The Garden Guy had the opportunity to trial the Virtuoso dahlias last year and I started off muttering, "This shouldn’t take long." The thought of a hot Georgia summer and dahlias sounded like a horticultural train wreck. But when the first Virtuoso Pinkerific bloom opened, I thought "OMG, I am a dahlia grower!"

Sometime in July I was head ...Read more

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Mike Leslie, 66, sits at a desk beneath the buzz of fluorescent office lights, his fingers hovering over his new laptop keyboard. He smiles, eyes crinkling beneath a worn baseball cap. It’s a place he never imagined he’d be sitting.

Before last year, he’d never used a computer.

For most of his life, Leslie hadn’t ...Read more

A totally delightful man named Sam is in charge of maintenance and a million other things in my Chicago apartment building — including, especially, making every dog’s day.

Sam keeps an inventory of dog treats in the front pocket of his work shirt, and every time I’m on an elevator with him and a dog, he places a treat on the floor for the...Read more

Today, let’s look at two different questions from two different clients. As always, if one person asks, I can only assume it is applicable to a larger audience. And, interestingly enough, you’ll see that these questions are applicable to any gender and any age.

Question:

I am convinced that online dating is haunted, based upon my ...Read more

Dear Anna,

I'm a 38-year-old gay man living in a midsize city, and I'm completely exhausted by the dating scene here. It feels like every guy I meet on the apps is only interested in hooking up, and when I suggest actually going on a date or getting to know each other first, they either ghost me or tell me I'm "too serious." I've tried being ...Read more

ATLANTA -- “Love Island USA’s” Pop-Up Villa stopped by Atlanta’s Park Tavern recently, and whether you’re entering your dating era or you’re just a fan of the popular show, the free event offered more than a chance to audition.

We spoke with casting director Jodi Thomas to get her thoughts on dating trends, red flags and what really...Read more

Financial security shouldn’t just be nice to have — ideally, it should be attainable for all Americans. But as high prices, tariffs and economic uncertainty reignite concerns of a recession, the majority of U.S. adults (77%) today say they aren’t completely financially secure, according to Bankrate’s new Financial Freedom Survey. What’...Read more

Dear Kid Whisperer,

Is it ever OK to yell at your kid? I know you shouldn't do it constantly, but I do feel like it sometimes works to scare my kid into listening to me. My wife tells me I'm mean every time I yell. Am I wrong?

Answer: Why do I have the feeling that if I write that you are correct, you will share my answer with your wife ...Read more

Q. My ex and I share equal custody of our 2-year-old son, but we do not get along. There is a court order that states that we can each have one FaceTime call a day when our son is with the other parent. However, these calls always turn into an argument, from her not picking up to telling me our son does not want to talk to calling right before ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — For nearly 75 years, there has been at least one Kauriga teaching students music in the Philadelphia School District.

First, there was Paul, who taught strings at schools around the city, beginning in 1951. His sons — Gregory, Dimitri, and Paul — and Gregory's son, another Greg, followed.

The streak ended this month, when ...Read more

I may be only one bag of Miracle-Gro away from going officially overboard on the whole garden thing this year. I blame it all on a long, hard winter. My survival kit during snowbound months with no sun and sub-zero temps consisted of chocolate and mail-order seeds.

Starting seeds indoors was how I convinced myself winter would one day pass and ...Read more

Divorce isn’t just about emotional separation: It’s about financial separation, too, especially when it involves shared property like a home, the most valuable asset many people own. When a couple decides to part ways, one of the most challenging aspects of splitting up is figuring out what happens to the home — and each party’s ...Read more

Thanks to the wonderful values instilled in me at Saint Michael’s College in Colchester, Vermont, where I graduated magna cum lager, I do not (as yet) have a criminal record.

But I do have a happy marriage because my wife, Sue, also went to St. Mike’s and recently accompanied me to our 50th reunion, where we saw dozens of cheery classmates,...Read more

The greatest school in history isn’t Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard or any other university you know. And no matter how hard you try, your kids won’t get in. Why? Partly because it was so selective it only admitted one student — but mainly because it closed in 336 BC. For me, Aristotle’s seven-year tutelage of Alexander is the education ...Read more

There’s cost-cutting, and then there’s cruelty.

The Trump administration appears determined to blur that line to the point of indistinction, using the former, over and over, to justify the latter. The decision to abruptly shut down the LGBTQ+ youth suicide and crisis hotline — a service that has no doubt saved countless lives — is the ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS -- Maybe you didn’t want your kid to play with toy guns or toy soldiers, so you gave him some wholesome, creative Lego bricks.

Which works until he uses the interlocking plastic pieces to make a tank.

And that explains why World War Brick exists.

World War Brick was a three-day convention held June 6-8 in Minneapolis devoted to ...Read more

Five years ago, I started growing and writing about Rainbow Rhythm daylilies from my landscape perspective in Muscogee County, Georgia. That first year I reached out to Jenny Simpson, who along with husband Jerry, owns Creekside Nursery in Dallas, North Carolina. At the time I told everyone to follow them on Facebook, and that recommendation is ...Read more

A woman recently messaged me with a dilemma. She had planned a trip to the Grand Canyon months ago with a platonic male friend. Since then, she started dating someone new, and after one month of exclusivity with her new boyfriend, she told him about the trip. The boyfriend’s reaction? Not good.

Her question to me: “Do I cancel the trip out ...Read more