The Home Know-It-All

Get Your Yard Ready for Winter

This past weekend, my ambitious parents carefully planted 11, yes 11, arborvitae in their yard, their last big landscaping feat before winter rolls around. Now they're busy getting the rest of their lawn and garden ready for winter before the first major frost hits. Are you in the same boat? Here's what you need to do:

Water. Before the ground freezes, hydrate foundation plants as well as newly planted trees and shrubs so they're not damaged by a lack of moisture by the time spring rolls around.

Control leaves. Large piles of wet leaves can smother your lawn, block sunlight and air, and cause nasty diseases—but certainly you don't want them to go to waste. Rake them and add them to your compost pile or shred them and use them as mulch.

Cut the grass. Continue mowing your lawn until you see no growth for two weeks. Keep it the same height it was during the growing season (if you've got warm-season grasses, increase mower height by a half inch). Leaving grass too long encourages snow mold; leaving it too short can also cause damage.

Care for annuals and perennials. Now's the time to remove spent annuals—if you've already had a frost, yours are likely done for. As for your perennials, clear your garden bed of debris and mulch them after your first hard freeze, since mulch retains heat and moisture. Learn more about preparing perennials for winter here.

Aerate your lawn to promote healthy root growth.

Fill in bare patches in your lawn with patch and fill-in seeding.

Take terra-cotta planters indoors—winter's constant freeze-thaw cycles can cause them to crack.

Sharpen and clean lawn and garden tools.

For more tips on getting your yard into shape before the first frost, check out this MSN Real Estate Article.

Until tomorrow,
The Home Know-it-All

Create a Spooky Front Porch

Halloween is only 15 days away, which leaves you just enough time to transform your everyday porch into a haunted masterpiece. How do you do it? Follow these steps. 

1. Get inspired. Melissa over at The Inspired Room posted photos of a few spooky front porches in her neighborhood. (In my opinion, the spider on the roof takes the cake.) You can also find a few great ideas here. Click on the link that says "Enter Gallery" for photos of Halloween decorations. 

2. Invest in a few essentials. Hay bales, corn stalks, and pumpkins are Halloween classics. Carefully arranged on your front porch, they may be all you need to create an eye-catching display. Visit a local pumpkin patch to find them inexpensively or purchase fake ones for use year after year. 

3. Put on your thinking cap. Now it's time to get creative. Make ghosts out of old white sheets, hang up rolls of yellow caution tape, replace light bulbs with spookier black lights, or paint boards to look like tombstones. Your options are endless.

And just because I adore them, here are a few Etsy Halloween decorations I'm eyeing: 

Handprinted Letterpress Poster from Roll and Tumble Press ($20); Halloween Faces Garland from Paper Acorn ($12); and Spider Wall Decals from Verdigris Dye ($10). 

Trick or treat,
The Home Know-It-All

Are You Ready for Some Football?

A few weeks ago, one of my best friends found herself in quite the predicament when trying to come up with the perfect birthday present for her honey. You see, he happens to be a huge Philadelphia Eagles fan, and already had more than enough shirts, jerseys, and other memorabilia. The one thing he didn't have? A frame to proudly flaunt his favorite jersey—and he was pleasantly surprised when he unwrapped it.

Hanging pennants, framing jerseys and posters, and displaying autographed footballs and helmets are all classic ways to show off your team spirit. Get even more fired up for football with these items:

Best seat in the house. Every wet bar, breakfast bar, and man cave needs bar stools with your favorite team's logo emblazoned across the seat. You can order them from Wal-Mart.com for $124.95 a pop, or, if you'd rather dress up existing stools on game day, you can find bar stool covers at Amazon.com for $24.95 each. If you'd rather kick back and lounge during the game, stock up on these collapsible video chairs from Sports Authority ($99.99), which fold in half for easy storage.

Cozy up. Chase chills away with a throw in your team's colors, such as this loom-woven jacquard blanket from Fan's Edge ($38.99) that's just as decorative and spirited as it is functional. If you're lucky enough to score tickets to see your favorite team in action, use it to warm up in the stands. 

What's cookin'. The next time you're whipping up wings and other goodies for the big game, avoid getting sauce all over your game-day gear by wearing an apron covered in your team's logo. Being a big Green Bay Packers fan myself, I can't help but be a fan of this BBQ apron from Etsy ($15.00).

Spirited snacks. Serve game-day munchies in style with this helmet snack container ($54.99) from Fan's Edge. There's a large container in the helmet as well as a small tray with two compartments in the face mask. Or arrange snacks and drinks on this melamine serving tray ($24.99) from Sky Mall.

Paws applause. Let Fido in on the football fun by getting your paws on a jersey made especially for him. DoggieNation sells them in four sizes for $29.99. You can also get team T-shirts for $19.95 a pop.

Until next time,
The Home Know-it-All

My Office Nook

Although my apartment's tiny office nook is only 5x6 feet, I'm dead set on squeezing out as much usable space from it as possible. Before my latest renovation, I had only a tiny desk and small filing cabinet in the compact room—and that was not sufficient. I needed more workspace, a place to store books, and room to showcase photos and other knickknacks.  

That's why I installed ClosetMaid-brand, adjustable shelves from The Home Depot a couple weeks ago. They cost only $50 total, and they were a breeze to put up. Because I was able to alter the height between each of the three shelves, I made enough room to place my computer screen on the bottom shelf, which freed up elbow room on my desk below. 

I'm still arranging the shelves to my liking, and I'm eyeing new photo frames to fill them. It's slow going, but it's a step in the right direction. What are your thoughts? Any tips? 

Until next time
The Home Know-It-All

Fall Gardening Gear

This year, my fall gardening consists of little more than faithfully watering the two pots of pretty rust-colored mums on my balcony. I have to admit that I'm slightly green with envy over all my lovely homeowner friends who get to tend to their larger gardens and enjoy fresh-from-the-garden fall goodies. If you're big into autumn gardening right now, make your trips to the garden even more enjoyable with these items: 

A cut above. Fiskars' PowerGear Bypass Pruner ($29.99) makes trimming away at diseased, dead, or broken branches as easy as pie—three times as easy as using standard pruners, to be exact. Their ergonomic design earned them recognition by the Arthritis Foundation. And their corrosion-resistant blade and fiberglass body ensure you can use them for years to come.

Get the scoop. If you're dealing with mountains of leaves in your yard, save your back trouble by collecting fallen foliage with the No-Bend Leaf Collector ($19.95) from Gardener's Supply Company. This handy contraption with large scoops at the end allows you to gather and bag leaves, grass clippings, and other yard debris standing up. 

Steppin' out. To keep your tootsies warm and dry, pull on a pair of ultra-comfy, ultra-durable Wellies such as these from Hunter-brand boots MasterGardening.com ($69.99).

Tool time. The last thing you want to see when spring rolls around is rusty tools. Keep your garden tools in tip-top shape by covering exposed metal parts in Inhibitor V80 ($8.99 for a 6-ounce aerosol spray can, $6.99 for a 4-ounce squeeze bottle, or $5.99 for a reusable wiping cloth) which, as its name suggests, prevents nasty rust from forming. Wiping metal tools in boiled linseed oil also does the trick.

Long-lasting garden. Who says gardening fun has to stop when winter rolls around? If you want to extend your garden into winter, invest in a cold frame such as this one from Gardener's Supply Company ($89.95). It's like a mini greenhouse that keeps your cool-weather plants lasting longer. Or you can learn how to make your own here.

Until next time,

The Home Know-it-All