Lawn & Garden

How To Prevent Pests from Entering Your Home

In this How To a friend is asking about the best way to seal their foundation and areas at ground level to help prevent pests from entering their home.

We have crickets and mice during the summer so we need to fill the cracks between our siding and foundation. We tried to caulk it with polyurethane caulking.

Well at least they made an attempt and although its pretty ugly work it may help some. Unfortunately bugs …

How To Avoid the Biggest mistakes of a Beginner Gardener

Over the past few months we have been talking with gardeners and asking them what are some of the biggest mistakes you made when you first got into Gardening.

This How To will cover some of them in hopes that you can avoid them.
Over Planting and Not Pruning
The first mistake that many people shared was that they didn’t give their vegetables enough room to grow. On your package of seeds or on your planing spikes …

How To Clean Up a Backyard Walkway and Concrete Steps

One of our friends asks about their backyard. Its spring and they recently purchased their home and they want to clean up the backyard and make it more usable. One of the projects they have in mind is an area around some concrete steps that are in disrepair and they want to connect the area between the steps and the patio so they aren’t walking on dirt to get into the backyard.

This is a …

How To Setting Fence posts

One of our readers asks about installing a new fence in their backyard. They are at the point of setting the posts and want to know how deep they should be and how much concrete to use when installing them.

When you are setting fence posts you only need to set the first one and any corner in concrete. The rest you can set in dirt but if you want to be nice when you …

How To Learn to Can Fruit Vegetables and Food

In this How To Guide we are going to cover the beginning steps of understanding Canning. The process is not extremely difficult but you need to be careful to follow the canning procedures and a specific recipe that has been tested for canning.

The first thing you are probably saying is I don’t want to follow someone else’s recipe but the thing is canning recipes are specifically designed so that when the food is processed …

How To Size a Homestead Garden to Feed Your Family

A friend asks how much garden do they need to be self sustaining for homestead living? This is one of the first questions people ask when they look into the idea of Homestead living. They want to be off the grid and fully self sustaining but they have no background in anything related. This is a huge jump and without educating yourself you are likely to fail. You will fail because you don’t understand …

How To Takeover A Previous Owners Vegetable Garden

image

If you are lucky enough to have just purchased a home or if for other reason you find yourself taking over someone else’s vegetable garden then there are a few things that you need to do before you get started with the new planting season.

The first thing the you should do is remove all of the vegetation whether its dead vegetables from last year or weeds and discard it. Don’t try turning under …

How To Preserve A Small Harvest of Tomatoes without Canning

A friend got a great deal on some tomatoes from a local farmer about three bushels full for $5 and was wondering what they could to to keep them without going through the hassle of canning them.

Canning is a great process that lets you store foods in your pantry without refrigeration. Normally for home canners you need to increase the acid level of the food by adding vinegar then cook the food to …

How To Service Tips When Buying A Used Lawnmower

Recently I picked up a used riding mower and I am making a list of things to do so I thought it would be a good time to talk about what you should do if you purchase a used lawn mower.

Lawnmower servicing is really a great introduction to engine care for your car. If you are or have a teenager you should get them involved in the care of your lawn equipment because it …

How To Repair Someones Failed Attempt At A Garage Door Install

Ok, so this is a pretty bad project but a guy was asking what he could do to seal a garage floor that was extending past the opening of the garage door.

At first glance I thought ok someone decided that they wanted to install a wood floor in their garage and maybe it is an older home with an attached garage where they didn’t have the money to install concrete and didn’t want to …