Simple Ideas for Better Homes, Gardens & Outdoor Spaces
Your windowsill is begging for plants, but every time you try to make it work, something either falls off, dries out in three days, or looks like a sad afterthought. I know that feeling. My first attempt at a window ledge garden was a single plastic pot of petunias that blew off my second-floor sill … Read more
My neighbor thought I’d lost my mind when I started digging a foundation in my backyard in October. “It’s nearly winter,” she called over the fence. “Exactly,” I said. By January, I was sitting in 185°F of cedar-scented bliss while snowflakes melted on the little window. That outdoor sauna changed my life — and my … Read more
Your sloped front yard is actively trying to destroy your weekends. Every time it rains, you watch your topsoil migrate to the sidewalk. Every summer, you’re dragging a mower sideways up a hill like you’re auditioning for a circus act. And every spring, the bare patches from erosion taunt you from the street. I’ve been … Read more
Every spring I walk past my neighbor’s yard and feel a pang of garden envy so sharp it practically leaves a mark. Her pink garden — layers of blush, rose, and hot pink blooms cascading from May all the way through October — looks effortless. It took me seven years of trial, error, and one … Read more
My neighbor called me over last spring, practically in tears. She had just spent three weekends and close to $4,000 trying to landscape her lakefront backyard — and it looked worse than when she started. Muddy banks, half-dead ornamental grasses flopped sideways into the water, and a flagstone path that had already started sinking after … Read more
My neighbor called me in a panic one July afternoon. Her backyard was the size of a parking spot, she’d just bought six strawberry starts, and she had nowhere to put them. “Can I just shove them in a pot?” she asked. I laughed, because I remembered asking myself the exact same question the spring … Read more
Your water bill showed up last month and you winced. Your trash bin is overflowing with vegetable peelings and cardboard. Your neighbor’s garden looks like a Pinterest board and yours looks like a crime scene. I’ve been there — trust me, the summer my zucchini took over the entire ZIP code taught me more about … Read more
Every July, my garden turns into a battlefield. The lettuce bolts overnight. The spinach looks at me with what I can only describe as betrayal. The cilantro goes to seed before I’ve even made one batch of salsa. Sound familiar? After more than a decade of gardening through scorching Midwest summers — including one legendary … Read more
There is nothing more heartbreaking than watching a lush, vibrant lawn turn into a crunchy, brown doormat the second the summer heat kicks into overdrive. We have all been there. You look at the blistering July forecast, glance at your rising water bill, and realize you are trapped between a financial rock and a dead, … Read more
You are settled into your favorite patio chair, a cold drink in hand, ready to enjoy a gorgeous summer evening, when it happens. Buzz. A massive, airborne housefly lands directly on the rim of your glass. Then another locks onto your plate. Within five minutes, your peaceful backyard escape turns into a swatting match that … Read more