the flowers, which means more potassium and less nitrogen. Nitrogen encourages foliage growth, while potassium is necessary for flower bud formation. Too much nitrogen produces weak, hollow stems that are incapable of supporting massive flower heads like those of Labyrinth or Emory Paul.

This month, you need a general flower-boosting product or any fertilizer that emphasizes potassium and phosphorus. This will help you to drive those extra blooms and intensify petal pigmentation, and it will also strengthen the plant’s tuber reserves for winter storage. Look for a 5-10-10 or 3-4-6 ratio, such as with Espoma’s Tomato-tone, available from Amazon. However, resist the urge to overfeed. Adding more potassium won’t magically create more flowers. The goal is to create balanced nutrition that supports a healthy plant while encouraging ongoing blooming.

To help with root structure and essential trace minerals, supplement every fortnight with an ocean-derived tonic like kelp or seaweed. For a budget booster, try Bloom City’s Organic Liquid Seaweed and Kelp Fertilizer from Walmart to nurture that generous bloom party. Remember to always water the root zone before applying liquid or granular fertilizers to prevent nutrient root burn.

3. Support Long Stems

(Image credit: Martin-Wahlborg / Getty Images)

Depending on your dahlia variety, your gorgeous blooms may be accompanied with very tall stems. However, heavy flowers can cause even strong stems to sag or flop. A single dinnerplate dahlia bloom can retain several ounces of rainwater, instantly doubling its weight and snapping unsupported main stalks with upsetting finality. So you need to check the strength of any supports you have in place, especially for massive decorative and dinnerplate varieties reaching 4-5 feet (1.2-1.5m) in height.

Add additional stakes at this point if necessary. Bamboo stakes are a great, natural choice for holding up dahlia stems and flowers. You can get affordable batches of bamboo online. Try Backyard X-Scapes 4ft Natural Bamboo from Walmart which arrive in packs of 25. These have natural yield but hold up well against late summer winds. Drive supports into the ground at a slight outward angle, inserting them 12 inches (30cm) deep and at least 2-3 inches (5-8cm) from the main tuber crown.

Use flexible, soft ties to secure stems to them. Stretch tape works well, or you can use twine like Nutscene Heritage Green Jute Garden Twine from Amazon for gentle support. Use a figure-eight pattern to avoid stem chafing against the stakes in windy conditions. Don't wrap ties tightly around soft green stems: always allow a little slack for stem expansion as the plant continues to grow. Properly secured plants will weather heavy summer downpours without losing a single bloom head.

4. Strip Lower Leaves to Support Airflow

(Image credit: Jacky Parker Photography / Getty Images)

Dahlias are prone to certain fungal infections, especially powdery mildew, which thrive in moist conditions with poor airflow. The lower foliage can become dense and even touch the ground, where it can pick up spores. Stripping this bottom foliage, often referred to as bottom-pruning or skirting, opens up the airway, allowing morning breezes to dry out soil and eliminate the conditions fungal spores need to germinate.

Target yellow leaves, damaged leaves, and those close to the ground. This simple task prevents vulnerable leaves from getting and staying damp. As an extra preventative measure (or if you aren’t sure which leaves to take), you can also get Arber Organic Bio-Fungicide from Walmart to keep botrytis at bay. Remember to use these treatments early in the morning or at dusk so you don’t scorch the leaves.

If you see any visibly infected foliage, remove it and dispose of it. Do not put it in a compost pile. Where you suspect an infection may have affected a part of the plant, spray the foliage with a gentle sulfur alternative, such as Captain Jack's Copper Fungicide Concentrate, available from Lowe’s. You can also prevent fungal diseases by watering carefully at the base of each plant, avoiding getting the leaves wet, and watering in the morning so leaves have a chance to dry through the day.

5. Watch for Pests

(Image credit: Maryviolet / Getty Images)

Check your dahlia plants regularly for signs of pests, so you can manage them before they turn into a major problem. August heat accelerates pest life cycles, allowing thrips, spider mites, and nocturnal earwigs to multiply rapidly. Thrips cause discolored or distorted flowers, like stippling, deformed buds, and silvery patches on leaves. Spider mites leave delicate webbing, while earwigs cause ragged bites in leaves and petals. Earwigs are particularly destructive to dahlias, because they hide inside developing bloom buds during the day and feast on petals by night.

Inspect petal crevices and leaf undersides. You can blast mites and thrips away with a strong spray of water. Honestly, this is a satisfying job, especially when you know you are keeping your dahlias in good fettle for a few more weeks of color. You can also manage pests organically with a neem application like Captain Jack’s Neem Max Concentrate from Walmart. Dilute and spray the leaves of your plants, then wipe. Use a pressurized pump sprayer like the Chapin 1-Gallon Lawn and Garden Sprayer from The Home Depot for an efficient mist application across dense dahlia borders.

Shop Dahlia Care Essentials

(Image credit: Alex Manders / Getty Images)

Keeping your dahlias standing tall, healthy, and covered in massive blooms through fall doesn't require a shed full of chemicals. A few treatments and protective supports is all it takes to ensure a spectacular show right up until the first frost. Here’s my trio of go-to treats for gorgeous dahlia blooms:

Organic Control

Arber Arber Organic Biofungicide Concentrate

Humid weather creates ideal conditions for powdery mildew and leaf spot. This OMRI-listed biological spray uses beneficial soil microbes to protect dahlia foliage from fungal diseases, keeping leaves clean, green, and photosynthesizing efficiently.

Flower Fuel

Espoma Espoma Organic Tomato-tone

Late-summer dahlias need potassium rather than nitrogen to fuel continuous flower production. This organic liquid fertilizer delivers high-potash nutrition that sparks continuous new buds and intensifies petal color.

Foliage Defense

Captain Jack's Bonide Captain Jack's Neem Max Concentrate

Warm summer weather brings out thrips, spider mites, and aphids in earnest. This 3-in-1 spray helps you to keep one step ahead of buggy despair, protecting delicate dahlia petals and keeping foliage healthy all the way through the blooming season.

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Urn planters are everywhere this summer, and there’s no doubt who’s leading this huge garden trend as Anthropologie just expanded its already-excellent range of pedestal pots. These shapely vessels have been status symbols since Romans first commandeered storage urns to decorate their swanky villas. Centuries later, once European royal families favoured using them as planters, urns became a stylish staple of landscaped gardens.

Now this classical shape is enjoying its most recent resurgence, and because of their long history and associations with high society, urn planters will bring an air of effortless elegance to any garden. As container gardening ideas go, this is such an easy upgrade that will suit every backyard.

While you may need a pretty opulent pay packet to afford Anthropologie urn planters, ravishing as they may be, there are plenty of dupes that can give your backyard the look for a whole lot less. I’ve rounded up the very best urn planters to match the dreamiest offerings from Anthropologie, so we can all enjoy this timeless trend – and the cheapest of these good value planters is currently on sale for less than $5. So, if you want to enhance your garden design on a budget, now's the time to add some iconic style to your patio without splashing the cash.

Antique Elegance

Dream buy

Handmade Cast Iron 41" Urn Planter

Budget buy

Traditional 16" Whitewash Plastic Urn

Bargain buy

European Vintage Pedestal Planter Pot

Stately Swags

Dream buy

Floral Swag 20" Terracotta Urn Planter

budget buy

16.5" Magnesium Oxide Urn Planter

bargain buy

17" Large Antique White Plastic Urn Planter

Charming Chalices

dream buy

Cast Iron Handled 16" Urn Planter

budget buy

18.5" Metal Urn Planter in Bronze Classic Antique Iron

bargain buy

Vintage 13.6" Iron White Urn Planter in Faux Stone Finish

Grecian Good Looks

dream buy

Handmade 11" Low Cast Iron Urn Planter

budget buy

Pequena 17.3" Fiber Clay Urn Planter

bargain buy

Root & Vessel 18" Grecian Urn Planter

Ancient Opulence

dream buy

Barnacle Thistle 31" Earthenware Urn Planter

budget buy

Darcy 16" Durable Polyresin Urn Planter

bargain buy

Modena 16" Sandstone Fiber-Clay Urn Planter

What to Plant in an Urn Planter

Any happy-in-a-pot perennial that brings maximum flowers for minimum effort, year after year, is an easy win in any container, and an urn will elevate the most humble of plants to stylish new heights. But urn planters invite you to break the rules, too. Their iconic shape speaks of centuries of style so you can afford to be bold with the planting. These on trend planters afford all sorts of opportunities regular pots don’t, too, so you use their height to dramatic effect.

For a start, as well as planting your usual pot thrillers and fillers, any container plants with trailing stems will spill dramatically over the rim of an urn planter. Or how about planting a fall-flowering clematis in your pedestal planter so the vine cascades over the container rim to pool in a beautiful sea of blooms around its base?

Plants with a naturally arching habit work so well in urn planters, too. Feather Falls Carex grass (available from Burpee) boasts an evergreen fountain of soft, variegated blades for a container that looks luxuriant all year round. Growing Blue Cascade Rosemary (available from Nature Hills) in an urn planter is also a delight as the stems of this low-maintenance shrub grow up as well as down, and its evergreen foliage is joined by blooms in the most beautiful blue hue from spring to fall.

Because the pedestal elevates the planting, you can create layers of vertical interest, too, especially if the urn is to be positioned on the patio – or a smaller, squatter design on a table – where it’ll be viewed from a seated height. Pair a standout evergreen ornamental grass such as Blue Whiskers Blue Fescue (available from Plant Addicts) with Plentifall Lavender Blue trailing pansies (available from Burpee) for a texture treat that’ll delight all through fall and winter.

More Dashing Dupe Urn PlantersEarthy Vibes

dream buy

Classical Terracotta 17" Urn Planter

budget buy

Aged 16.25" White Cast Stone Fiberglass Ornate Urn Planter

bargain buy

Retro Pedestal Urn 11" Plastic Planter

Beautiful Bowls

dream buy

Washed Stone 27.5" Urn Planter

Budget Buy

MGO 14" Urn Planter With Drainage Hole and Stopper

bargain buy

Better Homes & Gardens 20" Urn Planter

Classic White

Dream buy

Aeros 17" Ceramic Urn Planter

Budget buy

Allen + Roth 15.91" Indoor/Outdoor Urn Planter

Bargain Buy

My Texas House 16" Asti Urn White Recycled Resin Planter

Stately Gray

Dream buy

Concrete Fluted Edge 16" Urn Planter

Budget buy

Nearly Natural 16.5" Decorative Gray Urn Planter

Bargain Buy

Larisa Grey 16" Resin Composite Urn Planter

Bronze Beauties

dream buy

Flared Burnished Bronze 16" Indoor Urn Planter

budget buy

17.5" Bronze Metal Self-Watering Urn Planter

bargain buy

Arcadia 10" Brushed Plastic Indoor/Outdoor Urn Planter

Golden Greats

Dream Buy

Footed Latticework 17" Urn Planter

Budget buy

Rosdorf Park Metal 8.75" Indoor/Outdoor Planter Gold

bargain buy

Fleur De Lis Indoor/Outdoor 14.5" Urn Planter

Woven Textures

Dream Buy

Terrain Rattan Oversized 16.5" Urn

Budget buy

My Texas House 16" Brown Woven Resin Urn Planter

Bargain buy

14" Brown Woven Urn-Style Planter With Scalloped Rim

Use an Urn Planter to DIY a Water Feature

A bowl-shaped urn planter can be used to make a stylish DIY water feature using a solar-powered floating fountain by sealing the drainage hole with a marine silicone sealant such as Star Brite Waterproof Sealant from Amazon. Or how about standing your urn planter in a wider container to make a standout planter with a water feature at its center?

There are so many quick and clever ideas for container planting that work in an urn planter, so get creative and treat your patio to a standout display, without breaking the budget.

Confession time: I’ve never been particularly excited by dandelions. Oh sure, they may be cheerful and surprisingly useful to pollinators, but when one pops up in the garden, my first instinct is usually to glare at it. Very suspiciously.

Apparently, though, my heart is a fickle thing. Because as soon as I spotted a pretty pink version of the classic dandelion at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, I suddenly understood why designers were giving it so much attention (and why Audrey Hepburn’s “I believe in pink” line still gets quoted so much all these years later).

Crepis rubra, commonly known as red-flowered hawks’ beard or pink dandelion, has the familiar shape of a dandelion but swaps its usual golden-yellow flowers for (you guessed it!) delicate shades of pink. The result is much softer, and feels much more romantic-looking, resulting in a plant that feels surprisingly sophisticated in a garden setting.

Hate Dandelions? This Pretty Pink Version Is The New ‘It' Flower

The pink dandelion was one of the plants that caught my eye among the show gardens at Chelsea, and I wasn’t alone. There’s something about those simple, open flower heads that makes them instantly appealing – particularly when planted among grasses and other naturalistic planting.

Rather than looking like something you’d spend the summer trying to eradicate from your lawn, then, pink dandelions )available to buy from seed here) look like a deliberate design choice... and there are a few more benefits to growing these pretty blooms, too.

(Image credit: joerglondong / 500px / Getty Images)

Yes, much like the classic dandelion, Crepis rubra attracts bees and other pollinators, making it a lovely addition to a wildlife garden that looks good and does better for the world around it.

It’s also wonderfully unfussy, especially considering it has show garden status now. You can try growing it in any well-drained soil in full sun . It is also considered a drought-tolerant plant, making it naturally suited for low-water or neglected garden spots (aka all of them, considering our recent stint of hot weather) once its roots are established.

It's a reminder that sometimes the smallest twist on a familiar favorite can make us see it in a completely new way. And it's not the only bloom proving that pink has the power to transform even the most unexpected flowers.

Shop Pink Flower Seeds:

Sherwoods Seeds Pink Dandelion Taraxacum

If you love the idea of a pink dandelion, this is the real thing. Unlike Crepis rubra, Taraxacum pseudoroseum belongs to the true dandelion genus and produces soft pink flowers with golden centers. It's a quirky choice for wildlife-friendly gardens and offers all the charm of a classic dandelion in a much prettier package.

Mountain Valley Seed Company Scabiosa

Another favorite in naturalistic planting, scabiosa's delicate pink and purple blooms float above slender stems from summer into fall. Bees and butterflies adore them, and they're drought tolerant once established, making them a great companion to Crepis rubra.

Outsidepride Purple Echinacea

If you want something with a little more height, pink and purple coneflowers bring the same relaxed meadow feel as a pink dandelion, and all while providing months of color and nectar for pollinators. They're also famously resilient, thriving in sunny, dry gardens.

I suppose the biggest takeaway from all of this is that a dandelion can look so much more appealing when you change the color. The pink and oh-so-romantic cousin has that effortlessly easy-breezy quality designers love, while the compact size makes them easy to imagine tucked anywhere in your own yard.

So, while I don’t think I’ll be rushing to welcome every dandelion that appears in my lawn (old habits; I am trying, though, to leave a patch for the bees!), these pretty in pink versions have convinced me that perhaps I was being a little too hard on the humble dandelion family after all.

And hey, if they're good enough for RHS Chelsea, they' re definitely good enough for me!

October through April is a long stretch for a vegetable bed to sit bare. Six cover crops worth sowing after the last harvest, each with its hardiness range and the beds it tends to follow best.

A cleared row in September looks finished. It isn't. Whatever the tomatoes or the sweet corn pulled out of that ground is gone for good. Rain keeps working on what's left through the cold months too, packing the surface and pushing nutrients past the root zone.

Cover crop planting handles most of that for the price of a seed bag. Living roots keep soil microbes fed when there's nothing else down there to eat, and the top growth goes back into the ground come spring. Different crops do different jobs, though. One fixes nitrogen while another drills through hardpan. Matching the crop to what it follows is where the payoff sits.

Cover Crops Worth Sowing After the Harvest

Sowing runs about the same for most of these. Clear the spent plants, scratch the surface open, broadcast by hand, then cover the seed and water it in if the forecast looks dry. A steel bow rake from Amazon buries seed better than a leaf rake will. Timing matters more than the seed choice, so count backward from the average first frost date.

1. Winter Rye

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

Nothing else germinates as late as winter rye, also called cereal rye. Winter rye comes up in soil as cool as 34F (1C), which buys extra weeks when the peppers hang on into October. It overwinters clear to zone 3. And it's the roots you're paying for, not the top growth — a dense fibrous mass that holds a loose bed together through freeze-thaw. Rye also puts out compounds that suppress small-seeded weeds, useful after a weedy squash patch. That same chemistry can stall carrots or lettuce sown too soon, though. Give it three or four weeks. Cut it low with a hand sickle from Amazon before the seed heads push up. Heirloom winter rye seeds can be purchased from True Leaf Market in small or large quantities to suit your needs.

2. Crimson Clover

(Image credit: Nnattalli / Shutterstock)

Six to eight weeks ahead of the first hard freeze is the window for planting, here. Sown later than that, crimson clover comes up thin and winter takes it. Given the head start, it overwinters as a winter annual through zone 6. Nitrogen returned by spring bloom can land near 70 to 130 pounds per acre (78-146kg per hectare). Sweet corn and brassica patches both leave the ground hungry, so either one makes a sensible landing spot. April flowers earn their keep on top of that — crimson spikes covered in bees, right when little else is open. Heirloom crimson clover seeds can be found at True Leaf Market and will keep weeds at bay through the winter.

3. Hairy Vetch

(Image credit: zzz555zzz / Shutterstock)

On its own, hairy vetch sprawls into a mat that's miserable to cut. Sown alongside rye it climbs the stems instead. The pairing covers two jobs at once, nitrogen from one and structure from the other. Hardiness runs to zone 4 under snow cover, dependable up to zone 8. Broadcast them together at close to even weight, then rake in about an inch (2.5cm) deep. Tomato beds are the classic use, with decades of trial work showing better yields and slower foliar disease where tomatoes go into mowed vetch residue. The catch is reseeding. Let it mature and volunteers could turn up for years, so terminate at early bloom. Find hairy vetch seeds at True Leaf Market.

4. Daikon Radish

(Image credit: koromelena / Getty Images)

Daikon radish taproots drop 10 to 14 inches (25-36cm) into decent ground, sometimes deeper, punching channels through the compacted layer under a hard-worked plot. Then it dies. Anywhere temperatures settle near 20F (-7C) the plant winter-kills and the root rots in place, leaving the holes behind and nothing to terminate in spring. Sow six to eight weeks before frost. Seed goes shallow, a half inch (1cm) at most. Skip it where cabbage or kale just came out, since daikon is a brassica itself and stacking brassicas invites clubroot. You can find bulk daikon radish seeds from Outsidepride on Amazon.

5. Buckwheat

(Image credit: TodayDesign / Getty Images)

Beds that become free in July don't have to sit empty until fall. Buckwheat shades the ground fast and flowers in 30 to 40 days. That leaves room for a full cycle before cool-season crops go in. It pries loose phosphorus that is bound up in the soil, then hands it back as the residue breaks down. Hoverflies and small native bees work the blooms hard, too. Frost finishes the plant, so treat it as a gap-filler rather than winter cover. Mow at first bloom, or smother the stand under a black silage tarp from Amazon for two weeks. Find buckwheat seed from High Mowing Organic Seeds and sow 45 days before first frost.

6. Lacy Phacelia

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Native cover crops get recommended on principle. For soil work it only carries so far, since a root either opens the ground or it doesn't. Above the bed is where native species pull ahead. Phacelia, native to the Southwest and northern Mexico, sits in the top tier of pollen plants for honeybees. Also called purple tansy, its roots catch nitrate that would otherwise leach away over the wet months. Winterkill lands near 18F (-8C), so most gardens sow in early fall and let the cold handle termination. Partridge pea covers similar ground east of the Rockies, a native annual that fixes nitrogen on its own. None of this has to be perfect. A patch with something green on it in January is already ahead of one sitting bare. Lacy phacelia seeds can be purchased from HadiahGarden on Etsy.

If you’ve been reliably feeding hummingbirds in your garden all summer, then it’s time to make things personal and see if your hummers will eat out of your hand. And there's nothing else quite as heartwarming as hand-feeding hummingbirds. You’ll hear the buzz of their wings beating over 50 times a second, and feel the air disturbance, too. The best bit though? Having such a tiny creature place its trust in you.

Research shows that hummers remember their favorite feeders so, if your garden is full of regular visitors, you’re in with a good shot of achieving this summer dream. Hummingbirds are unlikely to hand-feed in spots they don’t consider regular sources of food, so you’ve already done most of the hard work. If you’ve also been feeding hummingbirds with nectar-rich flowers and helping them keep feathers clean with a floating solar fountain in a tub of water, they’ll be spending plenty of time in your yard and feeling pretty comfortable. They’ll also likely be accustomed to your presence.

Because hummingbirds can fly backwards – and they’re the only bird that can intentionally do so – they’re able to get themselves out of trouble, fast, which is why hummers are among the easiest birds to hand-feed. But there are a few critical secrets to get hummingbirds to feed from your hand.

(Image credit: Getty Images)1. Start With a Bigger Hand Feeder

You’ll make faster progress if you start with a bigger handheld feeder with two or three feeding ports such as this iBorn Mini Bird Feeder From Amazon. These are easier for birds to spot and hummers will gain confidence more quickly if two or three can feed together at the same time.

Once you’ve gained the hummingbirds’ trust, that's the time to move on to using smaller individual feeders such as these hand feeders from Walmart. You can either hold these flat in the palm of your hand, use the ring attachment, or wrap your finger and thumb around them to offer hummers a perch. Younger children often get on better with individual feeders with wrist straps such as this Hummingbird Wrist Feeder Set from Walmart. You can even buy hummingbird feeder hats – but begin with a big, basic handheld feeder.

2. Get Birds Used to You and the New Feeder

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Set up your handheld feeder close to, and preferably next to, the hanging feeder hummers visit most regularly. Handheld feeders with suction-cup holders such as these iBorn Window Hummingbird Feeders from Amazon make it easy to attach a feeder securely to a non-porous surface, which saves spills. Depending on the design of your main feeder, you may even be able to attach the handheld design directly to it.

Keep both feeders filled with nectar such as this dye-free hummingbird food from Walmart, or a homemade syrup of sugar and water. To keep food fresh, change every other day once temperatures top 27°C, and every day over 32°C.

At the same time, make sure you’re present in the garden often when hummingbirds are feeding. Experiment with moving closer to the birds, always stepping away if they startle. Rather than focusing on the birds, try walking past the feeder without looking at them, so they don’t feel threatened by your presence. Sit down near the main feeder, too, reading a book or listening to music with wireless earbuds so you don't focus on the birds.

3. Stay Still as a Tree

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Once birds have started using the small feeder as well as the hanging one, and they’re not startled by your presence, you can move on to the next step. Remove the main feeder to reduce options for the birds, hold the handheld feeder away from your face, and be patient.

Trying to stay entirely motionless will make you tense your muscles and you’ll inadvertently scare the birds away with your body language. Instead, think about staying as still as a tree. So, root yourself to the ground – which is much easier if you’re sitting in a chair with your arm or elbow anchored on a firm surface – and think about being still like a tree, making small, gentle movements but keeping your trunk in one spot.

4. Wear Red

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Even if it’s just a hat or some nail polish, wearing red will attract hummingbirds. Thanks to the filters in their eyes, hummers can see warm colors far more easily, and have learnt that bright red typically rewards with nectar, whether that’s from flowers or a feeder.

5. Feed Early and Late

Hummingbirds feed most actively early in the morning and late in the afternoon, so targeting your feeding time to coincide will speed up the process. Consistency helps, too. Hummingbirds have great memories so if they expect to see you by the feeder every morning, they’ll get used to you far more quickly.

6. Don’t Look Directly at the Feeder

(Image credit: Getty Images)

This is the biggest mistake people make when they're wondering how to hand feed hummingbirds, and the hardest step of all to achieve! All prey animals are acutely aware of being watched and will interpret a direct gaze as a potential threat and stay away. So, while you’re gaining the birds’ trust, try looking to the side of your hand, and you’ll enjoy far more success. If you can, resist the urge to look at the birds until they get more comfortable, and then try sliding your eyes sideways to look at them rather than moving your head to view them directly.

What Not to Do

• Don’t be tempted to touch or stroke the hummers. Even a tiny amount of the natural oils and sweat your fingers deposit on a bird’s feathers will destroy their capacity for insulation and waterproofing.
• Don’t move quickly. If birds are still feeding when you need to finish up, move slowly and smoothly to set the feeder down in its usual spot.
• Don’t forget to hang the main feeder back up again when you’re all finished.
• Don’t startle if a bird lands on your hand. While you’re unlikely to ever tame hummingbirds, they will quickly get used to you and start using your fingers as perches. Their tiny claws tickle rather than scratch and, as these birds only weigh a few grams, you’ll barely feel it.

Wearable Hummingbird Feeders

These feeders take handheld hummingbird feeders to a whole new level of garden fun!

Bird's-Eye view

Hummingbird Feeder Hat Clip

Poop-Proof

Hummingbird Feeder Helmet

Ringside seat

Hummingbird Flower Ring Feeder

Unless we live in an area that just so happens to have the perfect level of rain, our plants are going to need some watering from the tap on a regular basis. Without it they'll dehydrate, wither and feel incredibly worse for wear.

However, there are actually a lot of hidden chemicals within the water coming out of our taps, and as much as most plants won't be impacted by them the more delicate ones in our collection of greenery may suffer. Watering your garden shouldn't feel scary!

Whether you're just curious to learn more or you're hoping to help your plants out, you've come to the right place. I chatted with plant pros and a water filter specialist about the AQUA CREST Garden Hose Water Filter from Amazon to learn how it can improve tap water for plants to drink. It's such a simple addition to your life yet it can make such a difference.

What is the AQUA CREST Garden Hose Water Filter?

Aqua Crest Garden Hose Water Filter for Plants, NSF/ANSI Certified

The AQUA CREST filter is a garden hose attachment that fits onto the thread of a standard 3/4 inch garden hose to remove chemicals from tap water. It can remove up to 97.3% of chlorine present in the water as well as sediment and metals such as lead and mercury.

It's a great product because as much as it removes potentially harmful chemicals it's still able to preserve the naturally good elements that may be present in your tap water including nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, which assist the growth of plants.

You can purchase one filter for $18.99, a pack of two for $30, four for $41.99 or six for $54.99. They would make great gifts for gardeners in your life or would be an ideal purchase to split with a green-fingered neighbor.

What Can the Substances in Tap Water Do to Plants?

(Image credit: Kinga Krzeminska / Getty Images)

Chlorine and heavy metals in tap water vary depending on your local area, but chlorine is generally stronger in water than the ratio of metals.

According to Brian Campbell, Lead Water Nerd at Water Filter Guru: "While most plants are able to survive when exposed to chlorinated water, repeated exposures can affect sensitive seedlings, new transplantings and beneficial soil microorganisms that contribute to maintaining healthy soils."

By using a water filter like this the water coming out of your tap will more closely resemble rainwater, which is the water plants are naturally used to.

Brian also noted a benefit of removing heavy metals from tap water, sharing how they otherwise "tend to accumulate in soil over long periods of time." This can lead to the roots of your plants becoming stunted, leaf burn, soil microbe health being thrown off, and metals making their way into your edible crops.

What Else Can I Do With Watering To Help My Plants?

(Image credit: Maryviolet / Getty Images)

If you're looking for another simple way to bring healthier water to your plants, Chrissie Handley, a lawncare specialist and gardening expert at Online Turf, has a great suggestion - add a water butt (also called a rain barrel) into your garden! This way, you can collect rain water to replace or supplement any other watering done using water from your tap. This rain barrel from Amazon has a flat back so it fits snugly against the house while it collects water from your downspout.

She explained: "If you want untreated water for your plants, then your best bet is to go straight to source – invest in a water butt so you can naturally collect rainwater, rather than trying to make your tap water more suitable. The water will then be softer and free from additional chemicals – it also saves you water, so reduces your water bill and is great for times like this where there are hosepipe bans in place, as this bypasses this and means you have a backup reserve of water to use in periods of hot weather."

Brian also suggested doing what you can to "determine and understand what's actually in your tap water" as "water quality varies greatly depending on where you live". You can purchase tap water testing kits like the Bestprod Water Testing Strips from Amazon, and they will tell you the levels of chlorine and metals that your water contains.

A Note on Watering Lawns

Chrissie shared some specific insight on whether she believes a filter like this is necessary when watering a lawn as opposed to other plants in your yard.

Her overall answer was no, unless you're prone to getting the water on more delicate plants in the process of watering the rest of your yard.

Chrissie explained: "You don’t really need a filter like this for a lawn, typical grass types like perennial rye grass and fescue are pretty resilient to chlorine, so it won’t harm them. However if you have sensitive plants like spider plants, or peace lilies nearby, then it can stunt their growth or brown their leaves if they have high levels of chlorine in the soil, so it's then possibly a good investment to by a filter!"

Shop Water Filtration Supplies

120 strips

Bestprod All-New 21-in-1 Water Testing Kit Strips

This kit contains 120 strips to test your tap water for hardness, lead iron, chlorine and more.

100 strips & 2 Bacteria kits

Varify 17-in-1 Complete Drinking Water Test Kit

This water test kit contains testing strips as well as two separate kits to check for bacteria in your water.

On Sale Now

Craft911 Water Tester for Drinking Water

If your concern for your plants has left you worrying about whether your tap water is safe to drink, this simple device will tell you clearly whether your water is safe, poor or unsafe to consume.

Le Creuset Canada opened a new Signature Boutique today at West Vancouver’s The Village at Park Royal, marking the brand’s third location in B.C. and bringing its network of stand-alone Canadian stores to 13.

“As Le Creuset continues to grow across Canada, Park Royal stood out as the perfect home for our next Boutique,” said Sarin Keusseyan, managing director at Le Creuset Canada. “It’s vibrant, walkable village atmosphere aligns beautifully with our vision for an elevated, interactive retail experience. We’re thrilled to welcome West Vancouver shoppers into a space that celebrates our heritage of craftsmanship and colour.”

The new store follows a retail format the brand has used at its other Canadian locations, with open shelving and island-style displays allowing shoppers to browse cookware, bakeware, dinnerware and home accessories in a hands-on setting.

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Founded in Fresnoy-le-Grand, France, in 1925, Le Creuset is now globally renowned for its enamelled cast-iron cookware, particularly its signature Dutch ovens, and has since expanded into stoneware, stainless steel and kitchen accessories available in a wide range of colours.

The Park Royal opening builds on Le Creuset’s existing South Granville and Richmond boutiques and reflects a broader push by the cookware company to expand its direct-to-consumer retail presence across the country.

Le Creuset said in a press release that it is “proud to deepen its presence in British Columbia” with the new location and views the opening as a chance to reach home cooks, culinary enthusiasts and design-minded shoppers in the area.

The Le Creuset Signature Boutique is now open to the public at Unit B8, 940 Main Street, West Vancouver.

Find out more.

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WEN DT1516 Dethatcher

Power: Mains electric 15 amp, 3300 rpm

Effective width: 16-inches

Uses: Dethatching and scarifying

Positions: 5, from +1/4 inch to -1/2 inch depth

This WEN DT1516 Dethacher is a mains powered model which offers a power 15 amp setup to get a 3300 rpm drive. That means the 24 teeth, which span 16-inches, to give a wide cutting area for faster coverage of your lawn space.

Usefully this also has scarifying teeth, should you wish to change between the two as you need. That means control over sensitivity but also depth thanks to five positions ranging from plus a quarter inch to minus half an inch in depth. Plus there's a collection bag to make the job even easier.

Pros

• 2-in-1 design
• Main powered
• Wide 16-inch path

Cons

• Need mains power
• Not the cheapest

Sun Joe AJ801E Scarifier

Power: Mains electric 12 amp, 2990 rpm

Effective width: 13-inches

Uses: Dethatching and scarifying

Positions: 5

The Sun Joe AJ801E Scarifier offers a decent amount of power from the 12-amp motor than spins up to 2,990 rpm at full speed. This offers 20 slicing blades which run up to an effective working width of 13-inches making it ideal for smaller yard spaces as well as larger lawn areas.

This comes with a dethatching head also allowing you to work more gently with your lawn space as needed. There is also an 8-gallon collection bag to make quick work of not only pulling out but also clearing of the dead grass layer.

Pros

• Ideal for smaller spaces
• 2-in-one design
• Decent catch bag

Cons

• Lower speed than some
• Not ideal for larger lawns

Scarifying and dethatching can both provide excellent results in lawn health and appearance, but it's important to know the difference between each tool so that you don't cause more harm than good.

While they both essentially remove debris from the lawn, there are some key design and performance differences that can affect the impact that it has in your backyard. A common misconception is that the machines are large, heavy and bulky, but the process of scarifying and / or dethatching can easily be carried out at home whilst fixing patchy grass with more portable, maneuverable machines.

We've caught up with a few lawn care experts to help you determine which tool is best for the job. It may seem like a brutal task but, carried out correctly, a scarifier or dethatcher could yield greener, healthier grass when spring arrives.

What's the Difference?

Physically, a scarifier uses hooked spikes to scar the earth and pull up the thatch whereas a dethatcher uses thin straight spikes to pull out thatch without as much grass damage in the process.

We spoke to gardening expert Adam Woolcott about the differences between the two. "Dethatching is the gentler of the two processes removing moss, dead grass and weeds as well as other detritus from the lawn using metal tines, possibly down to but not below ground level," he explains.

"This opens the grass up to the air and light, allows the rain to penetrate and encourages fresh, healthy grass to grow back without the smothering effects of everything it was competing with previously."

The key difference comes down to the length of the spikes and the impact on your lawn: "Scarifying does the same as above but to a much greater extreme with blades that actually penetrate and cut into the soil leaving slits in the earth."

John Parker, general contractor and founder of Easy Pool Cleaning, adds that "scarifiers don't just remove the thatch; they dig deeper, taking out debris and aerating the soil."

"Dethatchers are milder and more focused," Parker explains. "They remove the thatch layer without delving too deep, leaving some thatch behind." Post-treatment, grass tends to recover faster after dethatching as compared to scarifying. Former Gardening Know How Senior eCommerce Manager Allie Kerkhoff always battled moss in her Pacific Northwest lawn until she used a dethatcher. Thirty minutes was all it took to clear her lawn of moss. Not too shabby!

(Image credit: Greenworks)Why Use Them?

Overtime, the lawn can build up a layer of thatch from dead grass and natural debris – a layer sitting between the grass top and the roots below. This can be useful as a way to help trap moisture and renew your soil by composting, but once this reaches more than half an inch it can start to suffocate the grass by cutting off nutrients and stopping water flow to the soil.

Sally Allsop, owner of gardening blog All That Grows, explains why you should use these tools to promote a healthier lawn.

"A scarifier is used to aerate a lawn. It's designed to help water, air and nutrients reach down to the root of the soil and cut through weeds," she explains. This is done using metal spikes that dig into the soil, reducing soil compaction and encouraging new grass growth.

A dethatcher, on the other hand, is the softer approach as it doesn't go below ground. "A dethatcher is used to remove thatch from the surface," Sally adds. It doesn't dig into the soil in the way that a scarifier would, but it helps to remove dead grass, roots, and other build-up on the surface of the soil.

Which is Best?

Whether you pick a scarifier or dethatcher largely depends on the state of your lawn. Dethatching is far more gentle for well established or young lawns, whereas a scarifier is great for a fresh start or for a deeply built up lawn that needs a tough touch.

If you already have a ride-on lawn mower then a pull-behind attachment is a great option. As scarifiers can be quite heavy duty, you may find there are more dethatcher options available, like this dethatcher attachment from Brinly-Hardy at the Home Depot.

Garden and landscaping expert Tom Su (and owner of Lawn Edging) explains when you should choose a dethatcher or scarifier. "Dethatchers are more about surface-level cleanup, removing that layer of organic debris. Scarifiers go deeper to relieve soil compaction and promote better grass root health."

He adds that "dethatching might be needed more often, especially if you have fast-growing grass types or use a lot of fertilizers. Scarifying can be more of an occasional treatment, depending on your lawn's needs."

As scarifying is a much more brutal process, it can be best to save it for when a lawn is in need of a major clean up. Unlike dethatching, it digs deep into the soil, taking out unwanted debris and aerating the soil. Dethatching may be best if your lawn needs a quicker, gentler revival.

FAQsWhen should you scarify a lawn?

In most parts of the US, scarifying in spring or early fall is generally recommended. Scarifying at other times of year may limit regrowth, leaving the lawn thin and patchy for a long period.

With that said, some experts argue that scarification shouldn’t be done at all, as it may harm the lawn more than it helps it. The scarification process inevitably does short-term damage to the lawn, and it may also decrease the lawn’s biodiversity. Think carefully about when to scarify your lawn – and if you go ahead, scarify at a time when the grasses will get a warm-weather window of time for regrowth, immediately after scarification.

When should you dethatch a lawn?

The best time of year to use a dethatcher will vary depending on your local climate. Basically, it’s better to dethatch at a mild or warm time of year when the grass can regrow quickly.

Another determiner is the type of grass: specifically, whether your lawn is made up of cool season grasses or warm season grasses. Cool season grasses are best dethatched during late summer or early fall, while warm season grasses should ideally be dethatched in late spring or summer.

Most expert sources agree that you should avoid using a dethatcher on your lawn outside of its growing season, or at times when the grass is stressed due to an issue such as excessive heat or dehydration.

How can I care for and maintain a scarifier?

Generally, the most important thing is to keep your scarifier clean. Soil, dirt and debris can build up on both the cutting tools and the anchor points, so it helps to use a damp cloth and a metal-safe cleaning solution, like this Resinate Green Cleaning Solution, to wipe down the cutting equipment. Any remaining dirt can be cleaned up with an elongated brush.

If yours is a gas model, it's worth checking your spark plug to make sure there are no difficulties when starting the engine. It's also important to check the oil level and remove any dried oil residue.

• TIME: 5 minutes
• RATING: Easy
• REWARD: Saves hours of weeding

Ornamental grasses bring a wonderful structure of golden stems that lasts all through winter and – less lovely – a mass of seedlings that I used to spend hours weeding out of borders every spring. I’m really not a fan of weeding, so I’ve come up with a novel solution that works a treat: using a $4 metal dog comb to give my grasses a groom in August. And this is a weekend win you simply can't afford to ignore if you want to reduce weeds in your garden, too.

Grooming ornamental grasses in late summer is a useful weed prevention step because it removes any seeds that aren’t firmly attached, and safely deposits them in a bucket. Most ornamental grasses produce an inordinate number of seeds and it’s estimated the most prolific varieties can produce up to a million seeds in one season. These tiny, lightweight seeds, typically held high in highly-branched plumes where they catch the breeze, are easily dispersed to self-seed all around a garden.

And don’t worry for a second that this five-minute gardening job will affect how beautiful your grasses look all through fall and winter. Any seedheads that are well-attached stay in place, and will be removed when you prune old stems in early spring.

The Best Comb For Grooming Ornamental Grasses

(Image credit: Emma Kendell)

I have many species of grasses growing in my low-maintenance garden and I’ve tried all sorts of different combs to find the most effective type. My tool of choice is a metal dog comb such as this $4 8-inch dog comb from Amazon. It's strong, and the end with closely-spaced teeth is great for grooming smaller grasses and those with super-fine blades like Stipa Tenuissima ‘Pony Tails’ (Mexican feather grass), while the less-dense tines work better for bigger grasses such as Stipa gigantea (golden oats).

How to Groom an Ornamental Grass in August

All you need to do is gently comb through the blades of grass from base to tip.

(Image credit: Emma Kendell)

Any loose seedheads will be removed, and you'll be surprised how many come off with just a gentle groom. All those could have grown into weeds!

(Image credit: Emma Kendell)

Collect the excess seed in a bucket. As you’ll know all too well if you grow ornamental grasses, grass seed is resilient and quick and eager to grow, so be careful how you dispose of them. If you regularly turn your compost pile to accelerate decomposition, it may reach high enough temperatures to destroy seed viability, but I don’t like to take the risk so I put these garden groomings in my collected green waste bin.

(Image credit: Emma Kendell)

Some ornamental grass blades can irritate and even cut skin so it’s a wise idea to wear gloves. I find nitrile gloves such as these $2 Expert Gardener Gardening Gloves from Walmart give good grip and dexterity as well as protection. And don’t make the same mistake I did last year and wear black jeans!

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Why it's Well Worth Doing

Not only does a quick grass-grooming save me hours of weeding, it also improves the look of these plants through late summer and fall. Many ornamental grasses are bred to flower profusely and, as these dry into seedheads, the stems can become a tangled, matted clump. This stops the plants from moving freely, which is one of the most attractive aspects of ornamental grasses at this time of the year. By removing some of the seedheads, you restore movement, and allow the beauty of individual stems to be appreciated.

If you’ve used ornamental grasses to plant a natural privacy screen, this separation of stems makes for a more effective, airy barrier to block nosy neighbours too.

Many ornamental grasses have been triggered by this summer's heatwave to flower and seed even more heavily than usual, as a survival response.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Taking five minutes to give your ornamental grasses a quick groom with a cheap metal dog comb in August is such an easy win, and will save you from having to pluck out thousands of germinated seeds come spring. Because no matter how fabulous a plant is, if it's growing where it's not wanted, it's a weed!

Add this quick task to your list of August gardening jobs, and it will save you hours of weeding too.

More Garden Weekend Wins

This August Weekend Win is part of a series of quick and easy gardening jobs to help you create a beautiful backyard with the minimum work. There's still time to do last weekend's win, trimming lavender in August so it has time to grow a duvet of dense foliage before winter.

Ever wondered which birth month biennial is yours? They are the forgotten stalwarts of the flower bed, but they truly truly tap into that idea that there are few things in gardening more satisfying than doing a little work now and knowing you'll be rewarded for it months later.

Sow biennials in late summer, give them time to establish, let them settle through winter and, when the timing is right, they'll come back ready to flower. It's a slightly unusual arrangement, true, especially for gardeners accustomed to instant gratification. Annuals give us all flowers in a matter of weeks; perennials promise to return year after year. Biennials? They occupy that wonderfully patient middle ground – they're here now, but they're really making plans for later.

Now, as I've become slightly obsessed with matching everything in nature to our personalities, this spoke to me. After all, we have birth month flowers, birth month trees, birth month birds and even birth month animals – and I've happily fallen down rabbit holes about birth month bugs, vines, groundcovers and all sorts of other wonderfully specific natural-world pairings. So why not birth month biennials?

All 12 Birth Month Biennials

Some biennials are flamboyant and impossible to ignore, sending towering flower spikes above the garden. Others are quiet and understated, spending their first season building roots and foliage before suddenly bursting into bloom. And some self-seed with wild enthusiasm, while others reward patience with an almost ridiculously beautiful display.

So, if you're planning what to sow this summer – or simply enjoy discovering what your birth month says about you – these are the biennials I'd pair with each month of the year. Just remember to check your local growing conditions and seed-packet instructions before you sow!

January – Foxglove

(Image credit: Oksana Schmidt / Shutterstock)

Foxgloves don't need to shout to make an impression; give these birth month biennials time and they eventually send tall flower spikes soaring above the border, each stem lined with spotted, bell-shaped blooms that seem almost too delicate for such a substantial plant.

That quiet determination is very January. After all, babes born in this month are often described as ambitious, independent and natural leaders – people who don't necessarily need constant attention to know where they're going. Foxglove has much the same energy, taking its time to patiently build itself up, before arriving the following year and making everyone look up.

Just remember that foxgloves are highly toxic if eaten, so they're best admired rather than sampled. Go for something like the Dalmatian Purple Foxglove from Walmart if you want vivid purple blooms.

Shop Foxgloves:

Nature Hills Nursery Lucas Pink Foxglove

The pretty pink hue of this foxglove looks so striking against a green backdrop.

RedCrocus Dalmatian White Foxglove

This one is great at attracting pollinators and adding a classic charm to gardens.

DIRECT GARDENING Candy Mountain Foxglove

This foxglove variety is a favorite among butterflies and other pollinators, and is a true beauty.

February – Dianthus

(Image credit: YasuJP / Getty Images)

Ah, dianthus! The showy flowers of this birth month biennial arrive in dense little clusters, often in wonderfully rich shades of pink, red, white and purple, with markings that make every bloom look slightly different from the next.

It feels ever so unique and creative, which suits the personality of imaginative and original-thinking February babies everywhere. After all, people born in this month rarely seem content with doing things exactly the way everyone else does them, right?

Dianthus has the same cheerful refusal to be boring – and, fortunately, you don't need to wait until next year to appreciate the reason gardeners have loved it for generations. Try something like the Firewitch Dianthus from Nature Hills for fringed petals with a spicy fragrance, stat!

March – Forget-Me-Not

(Image credit: Albert Fertl / Getty Images)

Some flowers seem to carry a story with them, and forget-me-nots are one of them. Their tiny blue flowers appear almost impossibly delicate, but once established they can create an enchanting haze of color through a spring garden.

The name alone gives away some of their personality. March-born people are often described as compassionate, intuitive and deeply imaginative, with a tendency to notice feelings and details that other people overlook. It makes sense, then, that their birth month biennial feels like the botanical equivalent of keeping an old photograph in a drawer because you simply can't bear to throw it away.

Quiet, sentimental and a little bit magical? Well worth the price of a packet of Forget Me Not Seeds from Amazon, I say!

April – Hollyhock

(Image credit: Alex Manders / Shutterstock)

If there is one thing hollyhocks have never learned, it's how to be subtle. These birth month biennials can tower above a garden, covering their tall stems with enormous flowers in shades of pink, red, yellow, white and purple. Plant one against a fence or wall and suddenly you have a floral skyscraper... and, honestly, April couldn't have asked for a better match.

HOME GROWN Hollyhock Summer Carnival Mix Flower Seeds

The most sunshine-coded hollyhock hues ever? I think so!

Bold, energetic, brave and charismatic, April babies aren't exactly built for blending into the background. Hollyhocks aren't either. Remember that when you plant them, OK? They deserve the spotlight!

May – Canterbury Bells

(Image credit: Topaz777 / Getty Images)

Canterbury bells have an old-fashioned charm that I never seem to get tired of. Their cup-shaped flowers rise above the foliage in clusters, creating that quintessential cottage garden look with ease.

They're cheerful, dependable and surprisingly versatile – the kind of flower that works almost anywhere you put it. And that makes them the ideal birth month biennial for May, quite frankly! Because when something needs doing, a happy-go-lucky May baby is usually already halfway through it.

Celebrate the May-borns in your life, then, with a packet of Canterbury Bells Double Mix from Amazon.

June – Honesty

(Image credit: Emine Kamaci / Shutterstock)

Also known as lunaria and money plants, honesty is one of those plants that makes you look twice – for good reason! First come the pretty flowers, usually in shades of purple, pink or white. Then the seed pods appear as translucent discs that catch the light and almost look like little silver coins hanging from the stems.

And just like that, this birth month biennial makes itself a perfect match for the endlessly charming, witty and open-minded people born in June – all of whom seem to have an absolute gift for communication.

A plant that gives you one beautiful display and then reveals an entirely different one once the flowers are gone? Whatever month you're born in, bag yourself some Money Plant Lunaria Seeds from Burpee(the seed pods are arguably the best part).

July – Evening Primrose

(Image credit: Taesam Do/Getty Images)

There is something wonderfully romantic about a flower that saves its best performance for the evening, right? And evening primrose does just that, opening its yellow blooms toward the end of the day, when many other flowers are beginning to close up for the night.

It's a small reminder that not every beautiful thing needs to happen in broad daylight, and that makes this birth month biennial feel particularly suited to July personalities.

Caring, empathetic and deeply protective, July-born people are often the ones who notice when somebody needs a little extra attention. Like evening primrose, their appeal isn't necessarily loud or immediate. Give them time and you'll see it (especially if you plant something like the Fireworks Evening Primrose from Nature Hills!).

August – Black-Eyed Susan

(Image credit: Herman Bresser / Getty Images)

If August were a flower, I'd struggle to think of anything more cheerful than a black-eyed Susan, as they are basically sunshine with roots!

Honestly, those golden-yellow petals surrounding dark centers have an almost ridiculous ability to make a garden look happier. They're also wonderfully hardworking, flowering through summer while attracting bees, butterflies and other pollinators.

August personalities have a similar warmth to their birth month biennials. Confident and ambitious but also generous, they're the people who bring energy into a room and somehow convince everyone else to have a good time too. All hail those lovely summer babies!

Shop Black-Eyed Susans:

Nature Hills Nursery Prairie Glow Black - Eyed Susan

Unlike your typical Black-Eyed Susan, Prairie Glow is a showy hybrid that sports airy, branching stems and masses of smaller daisy-like flowers.

Nature Hills Nursery Little Suzy Black - Eyed Susan

These natural dwarfs are prolific bloomers, with showy display starts in mid-summer and lasting well into fall.

Nature Hills Nursery Glitters Like Gold Black - Eyed Susan

The Glitters Like Gold Black-Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia x 'Glitters Like Gold') boasts large, radiant ray-petalled blooms with raised chocolate brown centers!

September – Caraway

(Image credit: Iker Zabaleta/Getty Images)

Caraway isn't the obvious choice for a birth month biennial, true, but hat's precisely why I like it. This herb spends its first year quietly building a rosette of foliage before sending up delicate flower heads in its second.

It is pretty in a very understated way, true, but it is also useful – and once you know what those seeds can do in the kitchen, its charm becomes much easier to appreciate. And all of this ties in well to the meticulous and oh-so-ambitious nature of September personalities, who are rarely interested in doing something simply for show. They want it done properly (and, ideally, they want to know exactly how it works too).

Time to buy some Caraway Herb Seeds from Isla’s Garden Seeds, I say!

October – Stock

(Image credit: Hana Richterova/Getty Images)

Stock might just be one of the most underrated flowers for anyone who loves fragrance. Because, sure, its blooms can be beautifully ruffled and romantic, but it's the scent that really makes it memorable.

Plant it somewhere you pass regularly and you'll find yourself stopping simply because the air smells so good. And that easy charm feels very October (and I should know, folks; this is my month!).

Yes, balanced, diplomatic and naturally friendly, October babies are said to have a way of making people feel comfortable around them. Stock doesn't demand your attention either; it simply gives you another reason to stop and linger. Try something like Evening (Night) Scented Stock Seeds by Matthiola Bicornis, then, and you are in for a treat.

November – Wallflower

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The clue is in the name with this birth month biennial! Sure, wallflowers have a reputation for growing in the cracks and crevices where you might not expect much to thrive, producing beautifully fragrant flowers despite their rather unassuming appearance.

They're also a lot more interesting than they first appear. And, while November personalities are often described as passionate, determined and strong-willed, there's usually a private side to them, too. Wallflower feels like the perfect match – a plant that doesn't necessarily reveal everything at first glance, but rewards you handsomely with that magnificent scent once you take a closer look.

Go for something like these Siberian Wallflower Seeds if you want beautiful cut flowers.

December – Sweet Rocket

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Sweet rocket asks for a leap of faith; sow it one summer and, for months, it seems content to do very little at all. Then the following year it erupts into fragrant spires of lavender, white or pink flowers that perfume the evening air and draw in bees and butterflies by the dozen.

That delayed reward? Well, it means it feels a wonderfully fitting birth month biennial for the generous and optimistic souls born in December. After all, they have a knack for looking ahead rather than dwelling on what's already behind them. Sweet rocket is a gentle reminder that not every reward arrives straight away – and that some of the most beautiful things in the garden are those that make you wait.

Bag yourself some Sweet Rocket Seeds from the Tomorrow Seeds Store, then, and plant yourself a treat to discover in years to come.

Andrews McMeel Publishing Floriography: an Illustrated Guide to the Victorian Language of Flowers

Floriography is artist and illustrator Jessica Roux’s full-color guide to the historical uses and secret meanings behind an impressive array of flowers and herbs.

I know that biennials get a bad rep, largely because you sow them now without getting an immediate payoff. All that patience, though? It more than pays off when they finally reveal what they've been working toward all along... and reward our patience in a very big way!

And if you're sowing this August, there's an even better reason to plant your birth month biennial; doing so means that the garden you're planning for next year has already begun. What could be better?

There’s a fruit tree in my backyard that is rapidly becoming my nemesis. When I first clapped eyes on my Oullins greengage, I believed it was love at first sight. Bewitched by the idea of soft, sweet plummy goodness, I nurtured my tree through the first few weeks with a combination of pelleted chicken poop, arborist wood chips, and wishful thinking. And at first, things seemed great, and my valiant little stone fruit leafed up a treat…

Until the unthinkable happened: the leaves started dropping off. And they kept dropping, no matter what I did. In the last few months, I’ve tried all sorts, from iron chelate to country music (hey, sometimes it works). I’ve amassed quite the arsenal of plant treatments in my journey as a tree parent, trying to nurture my grouchy greengage back from the brink. But it’s gone from a leafy bright young thing into a petulant teenager with just the two wonky tree arms bothering to do anything useful. It actually looks like it’s raising those arms in the air now and asking “why bother?”

You’re probably wondering why I’m talking about a fruit tree that is struggling despite being lavished with an embarrassing amount of attention. Well, it’s because I genuinely feel the pain of the frustrated fruit-grower. And sometimes (as much as I love gardening) I really do crave an easier fruiting win. Just a bit. I’m still learning as I go, but one thing I do know is this: it’s important to have trees that don’t keep throwing a tizzy, because… well, we all deserve some easy fruit in our lives. Fancy seeing my pick of the effortless fruiting heroes that just get on with it and don’t act like stroppy teenagers? Read on, friends…

Planting Trees that Thrive on Neglect

Fruit trees that thrive on neglect might sound like an urban myth. It’s true that the most easy-going plant buddies will be better company if you give them a little encouragement here and there. But this resilient selection really can make the best of things, even in modest growing spaces, from teensy balconies to crowded container gardens. The important thing is that before you pick your fruit tree, you take a moment to assess your potential planting spot. Most thrive across broad USDA hardiness zones (6-10), if you match their basic needs for sunlight and drainage. Most require at least 6 hours of sun, and fast-draining soil is a must.

A little prep goes a long way toward giving your young tree a stress-free start, especially if you are planting in late summer. Whether you’re working with lean garden soil or a large pot, it’s wise to add some rich, crumbly compost. I also like to add a sprinkle of biochar to the base before planting, to help improve water retention where the roots will need it most. I’m a fan of Rosy Soil Biochar Booster, available from Amazon, to give that gentle lift to young roots ahead of winter and improve aeration in a friendly, organic way. But don’t worry, there isn’t much more necessary to treating your planting site.

(Image credit: Alexander Knyazhinsky / Shutterstock)

If you’re planting in late summer or early fall, opt for container-grown trees. Bare-root plants can scorch in late-summer heat, while containerized plants are more forgiving. In fact, potted trees offer a bonus: during extreme heatwaves, you can tuck your newly potted tree into partial shade on a covered porch for a bit to avoid transplant shock, before sliding it into its permanent spot. To make the transition smooth, dig your hole or fill your pot in a cooler evening moment, soaking the root zone after planting to remove air pockets.

Once your tree is planted, treat Year 1 as settling in. Yes, I am urging you to manage your expectations a tad, but it’s important. While mature trees are fine with missed waterings and droughts, young roots need moisture for their first few months. Water deeply every few days, when the top couple of inches (5cm) of soil feel dry, and topdress the base with a 2-3-inch (5-8cm) layer of organic wood mulch (keeping it a couple of inches away from the trunk). Once autumn rains arrive and those roots lock into place, you can step back, put your feet up, and let nature do the heavy lifting with these 6 gorgeous fruity superstars below…

1. Jujube

(Image credit: Andrii Zorii / Getty Images)

The jujube (Ziziphus jujuba), also known as the Chinese date tree, is the ultimate hero for hands-off fruit growers. Capable of reaching 15-20 feet (4.5-6m) at maturity, it can be kept in a large 15-20-gallon container, with a bit of casual late-winter shaping to naturally twisted branches that add year-round character to patios or south-facing fences. Happy in summer heat, freezing winters, and poor soils, jujubes thrive in zones 6-10. They are also self-fertile, so a single tree will yield a prolific crop of sweet, apple-like crispy fruits that dry into rich, date-like treats in late summer. And you don't have to wait ages for that first date. Grafted young jujubes are gleefully precocious, often yielding their first crop 1-2 years after planting.

Just tuck your jujube into the hottest, sunniest corner of your yard and make sure the soil has good drainage. This tree craves warmth and full sun (at least 6 hours daily) to turn raw sunlight into sugary fruit. Over-caring is honestly the only real threat to this tough cookie. In the first year, water deeply once a week, and snip away any dead, damaged, or crossing branches in late winter, along with any stray suckers. And that’s it! If you’re the patient sort, you can pick up very reasonable nursery pot with MicroStarts Jujube Trees from Walmart.

Make a Date MicroStarts MicroStarts Jujube Double Tree Starts (GA-866)

2. Dwarf Mulberry

(Image credit: Naveed Hussain / Alamy)

If you love the sweet, intense flavor of dark berries but don’t have space for a big beast, dwarf mulberries (Morus alba or M. nigra cultivars) are yummy little fruit machines. Growing to 6-8 feet (1.8-2.4m) tall, these niblets form a dense, ornamental bush or small standard tree. They are fast-growers that thrive in zones 5-10, they are self-fertile, and they will treat you to a continuous crop of tangy blackberry-like fruits through summer – often within their first year. Choose 'Dwarf Everbearing' or 'Mojo Berry' tiny trees that give huge yields. You can buy Everbearing Mulberries from Fast Growing Trees in a variety of sizes, currently for 20-30% off. You can also get Plant Nook Dwarf Mulberry Starter Plants from Walmart.

Dwarf mulberries fit right into urban balconies, small yards, and tight patio setups, and they are easy to tuck into sunny nooks or alongside pots of mint and strawberries. Give them a decent amount of full sun or partial shade, since the more sun they get, the sweeter and juicier those nummy fruits will be. After the first few weeks of watering, mulberries are seriously low-maintenance. Pruning is as simple as it gets: because they fruit on new growth, a quick snip in late winter to remove deadwood or curb height is all it takes.

Little Snack Machine Fast-Growing-Trees.com Everbearing Mulberry Tree

3. Persimmon

(Image credit: Volff / Alamy)

For a vibrant fall fruiting tree with cinnamon-sweet crops, the persimmon (Diospyros kaki or D. virginiana) is a genuine pleasure. It can reach 10-15 feet (3-4.5m) tall at maturity, but is easily kept at 6-8 feet (1.8-2.4m) in containers. And as fall rolls round, those glossy green leaves flush up with rich vibrant tones that signpost the treats to come. As the tree sheds its leafy load, bright tomato-sized fruits hang like little dreamy lanterns, creating a lush specimen through early winter. Persimmons are virtually immune to pests and blessedly disease-resistant. Thriving in zones 6-10, most cultivars are self-fertile. And while grafted trees require a little patience, that first glowing harvest should come 2-3 years after planting.

Pop your persimmon tree in full sun for honey-sweet fruits. They prefer well-draining, slightly acidic-neutral soil, but are delightfully forgiving once established. During the first summer, water deeply once a week. Because persimmons fruit on current season's growth, heavy pruning isn't necessary and can actually reduce your yield, making them a dream for hands-off gardeners. A lot of persimmons online are sold as seedlings, but you can buy 2-foot (60cm) Tazgo Persimmon Plants from Walmart. If you’re willing to pay a little more for a bigger tree, you can get LA Tropic Persimmon Trees from Amazon as 3-feet (90cm) specimens.

Fruity Fall Feast TAZGO Sweet Persimmon Tree Starts (2)

4. Fig

(Image credit: SabbirDigitall / Shutterstock)

Ah, figgy goodness. I have two separate little Brown Turkey fig trees (Ficus carica) in my backyard now and they are both thriving, even in my teensy green kingdom. Few pleasures compare with the squidgy anticipation that comes when cupping that first silky, tear-shaped treat of the season (and all the others after that). Reaching 8-10 feet (2.4-3m) in the ground, or a cozy 4-6 feet (1.2-1.8m) in a pot, this Mediterranean gem throws out epic masses of lobed leaves that I love almost as much as the fruit (almost). You can currently get 20% off Plants That Work Brown Turkey Fig Trees from Nature Hills.

Figs are tailor-made for container living, preferring their roots to be slightly restricted for maximum fruit. Place in the sunniest spot you can find, like a south-facing wall or open balcony. They’re golden with poor soils and missed waterings. In fact, giving them too much love with rich fertilizer can backfire, causing a flush of leaves instead of fruit. Young potted figs are delightfully quick to reward you, often producing their first squidgy treats 1-2 years after planting. Keeping them going is almost too easy. Simply snip away deadwood or pinch back main growing tips in late spring to encourage branching.

Patio Powerhouse Plants That Work Brown Turkey Fig Tree

5. Pomegranate

(Image credit: Cavan Images / Getty Images)

Just because you’re after easy homegrown wins, that doesn’t mean you have to deprive yourself of flamboyant fruity character. Pomegranates (Punica granatum) add a splash of exotic luxury to your outdoor space. These darlings of the superfruit tribe are naturally bushy and multi–stemmed. While some forms can reach 12 feet (3.6m) at maturity, you can also keep one thriving as a potted 5-foot (1.5m) dwarf specimen for a real wowser. And what a treat it can be to see those fiery blooms in late spring and early summer, before fall rewards you with a flush of shiny globes, stuffed full of juicy, jewel-shiny antioxidants.

Pomegranates have epic drought tolerance and heat resistance in zones 7-11, and they are eager to please, typically yielding their first fruits 2-3 years after planting. Just give them 6-8 hours of sunlight daily to help them develop those ruby colors and rich sugars. Pommies can handle lean, sandy, or alkaline soils with ease. During their first summer, just water deeply once or twice a week and remove low suckers to maintain a clean shape. Ultra-compact ‘Nana’ is great for patio containers, but if you want a cold-hardy pom to stand up to a nippy winter, then buy Russian Red Pomegranate Trees from Fast Growing Trees.

Stunning Superfruit Fast-Growing-Trees.com Cold-Hardy Russian Red Pomegranate Tree

6. Loquat

(Image credit: Sherly348 / 500px / Getty Images)

For a tropical fruit tree that stays lush year round, the lovely loquat (Eriobotrya japonica) is a knockout. Because it’s a broadleaf evergreen, those massive, leathery leaves double brilliantly as a year-round privacy screen. Reaching 10-15 feet (3-4.5m) in the ground, or 6-8 feet in a large container, it flips the typical fruiting schedule on its head. Delicate white flowers bloom in late autumn and winter, paving the way for clusters of dainty apricot-orange fruits you can harvest in late spring when nothing else is fruiting. And if that wasn’t enough to convince you, they taste like fragrant peaches. And you get absolutely loads of them.

Thriving in zones 7-11, loquats are virtually pest-free, handle heat with ease, and are self-fertile. Grafted young trees are fast growers, often delivering their first fruit clusters inside a couple of years. Perfect in a sun-drenched yard or urban patio, they cope beautifully in full sun or part shade, and tolerate a range of soil types, as long as drainage is good. Just water frequently in the first summer. Simply snip off dead branches right after harvesting, or tip-prune for a bushier shape. You can buy a Flora’s Market Store Loquat Fruiting Tree from Amazon, which comes with its own planting mix and guide, making it great for beginners.

Unique Evergreen Flora's Market Loquat Tree Large Fruiting Tree, Includes Planting Kit

(Image credit: Bmanzurova / Getty Images)

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It’s easy to imagine birds migrating - flying in flocks high in the sky, wings beating. But butterflies? Their wings are small, beautiful, and fragile as flower petals. Yet migrate they do…thousands of miles. For example, monarchs in North America travel up to 3,000 miles south each fall to overwinter in central Mexico.

If you want to welcome these wonderful, weary wanderers this fall, it is high time to start installing plants for migrating butterflies. To welcome butterflies into your late-summer and autumn garden, you can plant live potted perennials or late-season starters right now for heavy nectar production before frost.

If you want to provide a feast for butterflies on their way south in the fall, your best bet is to plant nectar-rich, fall-blooming flowers. If you haven’t thought of this until summer, you still have the time. Here are some of the top choices to consider.

1. Butterfly Bush

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Is there a butterfly bush (Buddleia spp.) in a neighbor’s garden or a nearby park? It’s the shrub that’s famous for long, honey-scented flower cones that attract bees, hummingbirds, and butterflies.

Visit one in late summer and you’ll see the origins of its common name. Billions of butterflies – or so it seems – flock to the shrub to enjoy the nectar from early August into fall. Planting a butterfly bush is a direct invite to these lovely migrators.

Yours is not likely to be the first butterfly bush that the migrating monarchs get to know. In the North, the shrubs flower a little earlier and monarch butterflies feed on their nectar from early July until they head south.

Plant your butterfly bush in well-draining soil in a full sun location. It needs at least 8 hours a day of sun to stay blooming strong. These bushes are hardy in USDA zones 5-9. Some cultivars will grow knee-high, while others will tower over you.

Explore gorgeous butterfly bushes online from the Home Depot.

2. Mexican Sunflower

(Image credit: Rachata Teyparsit / Shutterstock)

Okay, Mexican sunflower (Tithonia rotundifolia) is an annual, but it’s a tall, vibrant, colorful annual that produces brilliant fiery-orange, daisy-like blooms. They are magnets for pollinators like bees, hummingbirds, and butterflies.

This imposing plant can grow to 6 feet (2 m) tall and its vast crop of velvety, daisy-like flowers blooms from midsummer until frost. The plants require little know-how to grow, but they will make your backyard into a fueling station for migrating monarch butterflies.

Plant these fast-growing flowers anywhere. They’ll grow across USDA hardiness zones from 2a to 11b. The open blooms of this plant have such a rich concentration of nectar that they are top of the list for migratory butterflies, helping the annual monarch butterfly migration.

In fact, monarchs rely on Mexican sunflowers to refuel them along the way. The plant is considered an endangered species, so don’t hesitate to bring them into your landscape in a site that gets full sun.

Remember that this Central American native loves heat and grows fast. The stems grow to 5-6 feet (1.5-1.8 m) tall and the flowers sit right at the top. As unfussy as a plant can get, these annuals thrive on neglect and bloom until the first hard frost.

You can buy Mexican sunflowers to grow from seed at Lowe's.

3. Tatarian Aster

(Image credit: magicflute002 / Getty Images)

Gigantic, tough, yet beautiful, the native perennials known as tatarian asters (Aster tataricus) are perennials, thriving in USDA zones 3-8. This type of aster flowers from late summer to the first frost, offering dense clusters of lavender-blue blooms, providing a just-in-time meal for migrating butterflies. The flowers can also go purple, pink, or white.

Tatarian aster is huge – growing to 6 feet (2 m) tall and half that wide. The flowers appear in late summer and just keep blooming until a frost kills them off. That makes them a late-season feast for butterflies, including the migrating monarchs passing through the garden.

Plant these tall asters in the back of borders to use their height as an advantage, not a challenge. These asters need full sun and good drainage, but otherwise, ask nothing. They are vigorous growers and can spread quickly.

Tatarian asters can be hard to find at the nursery, but you can get them online from Etsy.

4. Purple Coneflower

(Image credit: DB Beyer / Getty Images)

Purple coneflowers (Echinacea purpurea) are native to North America, and like so many native wildflowers, they are tough, easy-care, and their flowers are beloved by pollinators.

This coneflower grows to 5 feet (2 m) tall and 2 feet (0.6 m) wide, its branches smothered in distinctive daisy-like flowers – think rosy-purple petals circling a spiny orange cone. Blooming is in full swing from midsummer into fall.

Echinacea is hardy in zones 3 to 9. Plant it in a full sun location in a spot with well-drained soil. The migrating butterflies will flock to the spiky core in the center of the flowers.

But that’s not the limit of its benefits to wildlife. The seed heads provide food for goldfinches as other flowers fade and the growing season winds down. Its long bloom time and resilience make it a must-have in my pollinator garden.

You can shop a wide array of echinacea flowers from Wayside Gardens.

Gardening rules are mostly seasonal, though nobody labels them that way. Deadhead, feed, prune, weed, tidy up. Those instructions arrive in spring with no expiration date attached, so people keep following them straight through August out of pure habit. A few of them stop helping around now. A couple start doing real damage. The garden would be better off if you sat down instead.

Anyone told how to start a garden has heard most of these, usually as flat commands rather than seasonal ones. The plants themselves have moved on. Growth is slowing, energy is heading down toward the roots, and a whole category of chores has quietly become optional.

Rules That Expire Around Mid-August

None of this means abandoning the garden. The job changes, though. It shifts from pushing growth to letting plants finish what they started on their own schedule. Most of the payoff lands next spring rather than next week, which is probably why these habits are so hard to drop.

1. (Don't) Deadhead Every Spent Bloom

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Deadheading in June keeps flowers coming. Doing it in late August throws away the entire point of the season. Coneflowers, sunflowers and rudbeckia turn spent heads into seed right when goldfinches are raising a late brood. That timing is not luck. Goldfinches nest later than almost any songbird precisely because they wait on that seed. Leave the heads standing and the birds find them without any help. Self-sowing annuals do that very same thing. Let cosmos, larkspur and nigella drop their seed and next year arrives free, or collect a few heads into seed envelopes from Walmart and decide where they go yourself.

2. (Don't) Feed the Perennials and Shrubs

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Nitrogen tells a plant to grow. That is a fine instruction in April and a genuinely bad one now, because the soft green growth it produces has no time to harden before frost arrives. Tender shoots going into a cold snap are the ones that blacken and die back.

Woody plants have already shifted into storage mode, moving sugars down into roots and stems for winter. A feed interrupts that process at the worst possible moment. Put the bag away until spring. Container plants still flowering are the one reasonable exception, since they are annuals headed for the compost pile anyway. Nothing about their winter matters.

3. (Don't) Prune for Shape

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Shrubs cut now respond the way they always do, by pushing new growth. The trouble is, that growth has weeks rather than months to firm up. Producing it also spends sugars the shrub banked for winter, leaving less in reserve for February. Taking off the outer canopy also exposes interior branches that have spent all summer shaded, and bark that has never seen direct sun scalds easily in late-season heat.

Broken and diseased wood still comes out whenever you find it, since that is removal rather than shaping. Everything cosmetic waits for dormancy, and by then the plant has nothing left to lose by being cut. The shrub will look no worse in the meantime.

4. (Don't) Pull Every Last Weed

(Image credit: Ekaterina Savyolova / Getty Images)

Spring weeding decides whether seedlings survive. August weeding is mostly about how the bed looks from the driveway. Established plants have already claimed their water and light, and a few latecomers underneath are not taking much. Every pull disturbs the fungal threads and soil life that spent all summer settling in. Roots left in the ground hold a bed together through fall rain. Your back gets the rest as a bonus.

There is one hard exception. Anything setting seed comes out today, because a single pigweed left to ripen seeds a bed for years. A weeding knife from Amazon lifts a taproot cleanly without turning over half the bed. The rest can stay.

5. (Don't) Cut Back Yellowing Foliage

(Image credit: Qwart / Getty Images)

A plant heading into dormancy empties its leaves before it lets them go. Sugars and stored nutrients move down into the roots and crown, and the yellowing is that transfer showing on the outside. Cut the stems green and the whole shipment goes to the compost instead. Dry and brittle is the signal, not the first hint of yellow. Leave the leaves on the stem while that happens, since cutting at the base ends the transfer just as surely as stripping the foliage does. Vegetable crops winding down get the same treatment. Diseased foliage is the exception. That comes out the day you spot it, bagged rather than composted.

6. (Don't) Keep the Lawn Green

(Image credit: Nickbeer / Getty Images)

Brown grass in August is not dead grass. Cool-season lawns go dormant on purpose when heat and drought arrive, shutting down top growth while the crowns and roots stay alive underneath. Established lawns handle several weeks of it without harm. Fighting dormancy with daily sprinkling wastes water and grows shallow roots into the bargain. A dormant lawn does want a drink eventually. Water your lawn with roughly half an inch (1.3cm) every two or three weeks keeps the crowns alive without waking anything up. It greens back up on its own once nights cool and rain returns, usually within a fortnight of the weather turning.

7. (Don't) Clear Beds Down to Bare Soil

(Image credit: Big Shot Theory / Getty Images)

Bare soil is the tidiest a bed ever looks and the least useful thing it can be. Fallen leaves and hollow stems are where a long list of native bees, beetles and moth pupae spend the winter. Hauling all of it off in September removes next year’s pollinators along with the mess. Bare ground also crusts over and erodes through the fall rain. Rake what blows onto the lawn, leave what settles in the beds, and top it with shredded mulch from Home Depot if the look bothers you. The cleanup still happens either way. It just happens in April, once the pollinators have overwintered and had a chance to leave.

As you read and learn about a specific plant’s pruning needs and preferences, you may develop some pruning anxiety. With such specific pruning rules, you may feel like you need a diagram next to a plant to prune it properly.

But not all plants are fussy about pruning. Many plants are much more laid back. One of my favorite forgiving plants to care for are tomato plants. But even though growing tomatoes and pruning them the right way is easy, there are still some important guidelines you need to follow for the best results.

Pruning tomatoes the proper way and at the proper time can increase your yields, make harvesting easier, and keep plants pest and disease-free. Here’s how to prune tomatoes for healthy plants and bigger harvests.

Should You Prune Tomato Plants?

The answer to this question is actually a personal one. Some people assert firmly that pruning tomato suckers improves the production and health of a plant by improving airflow, which can reduce the spread of disease. Others claim that pruning tomato suckers damages the plant unnecessarily, opening it up to disease without providing considerable benefits.

Your tomato plant won't instantly grow three new stems in the place of every stem you cut, but it will reward your pruning efforts with a bounty of delicious fruit. Regularly pruning tomato plants will help the plant produce more fruit.

Plants need foliage to create energy from photosynthesis, but the growth and development of foliage uses up a lot of the plant’s energy that could be used for fruit production. Cutting off tomato suckers redirects the plant’s energy away from growing new stems in favor of producing more fruit. Pruning off extra stems also means that your plants will produce less tomatoes that are bigger in size.

It is possible to get overzealous when pruning tomatoes and wind up with an over-pruned plant. First you need to understand which types of tomatoes benefit most from pruning and then I’ll walk you through how to prune tomatoes the right way for the best results.

(Image credit: Hakase_ / Getty Images)Pruning Different Types of Tomatoes

When it comes to cutting back tomato plants, there are some things you need to know. Tomato plants fall into two categories: determinate and indeterminate.

Determinate Tomatoes

Determinate tomato plants are shrub-like. They grow to a certain height, then stop growing up and instead fill out and grow bushier. Determinate tomato plants also go to flower and fruit all at once.

‘Patio’, ‘Roma’, and ‘Celebrity’ are a few popular varieties of determinate tomato plants. Because they fruit in a shorter time span and grow as more compact plants, determinate tomato plants need less pruning.

When you first plant a determinate tomato, you should prune off any tomato flowers that form before the plant is 18-24 inches (45.5-61 cm) tall. This will redirect the plant's energy from flower formation to developing strong roots.

As the plant grows, prune out any crossing, crowded, damaged, or diseased stems and foliage to keep the plant open, airy, and free of pest and disease. Removing tomato plant leaves that grow just beneath the flower sets will send more energy to fruit formation.

(Image credit: Helin Loik-Tomson / Getty Images)Indeterminate Tomatoes

Indeterminate tomato plants are more like vines. They grow long stems that continually bear new fruit sets. You can save space in the garden and focus on fruit production by growing indeterminate tomato plants vertically up poles, arbors, trellises, or fences.

They can be trained and trimmed easily to grow as single stemmed, heavy fruit-bearing plants by removing excess tomato plant leaves and sucker stems that form along the main stem.

Many heirloom tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, and ‘Better Boy’ tomatoes are popular varieties of indeterminate tomato plants. In late summer, they can be top pruned to redirect the plant’s energy into ripening its last fruits.

When pruning tomato plants, or any plants, focus first on removing foliage, fruits, or stems that show any sign of disease or pests. Then sanitize your tools and wash your hands to prevent the spread of any common tomato diseases or pests that may have been present.

How to Prune Tomato Plants

If you have decided that pruning tomatoes is the best course of action for your gardening goals, you need to make sure that you do it the correct way to help reduce the chances of disease.

(Image credit: VlarVix / Getty Images)

1. You want to start pruning tomato plants when they get to be about 1-2 feet (30-60 cm) tall. Any smaller than this, and the plant may not recover from the shock of being pruned.
2. By the time your tomato plant gets to be this size, the plant will have branches coming off the main stem. Where these branches meet, you will see an additional branch growing. This is called a tomato sucker. Using a sharp, clean pair of pruning shears, snip these small sucker branches off.
3. The best time to prune tomato plants is in the early morning on a dry day. This will allow for the wounds from the pruning to heal cleanly and will reduce the chances of the plant being infected by disease.
4. If you choose to prune tomato plants, make sure that you use irrigation methods that water tomato plants at the soil level (like this soaker hose from the Home Depot) rather than from above (like sprinklers). This will prevent soil splashing up onto the tomato plant and the tomato plant's wounds, which can introduce disease pathogens.

Essential Tomato Pruning Tools

ZGYFJCH Garden Silicone Thumb Knife

These clever thumb knives are the perfect tool for pruning away unwanted suckers.

Fiskars Bypass Pruning Shears

You can't beat the affordability of these high-quality pruners from Fiskars. That's why this brand is Content Editor Laura's go-to for pruning tools.

Felco F2 Pruning Shears

If you're looking splurge on pro-level pruners, these cult-favorite pruners from Felco are a favorite of Editor-in-Chief Melanie.

Wouldn’t it be nice if all it took to lure migrating birds into a stop-over in your backyard was a welcome sign? Well, in reality, that is all it takes, but it has to be a welcome sign written in a language our feathered friends can understand.

So how do you flag down and help the birds heading south for the winter? Fall bird migration is the perfect time to lay down the welcome mat and turn your garden into a favorite bird pit stop. All it takes is adding a few critical elements that will aid these birds in their long journey south.

I’ll share my top tips to turn your yard into a migratory bird’s new favorite pit stop. Just making a few simple changes to your landscape can help birds survive and safely reach their southern destination for winter. Here’s what to do now before the migration season begins.

Why Supporting Migratory Birds Is So Important

Migratory birds never had it easy, with a long and tiring flight north in spring mandating a reverse flight that’s equally long in fall. This includes many colorful songbirds like orioles, tree swallows, red-eyed vireos, scarlet tanagers, yellow-rumped warblers and thrushes.

But these beautiful species are declining dramatically, causing all of us bird-lovers to worry. Yes, much of the problem is due to losses of habitat and breeding grounds from urban spread. But these migratory birds have also suffered from a significant loss of rest stops along their migration routes.

As parks and wild lands get eaten up by human activities, the migrating birds’ customary stopover areas are reduced. These have been important resources for the birds, providing them with safe places to stop, rest, and refuel in their long voyage to a distant destination. These vital wildlife habitats are shrinking, but you can help reverse this problem by adding just a handful of elements to your garden now before bird migration begins.

(Image credit: Federica Grassi / Getty Images)Turn Your Yard Into a Bird Migration Pit Stop

The good news is you don’t have to have thousands of acres or millions of dollars to help. By turning your landscape into a high-quality stopover area, each of us can join the fight to save the migrators and help keep them alive. Think high-energy food, clean water, and safety. Here are the critical elements you need to get started on creating an appealing pit stop.

1. Provide High-Energy Food

(Image credit: Lindaze / Shutterstock)

I sometimes head out to watch the San Francisco Marathon or Bay-to-Breakers race, cheering on the regular people who are courageous enough to run the extra miles. Their friends and supporters stand on the sidelines along the way handing out high carb snacks to keep the runners fueled, like raisins, dates, bananas, and jelly beans.

You can be that kind of loyal supporter to your migrating bird population, too. Put energy-packed food in your bird feeders, like black-oil sunflower seeds, niger seeds, and millet blends. Add high-energy suet cakes, which you can get from Chewy, to provide protein and fat. These are the options tired birds will appreciate most.

2. Grow Native Fruits & Berries

(Image credit: Danita Delimont / Shutterstock)

Many different types of fruits and berries ripen in fall, and these natural snacks can attract even more passing birds than your feeders. Provide a variety of fruit trees and bushes like blackberries, beautyberries, sassafras, spicebush, dogwood berries, wild grapes, and elderberries as well as apples. Birds can eat the fruit off the tree or fruit that has fallen to the ground.

Remember, even if the bird doesn’t want to eat your particular fruit, fallen fruit attracts bugs and bugs make wonderful meals for birds. Don’t forget about cedar and juniper trees that produce berries birds will devour. Then there’s holly berries that mature in fall and bright red hawthorn fruit that ripens in late summer. These berries can remain on branches well into winter for the latest birds on the migration path.

You can find lots of native fruit trees, shrubs, and plants for sale from Nature Hills Nursery to grow in your garden for birds.

3. Offer Fresh Water

(Image credit: Chelsea Sampson / Getty Images)

All living creatures need water. If there was neither food nor water, your lifespan drops to a maximum of three days. Think of the migrating birds!

Water sources are critical life support elements for migrating birds. Flying long distances dehydrated birds quickly. Without hydration, the birds simply cannot make it through the arduous journey.

They need to be able to fill up on water quickly after they descend from the sky to rest. Plus, they use water to bathe and clean their feathers, which are essential for aerodynamic flight.

Yet wetlands and marshes are being sacrificed to urban spread and rivers are being rerouted or polluted. Adding a reliable water source for birds to your backyard will go a long way toward creating the pit stop your feathered friends are dreaming of.

Use a shallow bird bath and maintain it well. Clean your bird bath by picking out fallen leaves and debris every day, rinse out the muck, and fill it up with fresh water every few days. You can find tons of beautiful bird baths that suit a variety of garden styles from the Home Depot.

4. Create a Safe Landing Spot

(Image credit: Getty Images)

What are the big dangers for birds when they stop in a backyard? Assuming you’ve followed the suggestions above, they won’t have to worry about dying from hunger or dehydration. But look out for the windows! Attach stickers or make a big X out of brightly colored tape to keep windows visible to flying birds.

Plus, keep kitties indoors. A cat outdoors will sport with birds – it’s in their nature. Free-ranging domestic cats take out some 1.4 to 3.7 billion birds each year in this country. That’s one heck of a threat to the wild bird population. Protect the exhausted visiting migrating birds by keeping house cats away from your garden.

Bare stems with fruit still hanging on them make an alarming sight in the middle of August. The plant looks like it is dying. Peppers left behind start scalding in the sun without any canopy over them. Something is wrong, though the plant is rarely as far gone as it appears.

Most trouble with growing peppers this late comes down to four causes, and they leave different fingerprints. Where the shedding starts, what the fallen leaves looked like on the way out, and what the weather has been doing will narrow it down fast.

1. Heat

(Image credit: Tatiana Maksimova / Getty Images)

Peppers stop cooperating when days push past 90F (32C) or nights stay above 75F (24C). Pollen turns tacky at those temperatures and pollination fails. Pepper blossoms drop before they ever set fruit. Leaf loss follows as the plant sheds what it cannot keep hydrated through the afternoon. Wind through a hot spell makes it worse by stripping moisture faster than roots replace it. The tell is the order: flowers go first and foliage follows, not the other way around. A stretch of shade cloth from Home Depot over hoops takes the edge off a heat spike without cutting light enough to matter.

None of that is fatal. Plants that shed flowers through a hot spell start setting again once nights cool. That means early September across most of the country. Resist the urge to tidy up in the meantime. New fruit comes off wood the plant already has, and cutting peppers back hard in August leaves less of it to work with. The leaves still hanging on are shading fruit that would scald without them.

2. Water Swings

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Erratic watering does more damage than watering lightly. Roots that go from saturated to bone dry and back lose fine feeder tips every cycle. The plant balances that loss by dropping leaves, lowest first, while the top stays green. Container peppers get hit hardest. A pot can swing from wet to dry in a single hot afternoon, where peppers in open ground shrug off a missed day. A soil moisture meter from Amazon pushed down near the root zone answers the question faster than poking a finger in the surface.

The fix is rhythm rather than volume. Water deeply on a schedule the plant can rely on. Mulch keeps the top few inches from swinging between extremes every day. Here is the confusing part. Overwatering yellows pepper leaves exactly the way drought does, since roots in saturated soil cannot pull oxygen either. Dig down and squeeze a handful. Soil that holds its shape and glistens is too wet, and soil that will not clump at all has gone past dry.

3. Nutrients

(Image credit: Zbynek Pospisil / Getty Images)

A heavy crop is a hungry crop. Peppers pull nitrogen out of older foliage and move it into ripening fruit. The lowest leaves pale first. They yellow, then they let go, while everything above them looks perfectly healthy. That gradient from the ground up is the signature. It tends to show right as the first fruit starts turning color. Nothing is diseased here, and the plant is doing exactly what you asked of it, just at its own canopy’s expense.

Feeding peppers lightly helps, but you should leave it at that. Too much nitrogen this late pushes soft growth that will not ripen before frost. High-nitrogen fertilizer is itself a documented cause of blossom drop, which turns one problem into two. Peppers draw heavily on potassium while fruit sizes up, which is the argument for leaning that way rather than skipping the feed altogether. Something balanced or potassium-leaning at half strength supports fruit already set without redirecting the plant back into leaf production. This one from Amazon is a good bet.

4. Disease

(Image credit: wisely / Getty Images)

Two diseases spot pepper leaves in August, and the shape of the spot tells them apart. Bacterial spot begins as water-soaked flecks on the undersides of older leaves, darkening to brown or black inside a narrow yellow halo, with angular edges where a vein stops them. Cercospora, the fungal one, makes rounder lesions with pale tan centers and dark rims. Gardeners call it frogeye. The name explains itself once you have seen one. Either way the centers dry and drop out, the leaves go shot through with holes, and defoliation runs from the bottom up until the fruit is sitting exposed. A copper fungicide from Amazon slows both, so the diagnosis can wait until after the first spray.

Handling matters as much as spraying. Both travel on splashing water and on hands moving through wet plants. Stay out of the row until the foliage dries and water at soil level from here on. Neither has a cure once a plant is far gone. Pull the worst ones and keep the debris out of the compost. Clean seed and a resistant variety are the real answer next spring.

I've had bright blond hair for as long as I can remember. Well... technically since 2019, but after seven years it feels like part of my personality. The only downside? Keeping blond hair looking fresh is surprisingly hard work – so, yes, if my garden borders can help, of course I will accept the assistance!

Now, I love my blond hair as cool and ashy as possible; in fact, I absolutely hate it when my hair starts veering too warm or brassy. For years, my solution was simple: reach for the purple shampoo. It worked, but between juggling work, two children, my garden, and everything else life throws at me, regular trips to the salon for toner appointments slowly became less realistic.

If I'm honest, I've also found myself trying to cut back on some of the harsher products I use where I can. So I was genuinely surprised when the answer turned out to be a very pretty flower (and one that was already growing in my own garden borders).

This Pretty Flower Is My Secret To Brighter Blonde Hair

My mother-in-law gave me a copy of The Garden Apothecary by Christine Iverson, knowing I'd become slightly obsessed with finding new ways to use the plants I grow. It's full of ideas for turning flowers and herbs into skincare, haircare, household products, and even recipes.

As someone who spends a small fortune trying to stop that dreaded yellow creeping into my blond hair, one recipe immediately caught my eye. "Purple hollyhock flowers contain a natural dye that can cancel out these tones," promises Christine.

(Image credit: Alex Manders / Shutterstock)

It's only a three-ingredient recipe, so an absolute doddle to make. And the apple cider vinegar it calls for? Well, as Christine puts it, it is an "antimicrobial to ease scalp conditions and also adds shine as well as helping to fade yellow tones".

No-brainer, right? Especially as you can buy good-quality apple cider vinegar by the half-gallon on Amazon.

If you're keen to try it for yourself, all you need is:

• 2 tablespoons fresh purple hollyhock flowers (chopped)
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 250ml water

The method couldn't be easier, either; just add the flowers, vinegar and water to a saucepan and gently simmer for around 15 to 20 minutes. I always leave mine for the full 20 minutes until the liquid has reduced slightly and taken on a rich purple colour.

Then, once it's completely cool, you strain out the flowers and pour the liquid into a clean container.

Shop Hollyhock Hair Toner Essentials:

Mother Earth Vinegar Organic Apple Cider Vinegar With the Mother

HOME GROWN Hollyhock Summer Carnival Mix Flower Seeds

Winco Strainer With Single Fine Mesh

I apply it all over my hair from root to tip after wetting it, then leave it to work for around 15 minutes. (In reality, I almost always leave it on for more because I inevitably get distracted doing something else).

After that, I simply shampoo and condition as normal. I love that my hair feels super soft afterwards, which is just an added bonus; after all, the main benefit is that those brassy tones in my blond hair seem significantly toned down, and all without leaving my hair looking flat or dull – or feeling dry, which is always an issue I have with the official shampoos.

(Image credit: Alex Manders / Shutterstock)

Of course, I'm not suggesting you'll never need purple shampoo again, or that this will replace a professional toner if you're after a dramatic color correction. But as someone who wants to stretch the time between salon appointments and make more use of what I'm already growing, it's become one of my favorite little garden discoveries.

Who knew one of the prettiest flowers in my borders could double as part of my blond hair routine? All hail the hollyhock, I say!

He loves modern, clean-lined architecture; she loves colour, and plenty of it. This couple each realized their dream in a custom-built home in White Rock with dramatic angled walls that created a distinctive profile and interiors inspired by a vividly coloured Italian side table.

The five-level, nearly 7,000-square-foot home with views over Semiahmoo Bay and including a gym, theatre room, spa, rooftop deck and outdoor lap pool was designed by Dag Design & Co. and built by Tycon Building Solutions. Madeleine Design Group (MDG) was responsible for the interior design that included everything from developing design concepts, sourcing custom furniture, and recommending finishes and textiles to ensure the completed home would reflect the homeowners’ vision.

While the table, with its kaleidoscope of colours bought by the homeowner on a vacation in Italy, was the primary source of inspiration, the colours were not replicated as much as interpreted, says MDG principal and creative director, Madeleine Sloback.

The colour palette is evident in different forms throughout the house — muted for the cabinetry, more vibrantly reflected in furniture like the dining room chairs and highlighted in textiles like the custom area rug in the great room.

Stepping into the main level entryway gives the first clue to the homeowner’s bold approach to colour and design.

The geometric shapes on the area rug introduce a playful and expressive layer to the entryway that reflects the client’s love of colour and brings personality to the space while the architecture and millwork establish a strong backdrop, says Sloback.

The wallpaper in the powder room located directly off the foyer makes the connection between the two spaces.

“Although the rug and the powder room wallpaper are different materials and patterns, there was definitely an intention for them to feel related. Both use geometric forms and a similar palette of greens, blues, warm neutrals and earthy tones, helping create a sense of continuity as you move through the home,” says Sloback.

The kitchen, identified by Sloback — and Tycon president Tyson VanDelft — as one of their favourite rooms in the home, is anchored by a green 160- by 60-inch island with a honed marble countertop while a table-height bar is supported by arched legs and constructed with contrasting charcoal quartz (Caesarstone Black Tempal).

The backsplash tile (Ann Sacks by Kelly Wearstler) was selected as an expression of the client’s personality and to reflect the broader design of the home.

“Throughout the project, the client embraced bold colour, rich materiality and a sense of individuality, so it felt important that the kitchen reflect that same confidence rather than relying on a more conventional backdrop,” says Sloback, adding she was attracted to the texture and movement in the tile while the pattern also mimics the soft curve seen on the lowered eating bar on the backside of the island.

“The subtle relief catches light differently throughout the day, creating depth and shadow across the surface and giving the kitchen a layered, tactile quality. We wanted the space to feel visually engaging and lived-in, rather than flat or overly polished,” she says.

Moving from the kitchen to the adjacent dining room, a walnut slat ceiling — a recurring design element in the home — visually zones the open-concept space, improves acoustics and conceals the custom track lighting.

The dining room chairs are another nod to the homeowner’s love of colour.

“Once we landed on the chair that she liked, it was an opportunity to bring in the colours from the inspiration table and just make it a little bit more playful,” says Sloback.

The Italian table was also front and centre at meetings held to design the custom rug in the great room.

Sloback worked with M R Evans, a Vancouver-based wholesale supplier that specializes in bespoke rugs and floorcoverings, to create the rug.

The four-to-five-month process that begins with inspiration images and ends with a completed artwork to form the basis of the finished product is not for the faint-hearted. The colours were hand-picked to tie into the Italian table.

“We held each colour pom (a sample tuft of dyed yarn) against the table to see which ones complemented it and which ones didn’t,” she recalls.

With the decisions made, a small 18- by 18-inch sample of a section of the design is created and signed off. M R Evans worked directly with famous Portuguese manufacturer Ferreira de Sá to complete the project.

Moving through the home, the colour story continues in the primary bedroom.

“We wanted to introduce some colour into the space, but not too much,” says Sloback.

Leaning into green, a shade seen in several places throughout the home, the design team presented several wallpaper samples and the final choice of a forest scene now provides an out-of-the ordinary backdrop for this space that also includes a seating area that overlooks the pool in the backyard and ocean views in the distance.

“We loved the juxtaposition with the ocean views at one side and the forest on the other side. It’s like a piece of art that gives more depth to the space,” she says.

In the en suite bathroom a curbless frameless glass shower enclosure enhances the feeling of spaciousness while a black tub and neutral surfaces allow the MOM light fixture by Penta to be the focal point.

“Throughout the home, the client embraced bold choices and wasn’t afraid to introduce moments of surprise, so we wanted the lighting to reflect that same spirit. What drew us to this fixture was its collection of individually shaped and coloured glass elements. It feels almost like a curated grouping of small art objects, creating visual interest without overwhelming the space,” says Sloback.

Today the spa is the picture of calm and serenity — but it took a lot of head scratching and a multitude of trades to make it the feature that won Sloback the 2026 NKBA B.C. chapter’s Design Excellence Award for a Wellness Space (and contributed to her winning the organization’s 2026 Designer of the Year award).

VanDelft acknowledges the challenges the space presented.

“Getting the mechanical from one side of the house to the other through very narrow pathways, and considering designers want to maximize ceiling heights, that room ended up being far more complex than just what you see in a finished picture,” he says.

“You have all mechanical for the entire house serviced through pockets because there’s so many levels to the house and a stairwell in the centre; we had to get mechanical through the house and of course above that spa ceiling,” says VanDelft adding that the confined space also needed to house the complex mechanical system necessary for the sauna.

While Sloback wanted to include the wood-slat millwork feature that runs throughout the home into the spa as well, but walnut wasn’t suitable for the space.

“Although cedar is a naturally warm yellow colour, it’s what you have to put in the sauna,” she says. “Incorporating the cedar and having it in all the millwork detailing in the spa made it feel like its own special space but still having that repetition.”

Ultimately this unique home highlights the collaborative process between the homeowners and the building and design teams to create a home that successfully marries modern design and the sophisticated use of colour.

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Traditional, or “hard”, lofts — those hip, happening New York-style spaces converted from warehouses into residences — are not as prevalent in Vancouver as they once were. You’ll still find pockets of them in Gastown, Mount Pleasant and Yaletown, many of which are not warehouse conversions per se but more self-styled artist lofts, says Oakwyn Realty’s Andrew Lasko, listing agent for the Richards Street loft condo .

“The zoning laws changed so lofts aren’t economical to build anymore,” he explains.

Also, new building codes, costly retrofits, HVAC and insulation requirements all take a bite out of building budgets. Not to mention all that empty space floating around below high ceilings that doesn’t count toward density the way a full second floor would.

And while not a warehouse loft conversion, the name of this one, “Tribeca Lofts”, is a nod to its New York-inspired style with partial brick exteriors that also reflect Yaletown’s roots as a warehouse district.

Lasko says what sets this building apart from the converted boutique lofts and the newer loft towers is its size — just 53 strata units over eight floors, which he says is uncommon. Plus, as a bonus, this particular unit was initially designed as two separate units when the building was being constructed in 2006.

“The original owners purchased both units from the developer and expanded and customized the layout and finishings,” says Lasko of the 2,055 square foot double unit. “They wanted room to entertain, so you get this great space that is so multifarious. (There are) four distinct areas that are not part of the open space, in kind of an x shape, where you can’t see out from but are still connected with some privacy.”

What’s inside

Being a loft-style condo, the ceilings stretch 16 feet and the floor-to-ceiling windows with motorized blinds let in plenty of natural light.

Lasko says the hardwood flooring made of Brazilian Lyptus in rich cognac and honey tones is unique and durable.

The kitchen oven, steam oven and warming tray are premium German-engineered Gaggenau. The refrigerator is Sub-Zero, faucet is European-designed Blanco Culina, and glass-front aluminum cabinet fronts are supported by German Kesseböhmer’s parallel lift hinge technology, which lifts parallel to the cabinet body as opposed to swinging out.

Lasko describes the unit’s “double string” staircase — with two metal beam supports on each side — as an “architectural staircase”, meaning its design isn’t just functional but decorative. “Each step is solid wood and quite thick, and the tempered glass balustrades are mounted with exposed stainless steel standoff fittings, which gives the impression that they’re floating,” says Lasko. It ascends to a second-level walkway, which he calls a “skywalk”, leading to two en suite bedrooms and a third bathroom.

The primary bathroom countertop features a semicircular glass bowl sink that sits on a tiger wood vanity with adjacent tiger wood shelving and a floating mirror suspended by wires above. The primary shower has a double rain shower plus a third detachable shower head/arm. Leucos Design Lab Cubi lamps in hand-blown cubic form with white satin diffuser spread a soft, even light.

The primary bedroom is large enough to fit a king-size bed, which could be positioned to wake up to a view of the tree canopy outside the windows, which are covered with hardwired motorized blinds. The room also features a large walk-in closet with built-in shelving. “It’s a room in and of itself, less of a closet and more of a dressing room,” says Lasko.

He says the rest of the home’s lighting, including the large Moooi Random Light II sphere, was designed to work with the angles of the windows to spread unique patterns in different ways at different times of the day. Low-profile regressed lighting with pinhole openings throughout are ideal for art display. The office’s lighting is Italian-made by DGA.

Because it is an amalgamation of two units, the home has two balconies but they’re not large. “It’s not a home for the outdoors-oriented person, but you could put a little bistro table out there that looks out onto the quiet treed courtyard.

“Despite being in a vibrant, sometimes louder downtown area, because it faces onto the courtyard, there’s a great sense of quiet and space between (the unit) and any other buildings. The building is L-shaped with the unit in the L, so it’s insulated from sound.”

The double unit also means it comes with a storage room plus a locker as well as two parking spots.

Lasko says the home “is grand, spacious, luxurious, and unique. It meets the needs of someone who wants something special with the practicality of walkability, location, and vibrancy.

“I think the right buyer is someone who is downsizing, who wants something a bit more central. Maybe they like to entertain, have art or just want a sense of quiet and space. I think it could be an (older) couple or younger. People in tech seem to gravitate to these kind of spaces, especially since there are so many opportunities for home offices — there could be three offices in here if you take away one bedroom.”

In the neighbourhood

The current owner, an artist, had purchased the unit initially intending to live in it for five to 10 years, but ultimately stayed for 16 years. Arts and theatre are a big part of her life, and she loved the vibrancy of the neighbourhood, the walkability to galleries, restaurants, shopping, or transit, says Lasko.

B.C. Place is a 10-minute walk away, Science World a seven-minute drive in one direction, and Granville Island 10 minutes’ drive in the other.

Many schools — elementary, high and private — are a short drive away. St. Paul’s Hospital is a four-minute drive away and VGH 11 minutes.

Location:401 — 988 Richards Street, Vancouver

Listed for: $1,899,900

Year built: 2006

Type: Two bedrooms, three bathrooms

Size: 2,055 square feet

Realtor: Listed by Andrew Lasko, Oakwyn Realty Ltd./Lasko + Associates Real Estate Group, Vancouver

For more detailed mortgage information, explore our guide to Canada’s lowest national insured and uninsured mortgage rates, updated daily.Related

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