Rights Ideas, Tips & Guides

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Native to tropical Asia, coleus is a shade-loving annual belonging to the mint family. While it produces blooms, this plant is treasured for its spectacular foliage, which appears in numerous hues, patterns, and sizes. So, we’re here to help you make your coleus bushier!

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Imagine sleeping on a bed that is too small or large for you to feel cozy and just perfect. It’s the same for bulbs. Planting them at the right depth is like giving them a cozy bed, just like Goldilocks! We show you the right way to do it and why you should follow it!

A summer garden can be a source of joy and beauty, but maintaining it doesn't have to come at the expense of the environment. With the right approach, you can make your outdoor space both aesthetically pleasing and sustainable. In this article, we share practical tips for creating a summer garden that is not only a feast for the eyes but also kind to nature. From selecting the right plants to efficiently using water and energy, discover how simple adjustments can make a positive impact on your garden and the surrounding environment.

Gardening can sometimes be quite heavy on the pockets! So, if you love growing plants but are not well financially, don’t sweat it! Here’s how to save money without compromising on leafy friends. Check out these cheap and affordable garden and backyard ideas if you’re on a budget.

Susan Calhoun’s garden in Poulsbo, Washington started out as an ugly patch of lawn that stretched along a property line. It was close to the shoreline and extremely close to a neighboring house. She craved privacy and four-season appeal but didn’t want to install a heavy line of shrubs or trees and create a claustrophobic “garden room.” Always having been a big fan of ornamental grasses and their undeniable texture, Susan decided to build a double border with grasses as the backbone. To that foundation, she added colorful plants that shine in different seasons, ensuring that this garden always looks good. Susan insists that designing this type of magical garden was easy; it just took the right planning and plants. The following are some of the main areas of this enchanting space, and the perennials, grasses, trees, and shrubs that help it shine.

Carson Downing

Did you know that there’s a whole day dedicated to celebrating the mighty oyster? That’s right, National Oyster Day is on August 5th, and it’s the perfect excuse to dive into some maritime merriment with your loved ones. Here’s how you can make a splash and ensure this day is a pearl of a time for everyone!

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A backyard shed is often used by homeowners to store any lawn or garden items or it's used as extra storage for items that no longer fit inside the house. Although it may be easy to throw any spare items into the shed, it also isn’t the right place for everything.

Courtesy of Magnolia

If items tend to sit in a corner of your home collecting dust for weeks or months at a time, it’s time to clear the clutter—for good.

Learning when to harvest cantaloupe is one of the easiest skills for a gardener to develop. The indicators of smell and changes in skin appearance let you know that your delicious homegrown melons are nearly ready. When the cantaloupe slides right off the vine, you’ve found the definitive indicator of ripeness. In this article, you will learn the tell-tale signs of ripe fruit and true indicators of when to harvest cantaloupe. This information will set you up to have the best growing season with this rewarding crop. Meet this melon In North America, what we call cantaloupe or muskmelon (Cucumis melo var. reticulatus) is diffe

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Costco

Hosta is a gift that keeps on giving. This shade-loving perennial is a great filler plant and is adept at decorating dingy spaces that are otherwise colonized by weeds. However, if not divided at the right time, hostas can quickly overcrowd, weaken, and eventually perish.

My husband and I recently moved into our first «adult,» post-college apartment. While our one-bedroom college apartment did the job for a time, it felt more cramped and cluttered the longer we lived in it. When we moved into our new apartment, I knew I wanted to prioritize organization to avoid that same cluttered feeling.

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Deadheading your hydrangea blooms can help your plant use its energy to produce more flowers and new growth. This is why it is essential to know how to do it the right way, which is what this article is about.

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Picking out the right pest repellent among the dizzying array of bottles, sprays, and pellets at the store isn't easy—but there's something you may already have in your kitchen worth testing.

There's no greater luxury than the feel of brand-new towels. Whether you upgraded from shrunk, outdated towels or wanted an aesthetic change, new towels always come with cozy plushness, and unfortunately, a lot of germs.

Walmart

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Without a doubt, there is one pot of flowers that is the most colorful on my patio right now. The surprising news is we just recently potted it despite the hot summer heat we're experiencing. I’m in steamy Alabama, with record humidity, so it’s a soupy, sticky, kind of hot here outdoors. Daily watering of many of my plants in the summer heat is simply is a must.

What left the fluffy, white deposit on this zinnia stem?

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Ed Gohlich

Ketchup, soy sauce, and hot sauce are condiments you’ll find in most anyone’s pantry. These pantry essentials are the basics; more adventurous or globally oriented palates might also stock products like fruit chutney, gochujang, and harissa (to name a few) to keep around the house as add-ons to delivery or key flavor punch-ups for homemade meals. The next condiment that probably deserves a place on your pantry shelf? Hot honey.

Not having used fiery colours for a few weeks, that is what I had in mind for today’s IAVOM contribution but, having picked a stem of Alstroemeria ‘Indian Summer’ as my starting point, I found there were no suitable blooms on Dahlias ‘David Howard’ or ‘Totally Tangerine’ to continue my planned theme. However, there was a single bloom on new Dahlia ‘Blyton Softer Gleam’, albeit looking slightly more yellow than the colour that attracted me in the catalogue, so this was snipped and the search continued.

Although June’s abundance of bloom and colour has moved on, July has brought its own striking sights throughout the garden – plants blooming for the first time, growing much taller than usual or otherwise making an impact in a way they never had before. I have already shown Clematis ‘Prince George’ a number of times this year, but it is now flowering literally from bottom to top and I can’t resist sharing it again (below). The individual blooms are delightful too, intriguingly crinkly (above).

Tested by Jason Reeves

The kitchen towel does not get the credit it deserves. From wiping up kitchen experiments gone awry to drying dishes to consistently getting left behind during laundry runs, this humble essential goes through a lot. But what’s the right way to keep it clean and sanitary?