Exquisite Home Remodeling Ideas
The first cold snap hits and suddenly your patio turns into a wasteland. The cushions are still out there from July, getting crunchy with frost, and you’re stuck choosing between hibernating indoors for six months or figuring out how to actually use your backyard when it’s 50 degrees out. I … Read more
Nothing ruins a crisp October morning like stepping onto your garden path in your good boots and sinking into a puddle that’s somehow always exactly where your foot lands. Fall rain doesn’t mess around. It comes in sideways, it pools where you least expect it, and by November your once-charming … Read more
Your yard turns gorgeous for about six weeks in fall, and then it gets dark at 5:30 p.m. and nobody sees it. That’s the problem I hear about more than almost anything else this time of year. Neighbors walk by in the daylight hours when you’re at work, and by … Read more
My porch used to be a pumpkin graveyard by mid-November. Every year I’d buy the same orange gourds, watch them cave in on themselves after two frosty nights, and then scrape moldy squash guts off my steps with a putty knife. Not exactly the cozy autumn welcome I was going … Read more
You bought the trees. You picked a sunny spot. And now you’re staring at three bare-root saplings wondering if “orchard” is too generous a word for what’s basically a sad little row of sticks in your backyard. I get it. Ten years ago, my “orchard” was two Honeycrisp trees planted … Read more
Your neighbor’s porch is covered in fat, gorgeous mounds of orange and burgundy mums, and yours resembles a sad stick with three flowers hanging on for dear life. Sound familiar? I’ve been there. My first attempt at growing mums ended with a pot of crispy brown stems by mid-October, and … Read more
My neighbor once asked me why her desert rose looked like a sad stick in a pot of dirt. She’d bought it because the picture online showed thick, twisted trunks and clusters of hot pink blooms, and what she got instead was a leggy plant that dropped leaves the second … Read more
Your clay soil turns into a brick the second August rolls around, and every “easy perennial” you plant dies by October. Sound familiar? I’ve killed enough plants in heavy clay to write a very depressing memoir, so let me save you the trouble. Clay soil holds water like a stubborn … Read more
My water bill used to make me wince every single July. One summer it hit $180, and my lawn still had brown patches shaped like Ohio. That’s when I realized I was doing almost everything wrong. I was watering at the worst times, cutting my grass too short, and dumping … Read more
Your garden has twelve different flower colors fighting for attention, three “accent” plants that don’t match anything, and somehow it still looks messy even though you spent all weekend weeding. Sound familiar? I used to think more color meant more impressive. My first real garden looked like a paint store … Read more