DIY Life

Save your garden from the winter blahs! The further north you live, the more important it is to landscape with winter in mind. When plants go dormant or leafless for months and the lawn turns brown or is covered with snow, you need something else to create visual interest.

Hardscapes are what you need. These are permanent, solid objects that complement the planted landscape. We're talking garden benches, pergolas, stepping stones, boulders and picket fences. All of these things define and beautify your garden through the barren months of winter ... and they are effective in hot, drought-prone zones also.

Click on my slideshow to get hardscape ideas for your own yard!

Relax. Breathe. Grow something.

This, in a nutshell, is the "Slow Gardening" philosophy. Introducing, Felder Rushing: horticulturalist, southern character, author and co-host of a Mississippi public radio show, "The Gestalt Gardener." Felder's now also the leading proponent of Slow Gardening, a concept more or less of his own creation.

So ... what is Slow Gardening anyway? Well, it's the back yard gardening equivalent of the Slow Food movement. It's all about enjoying the time you are outdoors ... and not regarding yard work as a chore to be rushed through. (Guilty!)

Just two hours from my north Florida home are some of the nation's most gorgeous sugar sand beaches. Sadly, I don't get to dig my toes in that heavenly sand nearly as often as I'd like. So, I've started toying with the idea of bringing some of that beachy feel home to my own yard for year round enjoyment.

Looking around for easy, affordable ideas I discovered two fabulous, beach-themed garden projects from Sunset magazine. One is a super-easy container garden, the other is a more involved -- but still mighty doable – landscaping project. Both could bring a delightful dose of beach attitude to your home turf.

Strapped for time or cash? Take inspiration from the "Beach Garden in a Pot" container project. Pick a large and pretty ceramic pot and plant it with a grouping of plants. Next, mulch the surface with sand and decorate your heart out with little pieces of driftwood and sea shells.

In need of something to do this week with your newly-acquired free time (now that The Bachelorette is over, of course!)? Good news -- Weekend Sewing author Heather Ross is sharing a quick and easy tutorial for you crafty chicas that still have some planting to do before school starts!

My gardening gloves are disgustingly dirty (beyond washing machine-dirty, guys) and I've been dreaming of a new pair all summer long. And alas--- Heather comes riding in on her dahlia-colored horse with the perfect pair... that I can make myself, nonetheless.

If you're less selfish than I am, you could make a pair for a friend and partner the gift with these sweet little cricket gift tags (also created by Heather). Can you handle the cuteness? Me, neither.

Download the gardening glove tutorial right here. In need of fabric inspiration for your new cuties? You can design your own with Spoonflower, or, if you're not quite that crafty, peruse FabricShoppe on Etsy for some great threads at a decent price.

After all, store-bought gardening gloves are sewwwww 2008.

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.

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?

I am in desperate need of a kitchen apron. I have been cooking since I was 8 years old, and I have always absentmindedly wiped my hands on my clothing, even though there is always a dish towel nearby. Yup, I need an apron.

DIY Maven on Curbly has written a fabulous tutorial, complete with awesome pictures, teaching us how to turn large cloth napkins into a kitchen apron using a sewing machine. You'll need several yards of ribbon for tie strings and for the apron collar, and of course, some basic sewing skills.

This apron is perfect, not just for the kitchen, but also for gardening. The pockets in the apron could hold your kitchen gadgets, or your gardening tools. Of course, I always absentmindedly wipe my dirty hands on my clothes when I am gardening too.

Check your local thrift stores for some awesome napkins. Mine always seem to have the prettiest sets of fabric napkins on hand, and for the price they sell at (6 for $1.00), there are plenty available to make as gifts for my gardening and cooking friends.

Got a kiddo who's driving you stir crazy on a rainy day? Or maybe you just have a budding botanist in the family. Either way, this kid's terrarium from National Geographic is sure to be a hit with kids of all ages.

Have a responsible child run down to the basement and dig out that old fishbowl... you know, the one you bought after you won that goldfish at the county fair? Wash it out with soap and water, then rinse well. While it's drying, gather the rest of your materials:

• potting soil
• horticulture soil
• small stones
• plants of your choice
• scissors
• water
• decorative figure of your choice (a Polly Pocket? Ben 10? Let them decide.)

Visit National Geographic Kids for details on the how-to of this nifty terrarium, but basically you're going to layer the stones, then the charcoal, then the potting soil. Put your plants in the dirt, decorate, and place in a sunny place! Leave it to your children to prune the plants as necessary... responsibility is good for them!

(via Craft)

Your front yard doesn't have to be perfectly manicured or professionally landscaped to look good. It is, however, your public face -- of sorts. Plus, your neighbors are forced to look at whatever you put out there!

Be a good neighbor: banish the following items from your front yard.

1. Plastic foliage. I'm talking anything you got from a craft store. Like this, for example. Plastic ivy. Faux dried sunflowers. Silk chrysanthemums. Plastic wreaths. Fake autumn leaves strung into streamers. Shudder.

Plastic flowers are tacky in the garden. They're unnecessary. After all, you have Mother Nature at your disposal! Why choose fake flowers? Finally, they evoke the cemetery. Enough said.

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.

Summer vacation keeps rolling along. How long until your kids go back to school? Are they spending too much time lounging on the couch? Here are a bunch of summer projects to trick your kids away from their air-conditioned sanctuary and out into the great outdoors of, er, your backyard.

Okay, okay. So the backyard is not the great outdoors. True. But the main thing is to get the kiddos out in the fresh air, learning about nature, and learning about the noble pursuit of maintaining a garden.

Getting their hands dirty
1. Ask them to help with the weeding. Pay them a small amount of pocket money for their time.

This is the first year we've used a CSA, and every Tuesday we get a delivery of fresh-from-the-farm vegetables. Last week, however, our delivery came the night before we left on a camping trip.

Since I wasn't sure all those goodies were going to last until we got home, I decided to freeze what I could. That's when I had a "why-didn't-I-think-of-that" moment.

After doing an internet search to find out if my green onions and garlic scapes could be frozen (they can, though they should only be used for cooking, not raw, afterwards), I discovered Biggie at Lunch in a Box. She recommends freezing green onions and chopped herbs in plastic bottles, so that they are simple to pour out and measure when adding them to a recipe. Brilliant! Why didn't I think of that?