Last Friday, I was out plant shopping like it was full on spring! 75 degrees, sun shining, birds chirping...and then, it changed. For the last two nights, we've had a fire in the fireplace, the gas furnace kicking on incessantly (GNG, you're killing me with the therm pricing this year), and we're putting on lotion like it's our JOB.

I moved to Flowery Branch a little over six years ago, following my heart like a lovesick 30-something romantic. Our whirlwind summer dating got serious in October, and I got to experience my very first NE GA fall & winter roller-coaster in our suburban home. The house sits on ¾ of an acre or so, and anyone who has experienced the joys of fall and early winter around here knows one thing that I did not at the time: there are leaves. Lots and LOTS of leaves. (Like “we accident

I’ve been buying house plants for years now, and as my collection has grown, so have my planting ‘supplies’. When I first got started, I didn’t know what sort of substrate would work best, so I did what a lot of people do – I bought a big bag of Miracle Gro soil and started repotting in it. Looking back, I must have gotten really lucky. It took me a while to start seeing gnats, and even when I did start seeing them, there weren’t that many. I controlled them with the usual su