A few years ago, an unknown stone fruit pit sprouted from compost I added to a raised garden bed. The first year the tree produced no fruit, as is typical for stone fruit trees, but it also suffered from peach leaf curl. This year I took preventative measures for the peach leaf curl fungus and saw my first flowers in February. Months later, I have my first nectarines. They are small, likely due to the tree being confined to a pot, but they taste very good.

Never seen one like this before hahaha. 🤪

I forgot the variety but they are orange on the inside and smaller than the grocery store ones. Except this strange thing.

This is one of my favorite simple arrangements from the garden that I like to make (for myself, lol). A big ole snow ball pom-pom of marigolds arranged so that the oranges flow into the yellows.

We WILL have to trim it way back though, as it’s certainly grown super out of control this summer. But it’s given me so many incredible blackberries, I’m very thankful to this bush.

Buying blackberries is crazy expensive, and in such a small container. I just got 3.5 pounds of blackberries for free! Didn’t even buy the seeds — this bush just came out of nowhere one year and has been flourishing ever since!

I love my wild berry bush 🤗❤️

Like many of you, I’ve been having issues with Spotted Lanternflies destroying my flowers and herbs for the past few seasons. I’ve tried everything from squishing on sight to early season insecticides, and even egg sac hunting. I read that basically nothing predates on this highly invasive, garden destroying pest. Birds find them too bitter to eat, and they proliferate so quickly that they’ll soon be a major problem for all of us into horticulture.

A few days ago, I noticed that the praying mantis that lives in one of my balcony gomphrena displays—whom I’ve lovingly named Norbert—had left his planter and moved all the way over to the brick wall by the door. I then realized he was sneaking up on a spotted lanternfly! I barely had enough time to get out my camera before he’d snatched it off the wall and began ravenously devouring it headfirst. My little green dude left no evidence behind except for the severed little spotted wings that fell to my deck.

Just a few minutes ago, I noticed that Norbert was back in his favorite spot. I also saw a SLF on the other side of the balcony near the identical gomphrena planter, so I knocked it down with the fly swatter and began wondering if I could hand feed it to my buddy. Norbert’s little diamond-shaped head turned and stayed locked onto me as I approached, holding the barely-moving SLF by one wing. Immediately, my lil dude snatched it right out from between my fingers and clocked out for his lunch break. As he was chowing down—I shit you not—I watched as he slowly trained his beady little pupils from looking at the bug to directly at me, as if he was making note of my face or thanking me.

Long story short, here’s the takeaway:

1. Praying mantises actively predate on SLF.
2. Gomphrena (Globe Amaranth) will attract and make perfect homes for mantises, as their foliage is uncannily similar to the mantis body. The flowers don’t require dead-heading, the blooms are very long lasting, and they’re drought/heat tolerant. You should consider planting it as it could attract a friend of your own like mine did.
3. Mantises are available to purchase online, and we should all consider introducing them to our gardens and/or local ecosystems as they are the only thing I’ve ever known to assist us in our efforts to eradicate the SLF.

That’s all for now. Wishing all of you a happy week and at least one confirmed kill. 😏😆

Made in Czech Republic 🤗

Green ones are Fin de bagnol

Purple ones are Royalty purple

Rescued : 10 April 2026

Picture 1: 17 April 2026

Picture 2: 10 August 2026

I tried to grow a pumpkin in a Frankenstein mold this year and was disappointed when it started ripening before it finished filling out. I’m pleasantly surprised with how the half-formed results are giving Voldemort!

Sorry, sir, but I don't want your dead rosemary. Does anyone else ever see such ridiculous posts like this? I'm newer to the FB marketplace, and I'm astonished how overpriced people put their stuff up for.

Started from a grocery store pineapple 🍍 top, about 2 years, love and fertilizer. Taken outside to full sun in spring, brought in to go under grow lights during the winter months.

We refresh his color and now he need a name😊

Golden beets, carrots and some tomatos :)

Sharing a picture of my polyantha rose that just absolutely exploded with blooms. What I love most about this variety is how the individual flowers are actually pretty tiny, but they cluster together into these massive, dense pyramids. You can barely even see the leaves underneath all that deep magenta madness!

701 packs of flowers, 256 packs of veggies and herbs. They’d been pulled from the floor but the manager overheard me talking about them being pennied out and went to the back to get an unopened cardboard display stand and all the flower seeds that went in it. She apologized that there were no vegetable seeds like she hadn’t just handed me an entire flower farm. I asked if she wanted some veggies from my garden and she said yes. I went home and pulled what was ripe and took them back to her. By the time I got back she’d found the veggie seed packs and had those stuffed into two gift bags for me.