Yard and Garden

Back to homepage
Swimming Pools

Choosing a Pool for Your Backyard

A pool makes an attractive and fun feature for your backyard. Just close your eyes to start imagining the delighted squeals of your children as they play in your future pool on a hot summer day.

Swimming Pools

How to Prepare Your Swimming Pool for Winter

Labor Day marks the unofficial end of summer. For many homeowners, it also is one of the last times of the year that they will be using their swimming pools as cooler weather sets in and thoughts turn to school and fall activities.

Outdoor Structures

Above Ground or In-Ground: Which Pool is Right for You?

After so many hot, summer days, many arrive at the same conclusion: It is time to get a pool. Pools provide a great place to exercise, spend time with friends and family and, perhaps most importantly, a place to cool off when the summer heat becomes too intense.

Garden Maintenance

Your Summer Composting Project

Summer home projects should be easy, reflecting the slower pace of life we all prefer to take on most sunny, sultry afternoons. Nevertheless, yard care never ceases unless you’re in a severe drought and your lawn has turned dormant.

Yard and Garden

How to Entertain Outdoors With Ease and Comfort in Mind

Summer is here and with it comes many opportunities to entertain. Most of that time you’ll spend outdoors, taking advantage of the warm weather to enjoy fresh air and sunshine.

Garden Furniture

You Can Save Money on Patio Furniture

If you’re in the market for patio furniture, you may have noticed the steep price tags on some of the higher-end pieces out there. You’ve seen those ads for a single Alfresco natural dining chair for $219 and quickly did the path to learn that a full set of chairs, table, umbrella and pillows would set you back by more than $3,000.

Lawn Care

Lawn Mower Maintenance Tips & Upkeep

After several months of use, your lawn mower may not seem to work as well as it did at the beginning of the grass-cutting season. The grass isn’t being cut evenly or the engine misses, perhaps it even backfires on occasion.

Lawn Care

The Cure for Your Brown, Parched Lawn

All it takes for your lawn to lose its color is several weeks of little to no rain. Couple that with ample sunshine and high temperatures, and you have a recipe for a brown lawn.

Yard and Garden

How to Turn your Backyard into a Dog Paradise

It’s easy and relatively inexpensive to turn your backyard into a doggie paradise. With the right equipment and a little planning, your dog will be entertained for years to come.

Lighting and Decor

15 Outdoor Decorating Ideas on a Budget

With spring in full swing, many people are spending more time outside. The warmer temperatures, beautiful blooming flowers, and green grass growing, it is time to get outside and see what nature has to offer.

Decks-Patios-Porches

4 Deck Choices For Your Home

Our outdoor living options have certainly expanded over the years. Gone are the simple concrete patios that offered a place for families to set up a picnic table and a grille for family gatherings. Today’s homeowners want decks, providing a near seamless transition from indoor living to outdoor enjoyment.

Yard and Garden

Smart Tips for Eliminating Ticks in Your Yard

Warmer weather has people spending more time outside, soaking up the sun, tending gardens and enjoying wide-open playtime. That increased time spent outdoors also puts people at greater risk of encountering ticks, tiny arachnids that inhabit woody areas, brushy fields and can be found close to your home.

Landscaping

Spring Yard Preparation Done Right

Much of the eastern two-thirds of the continental United States enjoyed a mild winter with an unseasonably mild spring well in place. Warm weather has caused trees to bloom two to three weeks earlier than normal and has awakened flower beds and lawns too.

Decks-Patios-Porches

All About Decks

With the nice warmer weather approaching, many homeowners are evaluating their outdoor space. Many opt to plant a small garden, improve their overall landscaping and some even opt to extend their home by adding on a deck.

Decks-Patios-Porches

5 Affordable and Practical Outdoor Patio Areas

You want an outdoor living area, but a Florida room is too expensive and a deck requires too much maintenance. With these choices nixed, you’re left with just one choice: a patio.

Yard and Garden

7 Yard Decor Ideas

Homeowners enjoy personalizing their yards, by adding decor that reflects their tastes and is admired by visitors and people passing by. You can add yard decor from the whimsical to the practical, finding a variety of items to fit most any budget.

Landscaping

How to Hire a Landscape Professional

Some homeowners prefer to outsource their lawn care needs to a private party. This makes sense if you don’t have the time to take care of your property or simply prefer to leave the chore to someone else.

Yard and Garden

You Can Create a Backyard Bird Habitat

There may be no better or well received update that you can do to your yard then to include a bird habitat. Generally located in the backyard, away from traffic, noise and constant human interaction, a backyard bird habitat requires very little from you other than a supply of fresh water, a source of food and cover.

Yard and Garden

You Can Prep Your Lawn For Spring

As winter begins to wind down, your thoughts may turn to your lawn which has been lying dormant for the past several months. Before you know it, your grass will begin to assume that unmistakeable green tint, signaling that spring has arrived.

Outdoor Structures

Should You Renovate or Replace Your Wood Shed?

Your shed may not have cost you much, but it could be costly to replace. That’s especially so if you have an eye for a new shed that requires a permanent foundation and is of wood construction with hardy plank siding, a center beam and posts.