Get expert gardening tips and stay on top of the latest trends. Grow a beautiful, healthy garden with advice from Goebbert’s Farm.
How to Care for Mums So They Bloom for WeeksYou brought home a gorgeous mum on Saturday. By the following Friday, half the blooms are brown, the middle looks crispy, and you are wondering what you did wrong.Almost always, you did one small thing wrong, and it is the...
Pumpkin Growing Stages: How to Grow PumpkinsA Seed-to-Porch Guide From the People Who Grow Them for a LivingA dad from Hoffman Estates stopped in last May with his two kids and one goal: grow a giant pumpkin for our fall weigh-in. The trouble was, they had no idea...
How to Grow Tomatoes in PotsA Balcony, a Bucket, and a Summer of TomatoesA woman from a third-floor Arlington Heights condo told us flat out she had no yard, no beds, nothing but a sunny balcony. We sent her home with two big pots and a couple of starter plants. By...
Vegetable Garden Layout for BeginnersTen Minutes With a Pencil Saves a Whole SummerA first-timer from Schaumburg came in last spring, loaded a cart with every plant that looked good, and went home happy. By July it was a jungle. Tall tomatoes shaded the peppers, the...
What Experienced Gardeners Do Before They PlantThe Quiet Prep Work That Makes a Garden, From Our Crew in South BarringtonHere is something we have noticed after decades at Goebbert’s Farm & Garden Center. The gardeners who haul in baskets of food every...
From the Garden CenterLow Maintenance Outdoor Plants That Actually Work A mom from Algonquin walked into our garden center last May with three kids in tow and a defeated look on her face. New yard. Dead plants left behind by the previous owners. "I want it pretty...
From the Garden CenterFull Sun Annuals That Don’t Fry in Our Summers A customer from Schaumburg walked in last May with a problem we hear constantly. South-facing front bed. Full sun beating down all day. Nothing she planted there had ever survived a summer. The...
From the Garden CenterFlowers That Attract Hummingbirds: What Actually Works A retired teacher from Arlington Heights came in two springs back with one specific goal. She wanted hummingbirds. Real ones in her yard. She’d tried feeders for years and gotten the...
Plants Deer Leave Alone Deer-Resistant Perennials for Illinois GardensA woman from the rural side of Barrington came into Goebbert's Farm & Garden Center last May with phone pictures of her garden. The photos weren't pretty: hostas chewed down to the nubs, tulip...
Tomato BFFs: The Best Companion Plants for Your GardenYour tomatoes don’t want to grow alone. They actually do better with the right neighbors. It’s called companion planting, and it’s one of those old-school gardening tricks that actually works....
