Best Landscaping Tips from Readers
Make allowances for
future plans. When we bought our home, the first thing we did
was put up a stone and wood fence. Three years later, when we
could afford a swimming pool, we had to bust up huge sections
of the fence to accommodate a backhoe. Had we thought
ahead, we would have chosen a fence with easily removed panels
or an extra wide gate. –Jean C., New York
If cats
are using your flower beds for their litter
box, sprinkle coffee grounds in the beds. The odor is pleasant
to us but obnoxious to cats. It will keep them away. –Jennifer
N., Ohio
Fruit trees are a good idea on
paper: you’ve got the tree that fills a niche in
your landscaping scheme, and you get fruit as a bonus. Don’t be
fooled. Fruit trees are high maintenance–without regimented,
poisonous spraying of insecticide you’ll be left with fruit
unfit for eating. After two summers of mowing through mounds of
festering, worm-riddled plums and peaches littering the grass,
you’ll be sorry you didn’t opt for that dogwood or
redbud. –Danny W., Texas
To keep deer from
eating your valuable plants, you can
shake ground red pepper on the foliage, set up a
motion-sensor sprinkler to blast water at them, or hang
aluminum pie plates in trees to sway in the breeze. But none of
it will work. –Fred T., New Jersey
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