DIY Life

Don't have anything lined up for Mother's Day yet? Feel bad 'cause your tight budget won't stretch to that mega-bunch of roses? Well, here's a suggestion: if your mom's into gardening, run out this weekend and pick up a yard-related gift. Wrap it up nice and pretty and give her that, alone, or pair it with a nice little box of chocolates or a few fresh flowers. She'll love it...and it won't break the bank!

Here are my top ten budget Mother's Day gift ideas for gardening moms. All of my suggestions are $20 or less--making them perfect for kids, grandkids, or big kids on a budget! Although it may be too late to have these items shipped, your local stores carry variations of nearly all of these items. Oh, and if you're open to slightly pricier ideas, check out last week's gift ideas post!

1. LL Bean Go-Anywhere Flexible Tote, $16.50
This soft, yet very sturdy, LLBean tote comes in a range of fabulous colors, including perfect-for-Mother's-Day bright pink. Also available in more practical hues, like dark green. Use it for anything outdoors-related: mix soil in it, haul tools or clippings in it, etc. This 11-gallon tote is built to last: it is UV-resistant and has reinforced handles.

Mother's Day invariably means an avalanche of mundane gift ideas for mom. If your mom is into gardening big-time, why not get something she can use and/or enjoy year-round--unlike, say, that $60 bunch of flowers or (yawn) potted herb garden you were about to order. Read on for ten gifts that real gardening moms would love to receive this Mother's Day!

Oh and by the way: all of the following gift ideas are available on the Web, which is cool because it means you don't have to schlep to the mall or your local blue- or orange-hued home and garden superstore. The down side: prices do not include tax or shipping. But, hey, if you can avoid a trip to the mall on Saturday it's worth it, right?

1. Japanese hand shears, $25-$48
Renowned for their beauty and durability are these Japanese hand tools. The secret? They are constructed from carbon steel (as opposed to stainless steel). Elegant rolled steel handles give them an unusual and distinctive appearance. In order to prevent rusting, these tools must always be dried after use and oiled occasionally. Aficionados swear it's worth the effort.

When I was a kid, my dad would routinely get out his pruning tools and ruthlessly cut back our lovely wisteria. This would always upset me greatly because the vine was so very beautiful when it bloomed in Spring. Would it ever come back and flower again? Yes, it always did. Always.

What I understand now is that wisteria is one tough and relentless vine once established. The form of wisteria I'm talking about is Chinese wisteria (Wisteria sinesis), which actually belongs to the pea family. This big, sprawling deciduous vine has fast-growing branches that twine up and around anything it can get a hold on.

Wisteria was introduced to the US from China by gardening enthusiasts back in the early 1800s. If those folks were around today to see what they had wrought they'd probably say, "oops." That's because W. sinesis has become an invasive pest, wrapping it's vine-y arms around roadsides and woods up and down the east coast. As it spreads, wisteria chokes out native shrubs and trees with ease, and is known to climb as high as 65-feet. That's one powerful vine!

Concrete cracks really detract from your home's appearance. Like piles of leaves clogging your house's gutters, concrete cracks suggest a lack of homeowner love. There's also a safety factor: you could take a tumble on uneven concrete. Consider putting concrete repair on your Spring things-to-do list. For anyone planning to sell a home within the next few months, put this on your must-do list!

Not sure where to start? Never fear. It's actually extremely easy to patch cracks in your driveway, your garden path, or on the pavement outside your home. First, consider when to tackle this job. The best time is Spring or Summer. Don't do it when you're expecting rain or freezing weather.

Newsflash for beginner DIY'ers: these days, you don't fill cracked concrete with more concrete. There are better products on the market that are easier to use. In particular, many patching products now contain latex. This adds flexibility and, therefore, added durability, in extremes of hot and cold weather.

At an upscale garden center the other day I saw the cutest UFO-style toad house for sale. For, like, $90. Ack!! Really nice if you have the money for something like that. However, you can actually encourage toads for just pennies down. Any small, toad-sized container offers toads the shelter they need to feel safe. Meanwhile, something more elaborate need only set you back a few bucks.

Need inspiration? Check out these photos of toad villages posted by readers of About.com. These are so cute, aren't they? Personally, though, I'm into a more naturalistic look, something I think might be more likely to attract wildlife, too. In the photo above you can see the toad house I made using polished stones. I'll talk more about that in a bit, but also be sure to check out my gallery for step-by-step photos!

Before going any further with the toad houses, however, let's backtrack a little. Why encourage toads in the first place? Well, first of all, toads are suffering as human habitats (cities and suburbs) suck up more and more land. Second, toads are also being harmed by exposure to chemicals used in landscape maintenance. By giving a toad or two a safe place to hang out, you're helping boost their numbers.

From observing successful gardeners at work, I've learned that one key to joyful gardening is this: stick with what grows. It's about choosing the path of least resistance--encouraging plants that stay lovely with little or no care. Equally important, however: good gardeners don't hesitate to relocate plants that aren't thriving.

Now, I've made my share of mistakes when choosing plant sites. I'm also dealing with a few bad choices made by previous owners of this property. In either case, relocation was the only way to save the plants involved. For example, I recently transplanted a dozen Japanese Holly Ferns from a dry, sunny spot in my front yard to a moist and shady location in back.

Those poor ferns had been struggling for survival. These shade- and moisture-loving plants were in a hellishly unsuitable locale, dotted around the bases of two pine trees on an exposed and drought-prone slope. Last summer's severe drought nearly spelled the end for them. One thing was clear: they would never thrive in such an unsuitable spot.

I promised myself that if they made it through the winter, I'd transplant them in spring. And so I did! I'm confident that the move will transform them from surviving to thriving. Read on to see how my relocation project went. Don't forget to check out my photo gallery, too!

Whenever I travel I spend hours watching HGTV in my hotel room. It is a guilty pleasure because I don't have television service at home. In case you're like me and don't always spend hours watching home improvement networks you might not know about the Troy-Bilt Love-Your-Yard sweepstakes.

The winner receives $3,000 in cash to implement Justin Cave's personal plan for your yard. The winner will also receive a riding mower, push mower, tiller, and string trimmer that converts to an edger, leaf blower, and hedge trimmer.

You can enter once per day and the contest closes on May 25, 2008.

Got a big ugly space in your yard that needs filling? Adding yet another evergreen shrub seem boring? Consider pampas grass! It's a big beauty of a plant, one that -- like all ornamental grasses -- is frequently overlooked by home landscapers.

Here are a few reasons why I love pampas grass (Cortaderia selloana):

1. It grows fairly fast, so is an ideal choice for filling in large, barren landscapes.

2. It grows nice and thick, creating an effective privacy screen, wind break or sound barrier.

3. Its long, graceful blades and delightfully fluffy pannicles (flower plumes) are beautiful.

4. Its vertical angles evoke the tropics, bringing an exotic feel to suburban yards and otherwise drab mall parking lots. Its long blades also create a dramatic and pleasing visual contrast with other garden shrubs and trees. Meanwhile, its rounded and slightly wild shape makes it an excellent softener of hard urban surfaces, like brick walls or metal signs. (See the photo above for a perfect example of this.)

Yeah, yeah. Spring is awesome. All those pretty flowers blooming. Pastel clothing. Bunnies. Blossoms. Baskets of eggs. Picnics. Outdoor weddings. Lush green lawns. Hmm. What about the down-side of Spring? Yes. There is one. Here are my personal pet peeves regarding the prettiest, perkiest season of all:

1. Return of the lawn mower. Remember how "winterize lawn mower" was on your to-do list back in September? Just never got around to it, did you? Well, guess what? It's too late and now Spring is back. Time to deal with the consequences. Your mower, having been neglected in the garage for six months with a tank full of fuel, will be hell to start again. Have fun with that.

2. Wrestling the garden hose. Spring means planting time, and planting means watering to get new plants established. Planting is satisfying work, but my most hated gardening task is watering. Actually, the water is kind of lovely. It's the hose I hate.

Standing rainwater in your yard poses a serious problem. It can lead to cracked slabs and basement damage, and it can serve as a breeding ground for mosquitoes. This situation happens when the lawn isn't graded properly; it's even worse when your neighbor sits on higher ground. But it doesn't have to be that way: installing French drains solves the problem.

French drains are in the green landscaping realm. There are two systems, one using PVC pipe and one using only gravel; I'm talking about the latter.

Establish a route from the pooling area to a lower area, preferably leading off your property. Make sure trenching won't cut any utility lines. Dig the trench six inches wide. It should be at least one foot deep where the water pools. The grade from there should increase six inches to one foot per one hundred feet of trench.

Line the trench with landscape fabric. Cover it with six inches of coarse gravel, and fold the landscape fabric over the gravel. Finally, cover with a layer of sand, then soil, and finally grass sod. Your drainage problem is solved!

When it comes to protecting our families from poisonous plants, we go about things wrong, all wrong. Backwards, in fact.

Yes, you are probably already aware that a great many common garden and container plants are poisonous to humans and/or family pets. But if I asked you to identify the ones posing the greatest risk to you and your family, chances are you'd be stumped, or perhaps hard pressed to name more than one or two.

Why? Because we learn about poisonous plants from our teachers at school, from books, and from television. We see pages and pages of photographs of toxic leaves and berries. We scan ultra-long lists of poisonous plant names. The nerdier among us (Ooh! Me! Me!) have tried and failed to memorize some of this mass of information.

Silly thing is, your own yard is the best starting point for learning. Once you feel confident in your own landscape, it will be much easier to branch out and learn about less well-known species, which I'll discuss after the jump. And check out my gallery below if you'd like to see some of the common poisonous plants growing in my yard.

Each week, Diane Rixon brings you Avant Yard, a look at all your lawn and garden could be. Diane shows you how to give life to everything inside your fence. We promise that your yard will be the greener "other side" and the neighbor's envy to boot. Alright, we don't really promise, but you get the idea.

Is there a dead tree in your yard? Let it live on -- repurpose it! Here are a bunch of suggestions, with an emphasis on projects that are both easy and inexpensive.

LEAVE IT ALONE
1. Leave it standing. If it's not a danger to people or structures on your property, of course. Let it be a home for birds, bugs and assorted critters.
2. Leave it standing and turn it into yard art -- hang colored bottles from the branches or string it with colored lights that change with the season.

CUT IT UP
3. Use planks for fencing.
4. Build a big brush pile, which is a fantastic refuge for wildlife.
5. Use it for garden mulch. You will need to hire a mulching machine or mulching service for this, however.

We have a pergola out in our yard. A sprawling wisteria makes its home there, twining its way relentlessly around the wooden support posts. When the wisteria blooms in spring, it's a beautiful sight to see. Sadly, the above photo was taken the spring before last, and lately I'm noticing my poor pergola's not looking quite so charming.

Yes, it's time to consider a little pergola maintenance. Honestly, I'm dreading it. All those posts! All that pruning and trimming! All that sanding! All that wrestling with the ladder and drop sheets! Ugh. So I made a plan. First, I did a little online research on pergola maintenance, to arm myself with the facts. Second, I figure I'll psych myself up all winter, so when the weather warms up and it's time to paint, I'll be all prepared and will have no excuse to procrastinate further!

So much for my plan. Let me share with you the tips I found.