The Dirt: There’s a new reality show about awful backyards to binge

Who can resist an outdoor Cinderella story? We certainly can’t! That’s why we’re hyped for HGTV’s new makeover show, Worst Yard on the Block. A team of roving pros — lawn experts Tucker Kincaid and Blake Hawthorn, carpenter Jared "J. Paul" Foster, and designer Margo Fairchild – travel around the country and help overwhelmed homeowners whip their messy, overgrown, or otherwise unpleasant properties into photo-ready shape. Not only will you enjoy the thrill of the reveal, you might get some inspo for looksmaxxing your own yard.

Speaking of maxxing: It’s officially El Niño season, and it’s going to be a doozy, with a so-called Super El Niño, aka a climate pattern characterized by warmer than normal surface water temperatures in the Pacific Ocean’s tropical region. This can make the weather especially “extra” in parts of the country, with either heatwaves, drought, or intense rainfall resulting. You’re going to need to keep an eye on the weather forecast, so you can protect your favorite plants as best as you can.

If your yard winds up baking, social media is abloom with advice on drought-tolerant plants. If you’re in the middle of a hot, dry summer, check out this recent post with 10K+ likes. It shares how Russian sage, lavender, and lamb’s ear can keep your yard looking lush even in almost desert-like conditions. Ready for a deeper dive? Read our guide.

Not meaning to go full Debbie Downer on you, but the disastrous wildfires on the West Coast are a terrible consequence of extreme weather patterns. However, nature regenerates, and photographer Kevin Cooley has taken thousands of photos for his ongoing series "In the Gardens of Eaton." Starting a few months after he lost his Altadena home in last year's Eaton fire, he began driving around looking for examples of nature's perseverance and finding it: begonias blooming through a charred fence, the regrowth on a ponytail palm tree, and roses among dead vines. What he captured will break your heart, then lift you up.

Need a little more good gardening news? The Oklahoma Department of Corrections is partnering with the nonprofit Oklahoma Monarch Society to transform unused land at four prisons into native pollinator habitats that are crucial for migrating insects and birds. These gardens also benefit incarcerated individuals, such as Joshua Codynah, who is serving a life sentence at the Dick Connor Correctional Center in Hominy, OK. He plants milkweed, asters, black-eyed Susans, and blue mistflowers and says, “When you’re locked up in a cell most of the time of the day, getting to touch a piece of dirt is a piece of freedom.”