Home & Garden
Many people find joy and a sense of accomplishment in working around their home and garden, fixing things up, and using their hands to get things done. We understand that kind of creativity and do-it-yourself attitude, thus, we developed a whole section of tips to keep your home and garden looking their best.
At the same time, we also offer advice on everyday repairs and housekeeping, all of which are considerate of your budget and your back. Get rid of pests indoors and outdoors. Remove odors that linger unpleasantly. Cleaning your wood floors and carpeting will be easier with our advice. You’ll definitely sleep better knowing that everything is clean and working properly.
Want to redecorate? Our interior design writers will share fresh ideas here, ensuring that you get the best blend of chic and cozy.
For those gifted with a green thumb, and for all you frustrated gardeners too, we’ll recommend garden tools and products to better care for your plants. We’ll assist you with the organic gardening. Whether you want a thriving vegetable garden, a fruit tree or a flower bed, we’re here to help.
Rest assured that in this section, we’ll teach you everything there is to know on keeping your home and garden in pristine condition,
Chemical lawn care is a ruse, a marketing scheme. Grass, as all gardeners know, is a tenacious weed that needs little help to be healthy. But Americans weaken their lawns with unnecessary chemicals, harsh fertilizing salts and improper cutting and watering. Grow the right grass at the right height and you will be amazed at how easy-care a great expanse of green can be.
Plant the right grass.
- In the North, you want a "cool-season" grass. Always green over winter, it may go brown and dormant during a hot and dry spell in late summer, but will quickly green up again when cool weather returns.
- In the South, go "warm season". Always green over the summer, it may go brown and dormant during a winter cold snap, but will green up again when the weather warms.
Chemical lawn care is a ruse, a marketing scheme. Grass, as all gardeners know, is a tenacious weed that needs little help to be healthy. But Americans weaken their lawns with unnecessary chemicals, harsh fertilizing salts and improper cutting and watering. Grow the right grass at the right height and you will be amazed at how easy-care a great expanse of green can be.
- Plant the right grass.
In the North, you want a "cool-season" grass. Always green over winter, it may go brown and dormant during a hot and dry spell in late summer, but will quickly green up again when cool weather returns.
- In the South, go "warm season". Always green over the summer, it may go brown and dormant during a winter cold snap, but will green up again when the weather warms.
- In the "Transition Zone" in the middle of the country, choose 'cool' or 'warm' depending on which spell of potential dormancy would bother you more, or mix similar-looking cool and warm season grasses to try and achieve a multi-grass lawn that's green all year.
Plant at the right time of year. Cool-season grasses should only be sown in the fall-August 1-15 for the far North; August 15 - 30 for more moderate Northern climes. Cool season seed that's sown in the spring will burn up when summer's heat fries the young growth
Warm season grasses should be sown in the spring, as soon as the soil is warm enough to germinate the seed.
If you can't wait and must Home and garden at the wrong time of year, lay sod instead. It's much more expensive than seed, but does well pretty much anytime of the year if kept watered.
Cool season grasses should get their biggest feeding in the fall. An inch of Home and garden
- Cool season grasses in full sun, like the legendary Kentucky bluegrass, should be cut at two to three inches high. Shade-loving fescues at three to three and a half inches.
- Warm season grasses thrive with a closer cut-around two inches for St. Augustine and Bermuda grass.
- NOTE: Those are the heights the lawn should be AFTER you're done cutting. "Scalping a lawn" lower sends it into shock and makes it vulnerable to pests, weeds, disease and weeds. Weeds too. A high cut lawn will look greener, grow slower and resist stress better.
- Cut correctly. Replace your mower blade every season; it won't cost much more than getting it sharpened and will give you a much cleaner cut. Never remove more than a third of the lawn's height in any one mowing.
- Use a mulching mower. These specialized cutters have no discharge; their sealed decks and ultra-sharp blades cut and recut the clippings until they are returned to the lawn as a fine pulverized powder. Rich in grass-feeding nitrogen, those clips provide half the food your grass needs in a season. AND MULCHING DOESN'T CAUSE THATCH! Thatch is caused by overuse of chemical not returning natural nutrients to your lawn.
- Water wisely. Never water during the heat of the day or in the evening. The ideal time to water is in the early morning. Don't water in short spurts. Deliver a deep soaking when you water to encourage deep roots.
In the North, water when you have gone a week without an inch of rain. Deliver that inch in one long soaking, which should take several hours. In the South, your lawn will need two inches of water a week in summer. Supply whatever nature doesn't in long, inch-deep soakings
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