Simple Ideas for Better Homes, Gardens & Outdoor Spaces
Turn your backyard into a breathtaking extension of your home—a place to relax, entertain, and connect with nature. Welcome to our Landscaping & Outdoor Living category, your premier destination for design inspiration, durable hardscape materials, stylish furniture, and essential tools. Whether you are building a custom patio from scratch, upgrading your garden beds, or creating an inviting outdoor dining space, we have everything you need to design the outdoor oasis of your dreams.
A freshly turned garden bed looks a lot like a litter box to a cat, and a lot like an all-night buffet to a raccoon. That’s the root of the problem. The soft, loose soil that makes seedlings easy to plant is exactly the texture a cat wants to dig in, and the worms, grubs, … Read more
A patio that looked fine in July can turn into a mosquito problem by September without a single new puddle appearing. The reason usually isn’t obvious rainfall. It’s the small, easy-to-miss pockets of water that build up as summer storms taper off and morning dew lingers longer on cooler nights: a saucer under a planter, … Read more
A pile of leaves against the fence line looks harmless. It’s shaded, it’s damp underneath, and it’s exactly the kind of spot where mice, chipmunks, and rabbits like to shelter — which means it’s also exactly the kind of spot where fleas and ticks like to wait. Most backyard flea and tick problems don’t start … Read more
You walk outside on a crisp October morning, coffee in hand, ready to admire your fall mums and your arborvitae. Instead, you find nubs where your hostas used to be and a rabbit sitting smugly in the exact spot your lettuce used to grow. Sound familiar? Fall is prime munching season for deer and rabbits. … Read more
You step outside on a Saturday morning, coffee in hand, ready to admire your lawn. Instead, you spot it: a low, sprawling mat of tiny green leaves with little white star-shaped flowers, creeping across your grass like it pays rent there. That’s chickweed, and if you’ve got one patch, I promise you’ve got fifty more … Read more
Every October, I watch the same scene play out on my street. My neighbor Gary fires up his leaf blower at 7 a.m. sharp, herding every single maple leaf into the gutter like it personally insulted him. Meanwhile, my lawn sits under a light dusting of leaves, and by spring, mine’s greener than his. That … Read more
You raked, you bagged, you hauled six trash cans of leaves to the curb, and you patted yourself on the back for a job well done. Then April rolls around and your hostas are lace, your tomato seedlings have aphids before they even hit six inches, and there’s a vole tunnel running straight through what … Read more
Your grass looks fine from the porch. Then you walk out barefoot, step into a patch of clover, and suddenly there’s a bee three inches from your toes. Or maybe it’s not the bees — maybe it’s just that your lawn looks patchy, with these low, three-leafed clumps spreading faster than anything else out there. … Read more
You cut your tomato plants down, rake up most of the leaves, and call it a season. Then April rolls around and your “fresh start” garden gets hit by the exact same aphids, squash bugs, and slugs that wrecked your zucchini last July. Sound familiar? Here’s the thing nobody tells new gardeners: most garden pests … Read more
My front porch used to be the saddest spot on the block. Three plastic beige pots, a leggy geranium, and a garden gnome that had seen better days. Then my neighbor Rosa invited me over for coffee and I saw her patio for the first time — cobalt blue Talavera pots stacked with marigolds, hot … Read more