When you choose which flowers to plant in your garden, you probably think about things like shape, size, color and bloom time. If you're only thinking about the flowers' appearance, though, you're missing out on a big way that flowers can beautify your property. Some hardworking blooms not only look pretty in their own right--they also attract fascinatingly gorgeous butterflies and hummingbirds. Choosing among these attractive plants will help you make the ground and the air in your garden explode with color.

Now that you've chosen just the right deck for you and your family, you're ready to enjoy many years of backyard barbecues and family get-togethers.

In today's economy, even the tool-shy among us have been trying DIY on for size. After all, it's pretty tempting to buy a pipe wrench and try to fix the leaky sink yourself when the average plumber charges $100 or more just to show up.

Many have used Wet & Forget to take care of slippery algae on your driveway, potentially damaging moss on your roof, or ugly green algae on your concrete steps. But you may not know that Wet & Forget is also the perfect solution to your algae, mold, mildew, lichen or moss problems on some surprising outdoor surfaces, such as your boat bilge*, your Astroturf deck cover or even your truck. Talk about versatility!

Thinking of building a deck this year? You're in good company: the Freedonia Group, experts in business trends, report that the demand for home decks is on the rise and should increase by 2.7 percent each year through 2014.

It's that time of year again--we're all filling up the tanks for our grills, sprucing up our patios and preparing our backyards for summer entertainment.

After the warm winter and early spring the US enjoyed this year, we can expect to see a bumper crop of mosquitoes this summer. And, while the word "mosquito" comes from the Spanish for "little fly," these diminutive bugs can cause super-sized problems. Mosquito bites can itch enough to nearly drive you batty, and scratching can lead to secondary infections. Mosquitoes also spread dangerous diseases such as encephalitis and West Nile Virus in humans, and deadly heartworm in our furry family members.

Whether your driveway is concrete or asphalt, regular seal coating will help it last longer and provide an eye-pleasing complement to your home's landscaping. A little elbow grease now and then pays off, because seal coating limits a lot of the wear-and-tear your driveway suffers with the changing seasons. Landscaping expert David Beaulieu recommends seal coating asphalt yearly in colder climates, and concrete every three to five years. But watch out: If your driveway is stained with moss, algae, mold or lichen, the sealant you've bought won't adhere properly to your driveway's surface. Instead of a well-protected driveway, you could end up with an expensive, time-consuming mess.