How can you make your garden feel like home from a feathered viewpoint? Cynthia Newby shares her pointers: Go native. Native plantings attract insects that frequent your region. And birds will be waiting with beaks poised to snatch them up for dinner. Plant berries. Beyond summer-bearing berries (such as blueberries and vibumums), plant berries that need repeated frosts to become edible, such as winterberries. They’re dazzling in autumn,...

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Forget those plastic tags that look cheap sticking out of the dirt. These painted on labels and a piece of chalk will help you keep track of what you’re growing and can be used again when you’ve harvested your crop and replanted the pots. Download the plates from going hometoroost.com (click on DIY Projects). Cut them out with an X-Acto knife or scissors and trim the edges so they will wrap around the side of the pot. Use...

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Drought-tolerant and low-maintenance, succulents are stunning by themselves, but they also combine nicely with other plants. Designer Monica Mroz shares her tips and her favorites. Good companions for succulents include Phormium (New Zealand flax), lavender, trailing rosemary, licorice plant and bougainvillea. “Just check the environmental needs to be sure they all share the same requirements,” she says. To soften the hard edges of...

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Not only can a landscape designer deliver a scene far beyond your fondest expectations, he or she can also engineer it to make it work smoothly. Tracey Kimball shares some suggestions for putting together a dream team.

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Lawn Disease—Brown Patch PROBLEM Brown patch can be found throughout the country and attacks Kentucky bluegrass, centipedegrass, Bermudagrass and bentgrass. Likes high humidity and shady spots. Starts as a small brown circle, then grows. Spreads outward, often to several feet in diameter. SOLUTION Use a lawn disease control product that can be applied on all types of lawns to prevent and cure all major lawn diseases. Once you know that you...

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Weeds, bugs and diseases can destroy all your hard work in the yard and garden. Here are some proven solutions to taming the wild and tackling nature’s pesky invaders. Stubborn Pavement Weeds PROBLEM All kinds of weeds invade walkways, patios and driveways around the home. Weeds invade small cracks and crevices and multiply quickly. Their stubborn, twisty root systems are hard to pull out between bricks and paving stones. They are common...

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