A kumquat is a small broadleaf evergreen fruit tree native to China and southeastern Asia, and it is one of the better citrus options for indoor growing. Its small size and habit of late flowering keep it manageable on a windowsill, and its long fruit production season means flowers can open in late spring while […]
Choosing between a riding mower and a lawn tractor usually comes down to how much grass you cut and what else you want the machine to do. Both let you sit down while you mow, but they are built for different workloads. A riding mower is a cutting machine first. A lawn tractor is a
Soil moisture meters are small handheld devices that measure the moisture content in a plant’s soil and tell you whether it is time to water. Overwatering and underwatering are among the quickest ways to kill a houseplant, and both are hard to diagnose from the surface because the top inch of soil can look dry
Amaryllis flowers (Hippeastrum spp.) deliver big, bold color indoors in midwinter, when little else is blooming. They grow as houseplants across most of the country and stay hardy outdoors in USDA plant hardiness zones 8 through 10. When the blooms fade, a well-tended bulb can flower again for many years, but only if it gets
Choosing nursery colors for a baby can be tricky, and many parents leap into the paint aisle armed with little more than a whim. Color selection is actually a science, or close to one. Psychological studies, first conducted by advertising firms in the 1990s, suggest that colors can influence mood and behavior, stimulate the brain
Blue carries the quiet of the sky and the ocean into a room, and bedrooms are where that calm does the most good. After neutral shades, blue is the most popular color for decorating bedrooms, and its adaptability explains the ranking: match it with nearly any other color and it works, and use it with
If you see small green worms on the undersides of your kale or other brassica plants, you have cabbage worms, the larvae of the cabbage butterfly. The name covers several species, but the imported cabbageworm (Pieris rapae) is the most common. These larvae feed on cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, and Brussels sprouts, and a heavy
One day the clematis vine is thriving and ready to flower, the next it is withering before your eyes. The usual culprit is clematis wilt, a fungal disease that can kill the entire top of the vine while the roots survive. Identify the problem and act quickly, and the plant has a real chance to
An area rug cut from a carpet remnant or a swath of broadloom needs finished edges, or the backing frays and the pile pulls apart within weeks. Three methods dominate the trade: binding, serging, and fringing. Each requires specialty machines, and in most cases a professional does the work. The same pattern shows up across
Every lawn has weeds, but the ones that cause real trouble are surprisingly few. Dozens of species can show up in turf, yet most homeowners deal with the same handful year after year: dandelions, crabgrass, clover, plantain, chickweed, ground ivy, and nutsedge. Reaching for a broad-spectrum herbicide and spraying everything is tempting, but that approach
