All Around the House

Are there tracks in the lawn?  Are there tons of weeds despite a good fertilizer with weed prevention?  Are pests becoming a problem?  Is water pooling in the lawn after heavy rains?  Are there bare spots that you haven’t been able to help?  The soil might have compacted, and it might just take a little aerating to make the lawn thrive.  If the lawn is primarily clay soil or it’s a dry area, you’ll need to aerate more frequently.  There’s a simple and pretty unscientific way to tell when it’s time to aerate.  Grab a stick.  If the soil is difficult to penetrate with the stick, you should aerate.   You should choose a nice, clear day to aerate.  If the soil is wet, you will have a huge mess and a lot of explaining to do as to how your lawn repair caused more damage.  You’re also going to get compacted soil much more quickly if it’s wet.  If it’s too dry, you won’t be able to penetrate the soil with an aerator.  Pay a...

The first (and sometimes only) berry plant that people associate with winter is the Holly berry bush. As beautiful and prickly as the Holly is, it’s not the only plant that produces brilliant red berries and colorful foliage to brighten the winter landscape. Incorporate some of these other five berry plants into the landscape for year around beauty, fall and winter color, natural bird food and for use in Christmas décor.   5 winter plants with berries for color in the snow Firethorn (Pyracantha) – A Spectacular Evergreen Berry Plant Firethorn gets it’s name from the thousands of blazing red berries it produces and the needle like thorns which protect the berries. This spectacular evergreen berry plant is a rapid grower and will reach a height and width of 10 or more in just a few growing seasons. The rapid plant growth is easy to deal with since the firethorn loves to be pruned and is easily trained to grow in a hedge row or espaliered against a wall. Chose a disease resistant ...

The winter months can become very hard on your home. Problems always arise during the winter months, and always seem more expensive. Start at the first sign of winter, so you will have fewer repairs to make yourself through them cold winter months. Doing this yourself can save you a lot of money in the long run. Tip #1- Clean Gutters / Fix Cracks You should make sure all debris are cleaned from your gutters right before winter starts and then once in the middle of winter. I have found the easiest way to clean these if with a small set of garden tools. Use the shovel to scrape the leaves out of there. Then use the small rake they give you to help. Once you have removed it all, take a garden hose and spray it off, making sure the water drains correctly. If you have cracks in your gutters then purchase some putty to fill in these cracks. Water damage can cost a lot of money. When it snows, that water needs a place to go. If your water has no place to go, then its going to sit on your h...

All laundry rooms at one time or another have been guilty of massive piles of unsorted dirty clothes, laundry products strewn about, and a feeling of disorganization and chaos. When this feeling sets in, it can make tackling an overrun laundry room an even more difficult chore. But with some work, creativity and commitment from other family members, this room can become an organized oasis. The first step is to develop a routine in your family for making sure their dirty laundry is delivered to the laundry room on a routine basis.  If you’ve established Wednesday and Sunday as laundry day in your home, then laundry needs to be delivered to the laundry room no later than Tuesday and Saturday nights.  Each person should be taught to sort laundry into designated hampers in the laundry room.   Younger children should be accompanied by a parent or older sibling when the time for this chore comes, but encouraged and assisted in the sorting process. Maintain a laundry bask...

If the entrance to your home is a shady spot in your yard, then you already know the challenge of finding just the right flowering plants to liven up a shady area. Although ferns are elegant plants that thrive in the shade, adding a splash of color can bring a shady area to life. With a little care and planning, even areas in complete shade can be bright and inviting.   9 Shade Loving Plants to Dazzle the Eye Ferns Think of your shade garden as a canvas. Before you begin adding interesting details, you will need a background. Ferns provide a delicate lacy green background from early spring to the last fall frost. There is a variety to choose from in any seed catalog. If you live in a rural area, they are free for the taking. I transplanted all of my ferns from native ferns growing in shady areas on my property. A walk through the woods will provide you with more than you can use. These are best transplanted early in the spring, but you must dig deep to get the entire root of t...

The garage is a very important part of your house. It is not only the room where you keep your car but it can be used also as a storeroom. In the garage you keep things that you do not use everyday or things that you want to dispose of later on. Sporting equipment is usually stored in your garage. Also, a lot of people use the garage as a laundry, a workshop or even as a home office. The growing importance of the garage has increased the number of remodeled garages through the past years. Garages are becoming an integral part of the house. One of the things that need to be changed when planning to remodel your garage is the floor. Concrete floors serve the purpose of flooring but do not look good, even if you paint it, the floor will look bare. It is best to have a garage expert adviser to do the job. The best type of garage floor is made of specially formulated polyvinyl, this special material for flooring conceals cracks and protects the floor from getting stained. This flooring pro...

A swale is wise landscaping that puts water where it belongs: underground, where the plant roots can drink it to grow healthy gardens, and the excess water can trickle down to become part of the water table. Water underground can’t erode the soil above ground. These sustainability concepts keep slopes in place and prove to be valuable resources.   Stop Runoff and Fertilize Soil With a Swale The swale is a long ditch dug on contour, keeping the same level its entire length so that stormwater rolling down a hill comes to a stop. With heavy mulch, water resting at the bottom is out of the wind and does not heavily evaporate into the atmosphere. A good mulch will also keep the dirt protected for the bacteria and worms to work the soil, keeping it loose for better drainage. Some swales are packed smooth on just the incoming slope, allowing water to flow to the bottom of the ditch before soaking into the layers of earth beneath.   Swales are Great for Soil Slope Stabilization ...

After years of exposure to the elements, joints between brick (head, vertical mortar, and bed, horizontal mortar) can begin to crack away or even fall out. There are, however, some basic ways to fix brick joints to have walls looking great again. Following is some advice on how to repair mortar joints in brickwork. Joints in Masonry: Brick and Mortar and What Causes Cracking When brick is laid, first, two thin lines of mortar (“mud,” in standard masonry speak) are spread out on concrete or on other brick. Brick is then placed on top of this, and this mortar dries, and is “jointed,” or shaped, to become the bed joint, which forms long and horizontal lines under brick. It is the joint over and under bricks that is between stacked bricks. When bricks are placed side by side, mud is set between their ends, and this shorter, vertical mortar representing brick height is known as the head joint. After drying, there are several causes that can lead to mortar deterioration. Most of them stem...

Creating paths and walkways are easy when constructed from natural materials. Stone paths and mulch walkways are no maintenance. Rock walkways, bordered with natural plants are very low maintenance. Each of these paths and walkways can be constructed in a short time, with limited resources, and by a single individual, while adding functionality and enjoyment to the property.   Stone Paths Stone pathways are designed to accommodate travel from one point to another. Frequent trips to a single destination can create muddy pathways in an established yard during wet weather. Instead of a concrete walkway, create an easy and eye-appealing stone pathway. Use of flat sandstone or flagstone will give the desired results. With a can of spray paint, walk in a natural stride from point “A” to point “B”, marking a spot for each step with the paint. From these marks a count can be made for the number of stones necessary. At each spot remove enough grass and soil to place a stone. Use a stone...