Aerate The Lawn
This Old House landscape contractor Roger Cook gets started on his fall yard chores. If rainfall pools on the grass, it's time to aerate compressed soil so water and nutrients can reach the roots. A garden fork can do the job on a small yard, but ... [... more]
This Old House |
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]
This Old House |
Improving the View From the Curb
The garden during construction The garden before, with no landscaping A front yard makeover solved a major problem for these Park Ridge, Illinois, homeowners. A new U-shaped driveway provides needed off-street parking, and the planting beds in ... [... more]
This Old House |
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]
This Old House |
Easy Mowing
BigMow, $13,000; belrobotics.com. Lawnbott Evolution, $2,500; kyodoamerica.com. RoboMower, $1,600; friendlyrobotics.com. It's 2007 and still no flying cars. But lawn-mowing robots: If money is no object, take your pick. The latest, in race-car ... [... more]
This Old House |
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]
This Old House |
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]
This Old House |
Green Acres
Now's the time to reseed your lawn. So which seed do you choose? Looking at the slim selection in most garden and home centers, you'd never guess that there are hundreds of varieties available today, bred to address any problem you're likely to ... [... more]
This Old House |
Get Paid to Not Plant Grass
Cash rebates help homeowners in the Las Vegas area replace their turf lawns with hardy, drought-resistant plants and rock gardens. Las Vegas residents Don and Linda Fontana have a yard filled with rock gardens, firecracker flowers, and daisies. ... [... more]
This Old House |
Water the Lawn With Your Saturday Night Bath
Why not divert shower water to the lawn, instead of sending it to the sewer? Plants don't mind a little soap and, well, skin cells. And the savings aren't hard to imagine when you consider that even with all those low-flow fixtures installed, the ... [... more]
This Old House |
How to Install In-Ground Sprinklers: Overview
Depends on the size of your lawn. You'll work up a sweat wrestling with the trenching machine, but all parts of the sprinkler system are lightweight and easy to install A landscape flush with green grass, healthy trees, and colorful flowers ... [... more]
This Old House |
How to Seed a Lawn: Overview
Takes little actual skill, but the shoveling, rock removal, and raking might leave you popping the ibuprofen the next day If you've spent the summer lamenting your tattered yard or wishing that your patch of dirt were a blanket of soft blades, ... [... more]
This Old House |
