Home and garden

A long time ago, I felt sorry for a little tree seedling that appeared in my vegetable garden. I dug it up and replanted it nearby. Little did I know it was a Siberian elm and now I wish I’d just thrown it in the compost.

PHILADELPHIA – With glee in their voices and a very unnecessary bullhorn in hand, HGTV host Retta and interior designer Alison Victoria stood on the porch of Justine Mays’ Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, home last summer and proclaimed her to be the owner of “the ugliest house in America!”

Artwork can be used for both color and size as well as texture. For large walls, oversized art helps make a room feel less cavernous. An alternative to a single oversized art piece is to use art in a series.

A friend recently bought a house with a yard that had seen better days. She was up for the challenge and began cleaning it before leaving for a trip to Italy. She came back to a lovely crop of rush skeletonweed she thought she’d pulled. “What do I do now?” she lamented.

Whether it’s the ultramarine of an Yves Klein masterpiece or the faded chambray of a shirt worn soft over decades, blue sets a certain tone. A moody navy can provide a dose of quiet luxury, while a chalky powder blue emits a soft, sunlit charm. As a paint color, it’s endlessly versatile, in part because it works well with many other colors.

With summer winding down, it’s a good time to take a walk through the garden and note what worked and what didn’t over the growing season. Did some crops wither while others thrived? Was there too much work involved with other crops? Taking notes now will help you do better planning for next spring.

At 12:30 p.m. on a Monday, a rowhouse on a leafy street in Northeast Washington is completely empty. Less than five hours later, the three-bedroom residence brims with furniture, art and the kinds of baubles that make a house feel like a home: neatly folded hand towels in the bathroom, a dinosaur-shaped planter in the kids’ bedroom, an open backgammon board on the family room table.

The Moomin family – Moominpappa, Moominmamma and Moomintroll – live in Moominvalley, where they welcome all friends, visitors and vagrants for adventures and sweet treats.

Is a deck in your future? You might want to build one to create a delightful outdoor living space. But have you considered the safety risks?

How do you know if the gardening information you get from social media sites and over the back fence is accurate? There are dozens of social media pages devoted to answering gardening questions and no lack of folks that respond to questions and no end to advice over the backyard fence. Getting accurate information can lead to environmentally sound decisions and less opportunity for gardening disasters.

Topiary, the practice of training plants into defined shapes, might evoke fantastical scenes from “Alice in Wonderland” or the formal gardens of Versailles. Michael P. Gibson believes its lessons extend well beyond the aesthetic.

What would you say if I told you your driveway doesn’t need to be boring blacktop or ho-hum gray concrete? Can you envision a red, orange, green or light khaki color driveway? Would you like a driveway that provides maximum traction in snow and ice? I used to have a driveway like this and loved it. I’m talking about a chip seal or tar and chip surface.

Tomorrow will be Aug. 1 which means we will be down to the last month of summer. Our spring gardens were gorgeous but as happens every year, their blooms have faded in the heat. With their fading comes a smaller choice of colorful flowers to fill the garden through the rest of the summer. Here are a few of my favorite late summer flowers.

Porch season is in full swing.

This summer is proving to be another warm one.

White kitchens will always be in style, but today’s homeowner is also looking for a kitchen that is both classic and colorful.

If the walls of a room are an outfit, think of the trim (also known as woodwork, window casings and the like) as a statement accessory. With that in mind, many designers are turning to rich tones that imbue a room with charm.

My guess is you give very little thought to the roof over your head, other than worrying about whether it will develop a leak. It’s safe to say you don’t lose a minute’s sleep thinking your roof will collapse. You can thank great carpenters, structural engineers, architects and, to a large extent, the modern building code for the peaceful slumber you experience!

Last week I was minding my own business in my office when I heard the telltale “chuck, chuck” of a wild turkey, a nervous wild turkey.