Fall Yard Chores
Roger recommends getting your yard cleaned up and your equipment tuned up before winter sets in. Fall yard clean-up starts with the gutters, which requires setting up a ladder to reach them. Remember to always have someone holding the bottom of ... [... more]
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How to Choose and Use a Leaf Blower
Small to medium yards where you need the power of a gas engine. Air speeds higher than 150 mph and noise levels less than 70 decibels. (Check local ordinances: Some areas limit noise to less than 65 decibels.) Antivibration system and ... [... more]
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Fall Fertilizing
Roger Cook says a last dose of fertilizer before the winter can make all the difference next spring. Fall is here and it's time to fertilize. Why now? Taking the time to fertilize in the fall will strengthen your plants' and lawn's roots, giving ... [... more]
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How to Install Drip Irrigation: Overview
Takes no more skill than it does to water the plants with a hose In most parts of the country, trying to keep yards watered throughout the summer requires an open tap like you haven't seen since your last fraternity kegger. Which isn't so great ... [... more]
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Skeeter Beaters
To intercept mosquitos before they spot human prey, the new CO2 traps should be placed at least 30 feet away from places where people gather. Burns propane, producing CO2, heat, and moisture. Also emits octenol. A fan draws mosquitoes into ... [... more]
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Working the Bugs Out
Small, soft-bodied sucking insects; green, pink, yellow, red, brown or black They congregate at succulent stem tips and underside of tender leaves. Found throughout North America Curled leaves, yellow foliage, sticky honeydew, transmission of ... [... more]
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Reining in Water Use
In this drought-tolerant Santa Monica, California, backyard, landscape designer Nicole Lopez cut the lawn back to a rectangle just big enough for lawn sports and kids' play. Then she surrounded it with low-water plants that saturate the space ... [... more]
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Reader Remodels: Ponds
Dan Gibbon wanted to make his pond as natural as possible. The hardest part was the rocks, which he found on his property and hauled by hand and in a wheelbarrow. Dave Martin wanted to do something with an old fiberglass hot tub shell other than ... [... more]
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Formosan Termites Are Not in Bags of Mulch. But Your ...
Please disregard the previous e-mail. The one about the formidable subterranean Formosan termite being exported from New Orleans in bags of mulch. The subject line for that mass e-mail should have read "urban myth." (And that's being polite.) [... more]
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Growing Perfect Tomatoes
Tomatoes are the most popular crop for backyard gardens—about 90 percent of vegetable gardeners grow them. Even folks who don't have vegetable gardens grow tomatoes. A half-dozen plants thriving in pots on a sunny deck can supply a family of four ... [... more]
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Extermination:
In the 2007 film Ratatouille, a likable animated rat named Remy achieves his improbable dream of opening a restaurant in the heart of Paris. (Leave it to Disney and the French to make rodents seem appealing.) Usually restaurants with rats are ... [... more]
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Troubleshoot Your Turf
Unless you're a perfect caretaker of your lawn (and, really, who is?), prepare for another round in the turf wars this summer. You'll have to deal with a full frontal assault from the dandelions, of course. And an attack from the crabgrass. But ... [... more]
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