DIY Life

Sure, herbs smell great and taste even better --- but have you ever considered decorating with them? Kelly Edwards has the scoop:



Why should you decorate with herbs? It's easy --- not only are they super functional when cooking, but they happen to be gorgeous and smell fantastic. Plus, they last longer than flowers, which is great for someone who always forgets to throw away their dead plants (hanging my head in shame over here...).

Want some fresh (pun intended!) ideas on storing and displaying your own little interior herb garden? Try placing a few small herbs in a teacup or mug for an unexpected look. Or, double up on functional storage by placing a potted herb in an ice bucket when not in use. Even better? A cake stand doubles as a decorative element to create a circled montage of your favorite herbs. The possibilities are endless!

Thanks, Kelly!

By now you should realize how much I love a good kitchen hack, especially when it includes items and ingredients I already have around the house. One of my favorites? Forget harsh detergents and solutions when scrubbing grease spots off your cast-iron cookware. Instead, grab a pinch of salt and a paper towel to create a salty solution that works wonders!

Proof that sometimes the most natural ingredients are the best DIY lifesavers.

Want to know some other ways a pinch of salt can make your life easier? Read on, right here at DIY Life:
Find out the various uses of your average table salt: The Many Uses of Table Salt
Spice up your beauty routine with salt: Make Your Own Salt Scrub
Salt for your green thumb: Epsom Salt in Your Garden
And, lastly, salt in the kitchen (of course!): Make Sun-Dried Tomatoes in Your Microwave

Want to know what my biggest pet peeve is? OK, it may not be my biggest, b/c I have quite a few, but this one's high on my list. Ready? I hate nothing more than unpacking my seasonal items, only to find that they've been broken, or were, in fact, broken upon storing them.

Naturally, I'm beginning to store my gardening tools in preparation for a chilly winter season, and I'm making sure everything is in tact for next spring. After all, there's nothing worse than dragging out your garden hose, only to realize you failed to repair it last fall. First on my repair list? The sprinkler head:



One important thing to keep in mind when tackling a sprinkler head repair:
When using a hand trowel or old serrated knife to cut through the lawn or dirt surrounding the sprinkler head, be careful not to cut into the water line, which could make this project much more costly in the long run!

That's it --- get to work! Good luck, and thank you, Eric!

A trip to the farmer's market last week had me stopping to smell the flowers, and unfortunately -- spotting the flies. Fruit flies were everywhere and happen to be one of my biggest pet peeves, so as soon as I returned home, I did a bit of research on how to fight the good fight. Fortunately, the solution happens to be found at my local florist!

A potted basil plant's scent will drive those flies away. Although humans find basil's strong aroma to be pleasing, and in some cultures, healing, flies despise the scent. A few other herbs flies like to steer clear of? Lavender, elder and mint. Try a few herbs as centerpieces for your next outdoor party and watch the flies fly far, far away.

Want a more inexpensive solution that won't upset your allergies? Vinegar water keeps bugs at bay all through your home. Proof that you can stay bug-free this fall without toxic sprays and/or solutions.

No tilling? No digging? No weeding? No kidding! It's Lasagna Gardening: an easy, non-backbreaking way to create garden beds. Organic materials piled up in deep layers (just like a lasagna) create a super-fertile spot for growing just about anything -- without the hard work!

Patricia Lanza, author of the gardening classic Lasagna Gardening, was kind enough to chat with DIY Life about her celebrated no-dig method and her own beautiful garden. Read on!

1. How big is your current garden and what are you growing right now?

My current garden(s) encompass our lake property where we live and a sunny plot at my Aunt Violet's house. The house property has a lot of shade and part-shade. I grow low-growing and ground-hugging plants in a curved bed that borders the front walk, with bulbs, perennials, annuals and flowering woody shrubs in the remaining border gardens.

I'm horrible at keeping my plants happy and healthy, and even my outdoor plants often suffer from my forgetfulness. There's just too much to think about, and unless it's raining, I all too often forget about my dear green friends. Naturally, I'm filing this green idea under "Why didn't I think of that?".

Plant a tiny garden under the condensation pipe of your air conditioner. Regardless of your A/C model, water will drip from the pipe daily, keeping your garden healthy, wealthy and wise. Although the water that drips isn't a lot by any means, it's consistent, giving your plants plenty of water to grow.

Of course, be sure to choose plants that will only grow a few feet tall so the pipe won't be blocked by their leafy greens! Try dwarf azalea, holly fern and vinca, as they only grow up to three feet tall and enjoy shaded areas.

Now you'll have an excuse to crank up the A/C on those hot summer days!

Needing some serious visual impact for the yard? It's not too late to plant your curbside garden or front porch containers with bright, heat-tolerant annuals. If you're on a tight budget, however, choose carefully. Opt for plants that are cheap, tough, vibrantly hued and fast-growing.

Looking for suggestions? Allow me to share with you my 5 favorite summer-loving annuals:

1. Dusty Miller
2. Geranium
3. Impatiens
4. Coleus
5. Melampodium

After three decades in business, garden supply retailer Smith & Hawken has called it quits. Or, rather, parent company Scotts Miracle-Gro pulled the rug out, deciding S&H was not a viable competitor in the current market. Around 700 employees are losing their jobs.

Smith & Hawken's reputation rested on its quality garden tools -- and its pricey accessories and decorative objects. It was the Pottery Barn of the gardening world, I guess. Bargain shoppers (myself included) enjoyed thumbing the catalogues or browsing the website ... but ultimately made their purchases elsewhere, at discount stores.

Gardeners looking for clearance deals should head over to their nearest Smith & Hawken store. (Alas, the online store is already closed.) The company is advertising 20-30% discounts, storewide. Doesn't sound like much of a clearance sale to this budget-minded gal, but I imagine prices might drop further as the weeks go by.

Michelle Obama hosted a "harvest party" in the White House's organic kitchen garden, June 17. With a troupe of local school children helping out, Mrs. Obama began picking summer crops produced by the world's most famous backyard veggie patch.

The kids attending the event were the very same ones who helped break ground for the garden back in March. After gathering lettuce and sugar snap peas, they accompanied the First Lady back to the White House kitchen. There, they prepared a healthful lunch incorporating some of their homegrown greens and berries.

Photos and a video clip of the harvest are posted online at the official White House Briefing Room blog. You'll notice that Michelle was her usual casually chic self, donning colorful slacks and a coordinating fitted cardigan. Hardly genuine harvesting attire.

My no-dig vegetable garden is still in its infancy. I have a big ole pile of grass clippings mixed with kitchen compost, as per the instructions of veggie guru Patricia Lanza in her wonderful book, Lasagne Gardening.

Problem: This decaying pile is located in my front yard. A real visual treat for my neighbors, I'm sure. Honestly, it looks like I got halfway to the curb with a ton of garden waste then simply gave up and dumped it all on the lawn.

As a considerate citizen, I want to tidy things up with a low retaining wall. Trawling the Internet in search of easy-to-follow instructions, I cried "Hallelujah!" when I stumbled upon popular blogger Pioneer Woman's post, "Build Your Own Raised Flower/Vegetable Bed."

By Bethany Sanders

I'm usually all for letting nature just be in my backyard. I'd rather take preventative measures (like the fence around my garden to deter hungry bunnies) that allow us all to live harmoniously together than poison, trap, or kill. Sometimes, though, insects get a little too intrusive and that can be a problem, especially when they're insects that sting.

If you have a wasp problem in your backyard, the best way to get rid of them is to remove the nest. We have to do that at least twice a year in our children's "fort," and we try to keep an eye on it so we can stop the nest building before it gets out of hand. But if you can't find the nest or are afraid to move it, a simple, homemade wasp trap may help you catch the queen (especially if you use it in the spring) or reduce the number of wasps in the area nearest your home.

Keep in mind that wasp traps' effectiveness are not proven, and if you aren't careful, you could end up drawing more wasps to your home. In addition, wasps really are beneficial insects who eat the bugs that bug you the most. So if you can live in harmony, do. If you can't, these simple measures are worth a try.

I am not a weed vigilante. I do not obsessively seek to control the weeds in my yard. "Live and let live" is usually my philosophy.

Some weeds, however, are just begging for a fight. They spread everywhere and are super-tough to eradicate. Crabgrass (Digitaria spp.) has to be one of the top weeds on most gardeners' lists. It's pretty harmless-looking, pretty even. But it spreads relentlessly by seed, taking over patches of lawn and spreading into garden beds.

Got a crabgrass problem? Check out the following tips and reign it in!

Leave it to Better Homes and Gardens. Somehow, they're able to inspire me without making me feel like a second-rate Martha Stewart wanna-be.

Since we joined our CSA farm last year, it's been a pleasure to have new fresh flowers in the house every week. BHG has created a gallery of flower arrangements that can be done in five minutes, and that look positively stunning. Some of their winning combinations:

• poppies surrounded by hosta leaves
• geranium leaves, roses, and trailing vines
• lavender stems and geranium leaves
• hydrangeas with bachelor buttons
• mounded zinneas with bleeding heart foliage

What I really love about BHG's arrangements is that most of the blooms could be found in your own garden, or even in a wild flower field. That makes these arrangements economical, too.

I've been combining wild yarrow with daylilies and daisies for a pretty display on my kitchen's center island. What's you favorite quick and easy flower arrangement?

Colony collapse disorder, the mysterious phenomenon that has entire colonies of honeybees vanishing into thin air, has brought the state of our bee population to the forefront. Not many people realize this, but bees pollinate about 90% of our flowering crops. What that means is: without bees, we don't eat.

Creating a bee-friendly yard may not solve the issue of colony collapse disorder, but it is a great way of doing your part to encourage a healthy bee population. It'll also ensure that any of your own fruit, vegetable, and flower crops get pollinated, so that you have fresh food to eat and a beautiful yard to enjoy. In addition, the same plants that draw bees bring other pollinators, like butterflies.

So how do you go about attracting bees to your yard? It's not difficult at all. Read more about it after the break.

I dare you to find an American household without any carrots in the fridge. Granted, most will probably be the scrubbed-clean, prepackaged, more expensive baby carrots. If you'd like to save money (and waste less food!), read on.

First of all, buying whole carrots -- or, better yet, growing them -- is cheaper than buying baby carrots. A good thing, right? Well, if you learn how to peel them just so, you'll be able to save more of the carrot... and more money.

According to eHow, if you peel away from you with a sharp-bladed peeler, you'll peel off less carrot. Additionally, if you peel the top until no green is showing, then peel the tip as well -- no chopping -- you'll end up with more of the carrot.

It seems like a simple way to be frugal while respecting the Earth's resources.