Gardenig in Georgia. Tips & Guides

If you've ever had to plan for a move, then you know the urge that strikes to get rid of nearly everything you own (after all, a new house means new decor, right?).

Hurricane Helene cast tropical storm forced winds over most of South Carolina Friday as she tore through Florida and Georgia. The western part of the state took the brunt of the damage and large areas there remain without power as of this morning (9/30). Rivers also continue to rise as floodwaters from western North Carolina make their way to the coast.

South Carolina is home to three big, yellow spiders, and as summer heats up, they get more and more noticeable. One of these spiders is the Joro spider, a non-native species first found in northern Georgia in 2014. The Joro spider is now present in the Upstate and parts of the Midlands in South Carolina. These spiders can be nearly 3” across with their legs spread.

It's back-to-school season, which means things could get a little messy in your home and of course, on your clothes. Arts and crafts are all fun and games until you can't get the glitter glue out of your beloved favorite dresses or blouses.

As fall begins, many turfgrasses show signs of common diseases. “These fungi are always present, but disease occurs when the environmental conditions are ideal for its development,” says Clint Waltz, PhD, turfgrass specialist, Turfgrass and Education Center at the University of Georgia. “That means an extended period of humidity and temperatures in the 60s to 80s.”

Catalpa trees, with two species native to the United States, are known for their beautiful and plentiful blooms and for being the sole source of food for catalpa worms—caterpillars that strip the tree of its foliage and eventually become the catalpa sphinx moth.

Behr

For Collin Lines planting flowers is about more than just pretty bouquets. It’s her way of joining the fight against breast cancer. While she’s always had a love for fresh blooms, it wasn’t until 2016 that she had the idea to open Zinnia Happiness Farms, a small you-pick spot in Tiger, Georgia, where all the proceeds go toward breast cancer research.

If your lawn is looking a little sad or sparse this year, June bugs may be to blame. These beetles emerge from the soil in spring or early summer, earning the common name of May or June bugs. “June bugs are a type of scarab beetle, with several species found in the Southeast,” says Shimat V. Joseph, PhD, associate professor of turfgrass and ornamentals, department of entomology, at theUniversity of Georgia. “They release pheromones for mating so you’ll typically see them congregating on the side of a building, often near a light.”

Chances are, if you have a lawn, you have crabgrass! This fast-growing weed thrives despite heat, humidity, or drought conditions. “It’s a prolific seed producer,” says Clint Waltz, PhD, turfgrass extension specialist at theUniversity of Georgia. “If you do nothing about it this year, expect a higher and more dense population of crabgrass next year.”

Fall armyworms (Spodotera frugiperda) are not a welcome visitor in the Southeast. They often appear in large numbers inlate summer to early fall and make the ground appear as if it’s moving as they devour every bit of vegetation in their paths. “They will march across your lawn, just like an army,” says Clint Waltz, PhD, turfgrass extension specialist at theUniversity of Georgia. “The adult moths are not a turf issue, but they lay eggs which become voracious caterpillars that can decimate a lawn and heavily damage certain types of turfgrasses.”

Outdoor spiders are hard at work, devouring home and garden pests such as ants, flies, mosquitoes, aphids, and thrips. It’s estimated they kill 400 to 800 million metric tons of prey worldwide annually.“They’re generalist feeders,” says Angela Chuang, a postdoctoral research associate at the Citrus Research and Education Center at the University of Florida. “If they can capture it and it’s small enough for them to handle safely, they’ll eat it.”

11 of the Best Fall Annuals for the South

Whether you’re frightened or fascinated by them, snakes have important roles in your garden, eating insects and keepingmice,vole, andrabbit populations in check. They also serve as prey for other predators, such as hawks. But probably the most important thing to know is that they’renot at all interested in you.

Moss is a primitive green plant with threadlike stems and tiny leaves and can form a spongy, dense mat over the soil surface. While it’s pretty in certain settings, such as a shady forest trail, you may not like the looks of it in your lawn. But is it hurting your grass? And will it eventually take over your whole yard?

While college is a major change for students, it’s also a big transition for parents. Parenting from afar can be overwhelming and confusing, but one of the best ways to tackle this is to get prepared and plan ahead.

Happy Monday GPODers!

With Elon Musk’s SpaceX scheduled—though certainly not confirmed—to fly to Mars sometime within the next decade, our thoughts naturally turn to agriculture on the red planet.

Growing vines is a fun way to add foliage and colorful flowers to archways, fences, posts, and trellises in your yard. Vines add depth, dimension, and texture to a landscape and create a visually appealing space. Choosing fast-growing vines means enjoying the beauty of the season quickly and often longer, whether it's the pretty leaves, blooms, or both. Plus, many vines attract important pollinators, such as butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds. Garden experts recommend their favorite vines to grow that will quickly transform your garden.

Sure, Bambi is cute. But what’s not so cute is when she’s chowing down on yourvegetable garden or devouring yourhostas anddaylilies. Even if you’ve never had deer visiting your yard before, there’s always a first time. And no plant—even those said to be “deer resistant”—is truly safe from their voracious appetites.

<use xlink:href="#trending-icon" href="#trending-icon" xmlns:xlink=«http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink»> Trending Videos

<use xlink:href="#trending-icon" xmlns:xlink=«http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink»> Trending Videos

Cameron Trimble

If you spend a lot of time out in the garden it's smart to have the skills to identify the different types of bees—plus wasps and other insects that mimic bees—that you're most likely to encounter.

“Connecting with nature.” “Trying something different.” “An appreciation of history.” Ask a new generation of gardeners just why they want to embark on a course in horticulture at a country house estate and those are the kinds of answers they will give you.

Today’s photos are from Connie Raines in Georgia.

Georgia has many different red mushrooms, growing on the ground or trees and having all kinds of shapes and sizes. We’ll help you distinguish these properly.

<use xlink:href="#trending-icon" xmlns:xlink=«http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink»> Trending Videos

Due to their size and expense, gardeners tend to put a lot more thought into the trees they ultimately buy for their landscape. While a perennial might only live for 6 or 7 years, a tree might grace your garden for 50 years or more—outliving the person who so carefully selected it, in fact. Here at Fine Gardening, we feel strongly that trees should look good in more than one season (for all of the reasons above AND because they take up a lot of real estate). Therefore, on today’s episode, we may be highlighting our favorite flowering trees for every season, but these choices have more going for them than just some fleeting blooms. Listen to hear about which trees we’re willing to sacrifice a chunk of our paycheck on and why.    

As summer approaches and we’re faced with another season of determining what's for dinner, we're sharing a glimpse at how BHG readers gather for a meal. Welcome to our new series, Dinner Diaries, where we're asking readers to anonymously share how they get dinner on the table including grocery shopping, budgeting, cooking, and their favorite family recipes. Here, a family of three in Georgia works together to get dinner on the table. Read on to see how they shop, prep, and cook to get dinner, and weekend breakfasts, on the table.

<use xlink:href="#trending-icon" xmlns:xlink=«http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink»> Trending Videos

<use xlink:href="#trending-icon" xmlns:xlink=«http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink»> Trending Videos <use xlink:href="#close-icon" xmlns:xlink=«http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink»>

Knowing when to plant collard greens is key to their success. They can be grown directly from seeds or the seedlings transplanted into garden beds or containers to get a head start on the harvest. When deciding how and when to plant collard greens, your local climate and the length of your growing season are some of the most important factors to consider. In this article you’ll learn about the importance of timing, when to start collard green seeds indoors, when to direct sow outdoors, when to transplant seedlings, and get tips for growing healthy plants.

Anyone who knew Angela Jupe, the late landscape architect and garden maker, will remember her particular love of snowdrops, or Galanthus, as this genus of dainty bulbous perennials is properly known.

A small vegetable garden sits in front of the guest house at this elegant Georgian home in Oxfordshire

We’re visiting with Bonnie Plikaytis in north Georgia today.