Retaining Walls Help Create New Space in Your Backyard
If you're like many people, you probably want more usable space in your backyard. But how do you get it without having to buy additional real estate? Today's segmental retaining wall systems are a viable solution.

Create a Backyard Oasis in a Weekend
Is your under-utilized backyard in need of a makeover? Imagine coming home from a hectic day to your very own backyard oasis. Whether you're a novice or highly skilled do-it-yourselfer, creating a water feature or pond in your backyard can be completed in a weekend.

Hydrangeas for Everyone
Hydrangeas are among the most popular flowering garden plants. Prized for their huge, dramatic flowers, they can literally stop traffic. Yet cold winters and late frosts often damage the flower buds and prevent blooming.

Less Impact, More Fun!
- For many homeowners, taking care of your lawn and landscape implies using large amounts of fertilizer and pesticides. This doesn't need to be. A new concept, Sustainable Landscaping, outlines steps that give you the results desired while reducing impacts on the environment.

Lawn Care Tips from the Mow Master
Is your green thumb brown? Don't know your thatch from your fungus? Put a little life in your lawn this spring with advice from John Deere's "Mow Master" Bill Klutho.

Historic and Romantic Gazebos Offer a Quiet Retreat
Amidst the stress of the modern world, nostalgic gazebos are an increasingly popular addition to a deck, garden or backyard setting. A gazebo is a delightful place to retreat from the world, enjoy your garden, read a book or entertain friends.

Six Steps to Backyard Tranquility
With spring comes the desire to start fresh and clean house of all that is stressful. It is the season for lying back and compiling a plan for bringing elements of comfort into your life starting with the great outdoors . . . your backyard.

How to Water Wisely for a Better Lawn and Cost Savings
On average, nearly a third of the water used by households nationwide goes to maintaining landscapes and lawns. Improving outdoor watering efficiency is one of the easiest ways for homeowners to reduce their overall water usage -- and save money.

Expect Success with Six New Twists on Garden Favorites!
It's that time of year again: Spring, Mother's Day and time to plant the garden. "Each year gardeners have great intentions to try new plants," says Brooke Place, retail brand manager of Ball Horticultural Company, the world's largest breeder-producer of ornamental plants.

Make Your Outdoor Spaces Inviting
With summer approaching, homeowners begin to dream of enjoying their time outside. But in the days of winter it's easy to forget that an inviting outdoor space takes a bit of planning, if you're going to really spend hours in the backyard.

The Environmental Clean Machine: Your Lawn
What if there was a miraculous item that helped the earth, the air and our water supply all at the same time? In the United States, 53 million households have one, yet may underestimate its environmental benefits.

Let Containers take a Starring Role in Your Garden
It's easy for containers, even great ones, to get lost in the crowd at ground level. So, how do you set the stage for a winning container garden? Think of your potted plants like the members of an ensemble cast, and let each one shine with star quality.

Learn to Garden from the Masters
Turn on any gardening show on television and in 30 minutes garden gurus transform a pitiful patio into an outdoor oasis. If only it was that simple. Busy homeowners and beginning gardeners are left asking, "What do I do? What plant, what place?" Now there is a creative solution that truly takes the mystery out of container gardening.

Seven Things Consumers Should Know About Green Spaces
As more and more land in the United States is developed, our appreciation for well-managed and maintained green spaces is growing. The term "green spaces" encompasses elements of the landscape from home and commercial lawns to golf courses, parks and sports turf.

Cutting Edge Features Take Outdoor Power to New Level
As cabin fever gives way to spring fever, it's time to assess your outdoor power equipment needs. Besides drawing up a plan and getting the ground ready, it's important to have the right tools for the job.

Better Than the Original
Many a homeowner has been inspired by the classic gardens and courtyards found at great estates and modern mansions. Stone pathways lead to expansive gardens, lounge chairs line elaborate decks overlooking the lawn and intricate landscape designs provide a lush backdrop.

Country Living for City Folks
Ready to trade the traffic, sirens and streetlights for privacy, crickets and stars? Or maybe you've already bought your dream estate and are now wondering how to turn several unkempt acres into the picture postcard image you wished for. More and more people are moving away from the city, whether looking for a place to raise kids or an escape to a quieter life after the kids are grown.

Better Landscaping Starts on Your Roof
Homeowners across the country spend millions of dollars and countless hours improving their landscaping. They carefully select bushes and shrubs based not only on good looks, but also the composition of their soil and the amount of sunlight their property receives.

Sun or Shade? Retractable Awnings Give Homeowners a Choice
What could be better than sitting on your deck or patio enjoying the warmth of the sun, and the feel of a gentle breeze? Whether you're admiring your garden, entertaining, reading the paper or just daydreaming, a deck or patio is the perfect spot - until it starts to rain, or the heat from the sun gets unbearable.

Ten New Ways to Make a Splash in Your Garden with Wave Petunias
Ten years after they first hit the market, Wave petunias are still making a splash in the garden. Millions of these super performers are planted by gardeners and professionals alike because Wave petunias are blooming machines.

Ease into Spring Projects Using Ergonomic Tools
After a long winter indoors, chances are you are eager to flex your home improvement muscle and tackle the great outdoors. But according to the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission, each year, more than 400,000 people suffer minor injuries from lawn care and gardening projects.

Celebrate Earth Day by Getting Your Garden in Shape
Spring is just around the corner and that means it's once again time to get your garden ready for the warm weather ahead. So when the snow melts away, here are some tips to prepare your garden for the spring and summer months ahead.

Spring Cleaning, Backyard Style
Now that the wintry weather is gone and the colorful blooms are back, it's time to think about spring cleaning. But while you're washing windows, scrubbing walls and dusting corners inside the house, don't forget about rolling up those sleeves and giving the outside a once-over, too.

Your Backyard - Room to Play, Room to Grow
While your front yard is a place that welcomes visitors and friends, your backyard is the place for you and your family. A retreat for relaxation, play and time spent together, the backyard is often a combination of gardens, toys and areas for entertaining.

A Home Improvement Project that Will Enhance Your Lifestyle
In the wintertime, people stay inside to avoid the cold. In the springtime, we venture out once again; but before you know it, the bugs will be back with a vengeance and people will be running for cover again; but there is a way you can still enjoy the great outdoors.

Get the Most Out of Your Machines with Easy Maintenance
Often overlooked or put off until later, preventative maintenance on mowers and outdoor power equipment should be priority number one before you begin spring outdoor projects.

Less is More: Sustainable Summer Lawns
Getting outside and enjoying your lawn is one of the greatest joys of home ownership. Empty nesters, singles and those with kids all share the same thought: What can I do to have a great yard without being a slave to it? It's easy…and less is more!

The Green Secret to Life
What's the secret to health and happiness? Look out your window for the answer. Caring for your lawn is an opportunity for exercise, fresh air and stress relief that results in a great-looking yard.

Is Your Lawn Going Hungry?
If you're concerned about our global environment, try taking better care of your own lawn -- how you take care of your lawn can make our world a cleaner place. Thick, healthy grass reduces erosion, filters pollutants, provides natural cooling and cleaner air. One of the keys to thick, healthy turf is to follow an annual fertilizing program.

Improve Your Home with Water Saving Ideas this Spring
Before you know it, temperatures will start warming up and you heating bills will drop. But with the arrival of spring and eventually summer, people will be spending more on their water bills. Keeping lawns green and flowers blooming takes water and lots of it.

Give Your Deck a Spring Spruce Up That Will Last For Years
Now that temperatures are warming up, attention is once again shifting to home improvement projects you can do outside. Some people will make painting the house a priority. Others will resurface the driveway or stain and paint the deck, all chores that take a lot of time.

Unique Statuary and Furniture Add Personality to Your Garden
It is safe to say that one can find garden pieces to fit virtually any budget. A quick visit to the local home center during the warmer months yields a bumper crop of outdoor furniture, statues and accessories designed to appeal to the ephemeral tastes -- and wallets -- of a broad cross section of homeowners.

Patio-Ready Clematis Decorate Outdoor Garden Rooms with Columns of Instant Color
Table umbrella, barbeque grill, chaise lounge, clematis. That's right, when decorating your outdoor living room, be sure to remember the clematis. It's all the decoration you'll need to create a finished look.

Good News for Gardeners - New Plant Collections are Beautiful and Easy to Grow
Tough and elegant. What better way to describe royalty? That's clematis, "Queen of the Vines." But do not fear. You don't have to have a royal garden to enjoy these spectacular flowers.

Now's the Time to Start Yard Work
Although many homeowners have been sprucing up their yards for years, their techniques can sometimes stand improvement. Kevin Dube, president of Dube Property Maintenance, Inc. in Methuen, Mass., and Mike Price, manager of Valley Landscaping in Christiansburg, Va., offer these tips.

Spring Into Outdoor Living
Aaah, spring! After the dark days of winter, who doesn't look forward to those first signs of spring and to the warm, extended days ahead: Bright skies, green grass and more time in your outdoor living space. Industry experts agree that outdoor living is a growing trend, with the design and redesign of outdoor rooms becoming increasingly innovative and sophisticated.

Tips for a Successful Garden
With spring fast approaching, it's time to decide what you would like to do with your garden. Seed catalogs conjure visions of beautiful bouquets around your home, their sweet fragrances permeating every room.

Getting Yard Equipment Ready for Spring
It's that time of year when handheld outdoor power equipment is pulled from storage and pressed into service. It's also the time when this equipment should get its annual maintenance.

Gardening without a Garden
As days warm and mailboxes burst with garden catalogs, many people begin to find their green thumbs itching to play in the dirt. But if you're one of the countless people for whom a full-fledged garden isn't a possibility, you don't have to give up the vision of bountiful blooms and fresh produce.

Exciting New Trends in Pool Design Add Fun, Function
Today's pools are more attractive than ever, serving as the centerpiece of a home's outdoor space. With smart innovations in design and maintenance, these pools are also easy to take care of.

How to Introduce Art into Your Garden
Although our gardens have always teemed with nature's artistic palette -- truly they are already natural works of art -- in the last decade gardeners have seen artists and craftsmen creating objects of distinction solely for garden spaces.