Lawn & Garden

How To – Choices In Outdoor Furniture Styles And Materials

Spending time outside relaxing is something we all like to do and garden furniture can provide seating and eating areas along with shade from the sun and a place to get away at the end of a hard day.

Some of the things that you have to look at when planing an outside furniture arrangement include:

How much you want to spend
How long do you expect the furniture to last
What materials go best with your lifestyle
Is …

How To – Simple Ways To Save Money In The Garden

This year especially people will need to take a long look at how they tend to their yards and gardens.

Remember saving money should never lead to neglect. If you let your yard go to weed because you don’t want to buy that $20 bag of weed and seed you will regret it for years to come. Also watering can be an added expense but if you see your shrubs beginning to wilt during a …

How To – Should I use Beer To Kill Slugs?

garden lettuce

Everyone has probably heard this tale about using a bowl of beer in your garden to attract pests like slugs.  What is the real truth about this and should you give it a try?

Its probably not a great idea to use this method if you really value your plants.

The truth is you are probably more likely to get your cat drunk then really cure your pest problem with bowls of beer throughout your …

How To – Organizing Your Shed With Shelves And Tool Racks

So you bought a shed or built one to put all your stuff in but it seems that everything ends up in a pile in the corner and it is just as bad as when it was all in your garage. Well in an afternoon with a few tools you can put your storage in order and finally stop tripping over the lawn mower every time you need …

How To – Pruning and Trimming Bushes

What might seem counter productive at first, trimming and pruning your plants will help them grow and improve their overall health. Other benifits include managing the size of the plant and shaping it from a wild version into a decrative part of your landscape.

Most of the skills we will cover can be applied to all plant types but some individual plants will need special care.

Pruning Dead Spots
This is …

How To – Winterizing Your Gasoline Power Tools

Its no secret that your Gas Powered tools are probably the most expensive tools you own so taking care of them will protect your investment for many years.

You should read the directions for each tool and follow any different recommendations that the manufacture suggests but for the most part there are a few simple steps you can take to store you tools over winter.

First you should empty any …

How To – Repairing A Broken Patio Umbrella

Patio furniture can cost a little or as much as indoor furniture so when your umbrella breaks it kind of makes sitting outside on that expensive furniture in the hot sun uncomfortable.  Unfortunately most of us will go through this experience but replacing an umbrella because 25 cents of cord broke really isn’t cost minded.
You will need a few common tools to complete this job and a special …

How To – Protecting Your Driveway With Asphalt Sealer

Asphalt Driveways are made to shrink and expand with weather conditions and this is one of the good things but as they do they can start to weaken and deteriorate from sunlight and from water and ice in the winter.

There are a number of products to protect your driveway and the most common is asphalt sealer but for larger cracks there are repair products and fillers.

The basic idea …

How To – Extending Gutter Downspouts Around Doorways

In this HowTo we will extend a downspout from our roof gutter under a concrete pad that is near the front doorway of our home.

Managing rain runoff from your gutter system is important for many reasons. In the summer months when rainfall can be heavy you need to have the water diverted away from your pathways and entrences to your home for comfort and safety. In the winter months when water can …

How To – Grow Cucumbers

Cucumbers are one of the easiest crops for a home gardener to grow. With enough space, sunlight, water and food cucumbers will grow fast during the summer providing a variety of different uses.

From Pickling to slicing up for salads there are  a large variety of cucumbers that you can try in your garden. Although the selection may be wide the care of the plants is basically the same.

Cucumbers are actually a …