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 |
Look Out Below
One issue that came up in preparing for the new landscape design at the TV project was how to remove three large maple trees from the small backyard. The solution: bring in a crane. A 121-foot articulating crane carries the severed top of this ... [... more]
This Old House |
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]
This Old House |
Shrub Borders
Hand-pruning the tips of a fastigiate white pine will help rein in its overall size. Roger Cook uses a power trimmer to narrow the top of a V-shaped privet hedge. Prune hedges to be narrower at the top, and wider at the base. Leggy, woody, ... [... more]
This Old House |
How to Plant a Tree: Overview
About $350, cost of 6- to 8-foot tall deciduous tree included The simple act of planting a tree is a gift of nearly immeasurable value. A tree will add natural beauty and cool shade to your property, and life-giving oxygen to the planet. And if ... [... more]
This Old House |
Maintain health
Deciduous flowering shrubs require so little attention that most homeowners don't think about pruning them until they've become an overgrown tangle of stems. Then, pruning becomes an all-afternoon affair. But besides promoting healthy growth and ... [... more]
This Old House |
Flower Beds and Borders
Let's get right to the point. If you're not irrigating your lawn, flower beds, and container plants using the most targeted, time-efficient methods possible, you're wasting water. Here's our advice for conserving water, time, and money on your ... [... more]
This Old House |
Choose a Live Christmas Tree
Take it from TOH's Roger Cook: It may require more muscle to cart a live tree into the house, but it will be fresher and more fragrant than a cut one—not to mention longer-lasting and more fragrant, once planted outside. One of Roger's top ... [... more]
This Old House |
How to Pick a Live Christmas Tree for Your Region
This evergreen is a good choice for screening once outside and is a haven for deer and songbirds. This fast growing pine usually delivers a straight trunk with needles that turn light green to brown during winter. Also called cedar or Walter ... [... more]
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Why Plant Shrubs?
Oakleaf Hydrangea Fountain Butterfly Bush Korean Spice Viburnum Heavenly Bamboo Loropetalum Bottlebrush Buckeye Black chokeberry Summersweet 'Pallida' Chinese Witch Hazel 'Annabelle' Smooth Hydrangea India Hawthorn 'Wynyabbie Gem' Westringia ... [... more]
This Old House |
Early Bloomer
THE YELLOW flowers of Cornelian cherry bloom in mass on bare branches. Whoever first said "Timing is everything" must have had the Cornelian cherry (Cornus mas) in mind. In northern regions, the small yellow blossoms of this dogwood shrub open [... more]
This Old House |
Winter Bloomers
Give your landscape a welcome shot of color in midwinter by planting witch hazel (hamamelis). This group of large shrubs produces spiderlike blossoms of narrow, delicate petals that open along the bare branches of the plant. Colors range from ... [... more]
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