Best places to see snowdrops
11.01.2024 - 23:53 / goodhousekeeping.com
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When there's a blizzard bearing down, it's not the best time to buy a snow blower. It takes a bit of a research to figure out the right machine for your needs (though rest assured, the perfect match is out there!), plus it always pays to leave time for set up and assembly and to do a few dry runs during normal weather conditions.
The following round-up of top-rated snow blowers will get you on your way. It’s based on continuous testing over the last three years by the experts at the Good Housekeeping Institute, as well as professionals in the field who gave us their expert take on new models. We also share testing notes with our partners at Popular Mechanics, who use dump-truck-size loads of wet sawdust to simulate heavy snowfall, allowing them to run snow blower tests throughout the year.
Based on all those testing inputs, here are the best snow blowers for all kinds of winter weather.
After reading through our picks, stick around for more information on what you should look for when shopping for a snow blower that matches the weather forecast where you live. Our home experts also have more advice on getting through the winter, including home heating tips and the best snow tires for icy conditions.
Toro has been a leading brand in snow blowers since it entered the category in the 1950s and it's the name most professional landscapers we work with stand behind. Not surprisingly, Toro is our current top pick with its self-propelled Power Max.
Our experts like its ample 28-inch clearing deck and two-stage operation that can throw snow up to 45 feet.
Best places to see snowdrops
If there’s one thing celebrity recipes are guaranteed to do, it’s spark a (lightly-controversial) conversation in the comments of their social media. Reese Witherspoon did just that after she shared a new creation with the world on TikTok January 18: a mug of snow mixed with cold brew topped with salted caramel and chocolate drizzle.
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If you’re as keen on growing tomatoes as I am you’ll be getting read to sow now. I sow them as early as February to grow inside and late March for plants to go out in the veg patch. Don’t panic if you’re late sowing, they do catch up, you’ll just be picking a little later.
We've been independently researching and testing products for over 120 years. If you buy through our links, we may earn a commission. Learn more about our review process.
In the depths of winter the focus on what happens under our feet is generally centered around staying safe and minimizing slips, trips, and falls on steps or walkways covered in snow or ice. But while safety is a worthwhile concern, gardeners must also consider the detrimental long-term effects on soil health that can be caused by products commonly used to remediate dangerous winter conditions.
No garden is complete without at least a few containers for seasonal color. I always specify locations for planters when I create a new landscape design, with the intention of keeping them filled in every season. Although many gardeners keep their containers filled with annuals in summer and cut greenery in winter, there is another option. Planting a dwarf evergreen that can remain in its pot for several seasons will provide structure and texture every month of the year.
When it comes to sculptural form in the garden, it’s hard to compete with a well-grown agave (Agave spp. and cvs., Zones 7b–11). With sizes ranging from 6-inch rosettes to hulking 12-foot giants, there really is a perfect plant for every garden or container. Most are striking enough in their natural tones of green to blue, but some have raised the bar a bit higher, adding highlights of white and gold to the palette.
Selecting a perfect indoor plant gift is made easy with our Best Indoor Plants for Gifting! From the lucky Jade Plant to the low-maintenance Peace Lily, each plant, like Orchids or Poinsettias, offers unique qualities for meaningful gifts.
Fragrance in flowers is such a desirable attribute that it’s a perennial complaint of many gardeners that modern varieties of various plants, particularly roses, lack all or most of the fragrance of the older varieties. This is demonstrably untrue of many varieties, of course, yet there is a good deal of truth in the generalization. Some varieties are certainly much less fragrant than the ‘old-fashioned’ roses and a few seem to lack detectable fragrance, but, on the whole, a good modern variety will number fragrance among its qualities. Much depends, of course, upon the individual sense of smell, coupled with the ‘scent memory’ which all of us possess to some degree. It is, in fact, usually well developed and most of us are readily and instantaneously reminded by present scents of past incidents, places, and persons, and although the actual vocabulary of scent is limited, it is usually possible for us to describe a scent fairly accurately by comparing it with another. Thus it is quite usual for us to say that a flower has a lily-like fragrance, or that it smells like new-mown hay.
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Dive into a sea of laughter with this sea-riously good collection of ocean puns!