Small black flies around your potted plants are probably fungus gnats, not fruit flies. How to tell them apart, why wet potting mix breeds them, and how drying the mix, yellow sticky traps and Bti get rid of them.
A plant that wilts in wet soil may have root rot. Check what the roots look like, cut out the rotten parts, repot in fresh mix, and see when it is too late.
Herbs and seedlings that stretch and go pale on a winter windowsill need more light. Five grow lights for one pot, a windowsill row or a seed shelf, with how close and how long to run them.
Geraniums do not survive a winter outside, but you can keep them for next year. Three ways to do it, the one that suits an apartment, and the spring steps that follow.
Tulips, daffodils, crocus and hyacinths all grow in pots, but a pot needs shallower, closer planting and a cold spot for winter. The depth, the spacing, the layered “lasagna” method and the care after the flowers fade, from Extension advice.
Garlic grows in a pot, but it has to go in the ground in fall to be ready next summer. When to plant, how deep the pot should be, which cloves to buy and how the pot gets through winter.
A shrub rated hardy in the ground can still die in a pot through the same winter, because the roots meet the air temperature. Here is how to sort your containers before the first hard freeze.
A small pot in hot weather can need water twice a day, so a week away is a real problem. Here is how far a deep soak, shade and grouping actually get you, and when you need a timer instead.
A fresh bag of potting mix is mostly air, and a season of watering slowly breaks that structure down. Here is how to check whether last year’s mix still drains well enough to reuse.
Layering gravel, sand, or broken pot shards in the bottom of a container is a classic drainage tip that soil science disproved decades ago. It traps water directly under the roots instead, and a plain drainage hole drains the pot far better.
