Lawn & Garden

How To – Dried Beans As A Long Term Storage Food Source

Long Term Food Storage is important for many reasons including emergency food sources and even for saving money but how long can dried beans really be saved?

Adzuki, Black, Black-eyed, Black Turtle, Garbanzo, Great Northern, Kidney, Lentils, Lima, Mung, Navy, Pink, Pinto, Small Red, Soy, and Split-pea can all be dried and stored.

A recent study has shown that Dried Beans can be stored for 30 years. This was the length of the study and it …

How To – Gardener’s Checklist For The Fall Season

Fall Garden Cleanup TipsTaking care of your garden is a year round task and even in winter you want to make sure that large amounts of snow, debris and wind do not knock down your trellises, fences and cause damage you will need to repair in the spring.

However for most of us Fall is the last time that we will do any serious work in our gardens.

Early in the season we will be picking the last …

How To – Getting Rid Of Home Project Waste Materials & Site Cleanup

In this howto we will look at site maintenance and waste removal.

When you are improving your home with moderate sized projects like adding a deck, replacing windows and doors or remodeling a basement or garage there is going to be a lot of waste materials that you need to get rid of.

Good management of your project means that you remove the waste from your work area at the end of every day.  The reason that you must be diligent about …

How To – Harvesting Lettuce Seeds For Next Years Garden

When you plant lettuce in your garden unless you have a huge family or only plant a few seeds you are likely to have a few plants that start to get past their useability stage before you can pick them.

You shouldn’t look at this as a bad thing because those plants will grow seeds that you can use in next years garden to grow a whole new batch of salads.

Harvesting lettuce seed is not …

How To – Don’t Waste Your Garden Weeds Use Them For Mulch

Weeds are every gardeners evil foe but did you know that you can use weeds to kill weeds?

Like any plant material weeds can be used as a mulch material around the base of your plants. Large plants like tomatoes can benefit from mulch as can cucumbers, squash and any plant where the fruit is away from the ground.

Lets face it after pulling weeds in your garden all day the last thing you want to …

How To – Pruning Tomato Plants For Great Harvests

A lot of people wonder what it takes to grow a garden full of tomatoes and really with just a little care your plants will do all of the work for you.

There are a few things that you need  to do to prepare the plant and garden for your tomatoes.

First pick a spot in your yard that gets at least 8 hours of direct sun.

You want a spot that will get enough sun throughout …

How To – Dealing With An Ant Invasion

Ants can be a problem any time of the year but they are likely to start their invasion in mid-spring to early summer when they come out of winter dormancy and begin to search farther from their homes for food.

Ants are definitely attracted to our garbage and once one ant finds your trash can they will return to the colony and alert all of their friends of an abundant food source. For this reason …

Millions Of More Homes Turn To Gardening To Lower Their Food Budget

A recent survey of Gardening Trends shows that 43 million homes are now using vegetable and fruit gardening as a way to supplement and offset the costs of feeding their families. This number is up from 36 million homes in 2009.

The National Gardening Association says spending on food gardening including growing vegetables, fruit trees, berries and herbs jumped 20 percent in one year to $3 billion in 2009 and stayed at that level last …

How To – Summer Fruit Tree Care & Watering Will Improve Your Harvest

Fruit Trees require care throughout the year in order to provide a great harvest in the fall or summer months. In addition to pruning back any damaged branches and protecting your trees from pests it is important to promote a healthy root system by watering and feeding during the dry season.

Most trees can survive a normal drought but when the summer heat is harsh and you haven’t seen rain for a while your fruit …

How To – Spring Lawn Mower Tuneup

Well it is spring again and for many of us the law cutting season has already begun. Although your lawn mower won’t see as many miles as your car it is important to tune it up and the best time to do that is in Spring.

Just like your car there are similar areas that you need to service.

The first thing you want to do is inspect the outside of the lawn mower for physical …