A Pesticide Primer
Bacillus Thuringiensis - (called BT) Kills small caterpillars and grubs. Is harmless to people, animals, birds or good bugs. There are different varieties for each insect, as well as a long lasting solid BT for mosquito larvae. (Trade name ... [... more]
Bob Vila |
An Illusion Of Neatness
The lawn is most important for an illusion of neatness. A lawn doesn't have to be good grass, just uniformly flat and hopefully green. No fuzzy seedheads, no different heights, no big bare spots. This may mean mowing a little oftener, and also ... [... more]
Bob Vila |
Backyard Pond
For ponds, consider a mix of emergent, submergent, and floating species. Emergent plants, those that have their roots in the water but their shoots above water, can be added to the margins of pools. These include cattails (Typha spp.), arrowhead ... [... more]
Bob Vila |
Beware Of Birdseed!
They are slow and easy to swat, but it's the ones you don't see who do the damage. I put bags of bread crumbs as bait near the birdseed corner for them to lay their eggs in, changing them every 2 weeks since their life cycle is about 30 days. I ... [... more]
Bob Vila |
Beware Of Invasive Vines
You Can Avoid this by choosing ground covers that do not vine and climb. One of the best is Myrtle. With shiny, delicate evergreen leaves and blue spring flowers, in the shade it remains an elegant plant that can cover large areas. Evergreen ... [... more]
Bob Vila |
Composting
With cold or slow composting, you can just pile grass clippings and dry leaves on the ground or in a bin. This method requires no maintenance, but it will take several months to a year or more for the pile to decompose. Cold composting works well ... [... more]
Bob Vila |
Build Your Own Window Boxes
You can use a bed molding or a chair rail to make your window box more decorative. Before you sand and prime, glue the molding onto the box where you want it and use small finishing nails to firmly hold it in place. Then continue with the sanding ... [... more]
Bob Vila |
Creating Summer Shadows
Right now, I'm trying to figure out how we can have less grass to mow. To keep our guests happy we need only a space for croquet and a badminton court. All of the rest can go into hosta and ivy as far as I'm concerned, with a few annuals and ... [... more]
Bob Vila |
Butterfly Gardening
Host plants are those preferred by butterfly larvae (caterpillars). They are usually wildflowers, shrubs, and trees native to the area. Some species will lay eggs on only one type of host plant (for example, monarch caterpillars that eat only ... [... more]
Bob Vila |
