From House to Home: 8/8/05

Right At Home Daily: From House to Home

This week's tips:

• Do you have a tree in your yard that's dying? Consider chopping it down (great exercise!) and recycling it into a cord of firewood to fuel your home through the coming winter months. To dry, set the wood on a base three inches from the ground and stacked.
  
  
• August is time to shore up your flower beds. Instead of using bark and chips as mulch, try a ground cover that serves as living mulch. It doesn't have to be replaced seasonally, and many bloom or offer interesting, colorful foliage.
  
  
• If you're undecided about what to plant this month, snap pictures of blooms you like. Take a notebook along on flower viewing jaunts and jot down names of flowers. Include color, height and bloom time of each, so your garden will bloom throughout the summer.