A friend of mine named Joel has a ten-year-old mango tree in his backyard near Homestead, Florida. For years, the area under and around that tree was just bare dirt and patchy grass. He fought … Read more
During the February 2025 freeze in Texas, a grower named Ray watched the temperature on his patio thermometer drop to 16°F. He had three mango trees in his backyard near Houston. Two were young trees, … Read more
A guy named Marcus in a South Florida gardening group I follow posted something that stuck with me. He’d had a mango tree for seven years. Beautiful, tall, full canopy of dark green leaves. But … Read more
Last spring, a woman named Diana posted in a local gardening group I follow. She’d planted a beautiful grafted mango tree in her backyard two years earlier. It grew well the first year. Then the … Read more
A few years ago, my neighbor Carlos knocked on my door holding a small, wrinkled yellow mango. It looked nothing like the big red ones I’d been buying from the grocery store. He said, “Try … Read more
My friend Sarah called me last spring in a panic. Her Swiss Cheese Plant — a gorgeous Monstera she’d been growing for three years — had gotten so leggy it was practically crawling across her … Read more
Last summer, I grew a row of Mammoth sunflowers along my back fence. They were supposed to be a privacy screen and a pollinator magnet. They did both jobs well. But when those giant heads … Read more
I’ll never forget the first time I saw a durian in person. A grower named Heng in Homestead, Florida, had been nursing his durian tree for over a decade. He invited me over when his … Read more
A friend of mine — let’s call her Priya — grows a massive jackfruit tree in her backyard in South Florida. She started it from seed about eight years ago. For the first few years, … Read more
My buddy Marcus grows tropical fruit trees in his backyard in South Florida. A few years back, he finally got his durian tree to fruit after nearly a decade of babying it through cold snaps … Read more
Last spring, my neighbor Doug walked over to my garden bed holding a mesh bag of onion sets and a confused look on his face. “I bought these at the feed store,” he said. “Now … Read more
Botanically, butternut squash is a fruit because it: However, culinarily it’s classified as a vegetable due to its savory taste and cooking uses. Both classifications are technically correct depending on context. What you’ll learn in … Read more