Helpful Hints & Tips Archive

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Keep Your Cool!

Glass of ice water filled with fresh cucumber slices and green mint leaves on a blue surface.

Cucumbers, radishes, lettuce, and herbs such as mint are good foods to eat to help keep the body cool when it’s hot out.

DIY Sunburn Soother

For sunburn relief, mix 2 teaspoons tomato juice with 1/4 cup buttermilk and apply to the affected area. Rinse after half an hour.

Repurpose An Old Golf Bag

Top of an empty tan and red golf bag showing the padded dividers and metal ring.

Is an old or unused golf bag taking up space in your garage? They can be a real treasure to a gardener. Long-handled tools can be carried in the club compartment and smaller ones in the side pocket.

Easy Gardening Hack

Several colorful plastic plant identification tags with flower illustrations gathered together on a single metal ring.

Punch a hole in plant ID tags and loop them through key ring. Hang nearby when you need to remember the care instructions for what you planted.

Fertilize your acid-loving houseplants (like ferns) with used tea bags. Simply open the bags and work the used tea leaves into the soil. The leaves will lower the pH level of the soil and provide nutrients, as well as pest and fungus control. You can also occasionally water houseplants with cooled twice-brewed tea for added

Fresher Herbs

A sprig of fresh green herbs resting in a glass jar partially filled with water.

Keep herbs fresh in a jar or vase of water as you would fresh-cut flowers. Just snip off what you need, and change the water daily. This works especially well for flat-leaf parsley.

Tip For Storing Fresh Asparagus

If you bought some fresh asparagus but won’t be eating it right away, cut off an inch off the bottom of the stalks and store in a glass jar with a few inches of water, loosely covered, in the fridge. They’ll keep fresh up to a week or more!

Attract Pollinators To Your Garden

Bumblebee resting on the orange center of a pink coneflower bloom in a summer garden.

Planting flowers? Echinacea is a great choice and attracts butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds.

Catch the Rain!

Rainwater flows from a metal downspout into a wooden barrel in a lush garden with flowers.

Rainwater is a great way to conserve water and save money by reusing it to water plants and lawns. There are elaborate rain catchers you can buy, but a big barrel works too. Just be sure to cover the barrels or put a screen over to keep leaves and other debris from falling in. Cover

Mess-Free Easter Egg Dyeing

A red dyed egg held inside the wires of a metal whisk on a white background.

To make dyeing Easter eggs easier and mess-free, use a wire whisk to hold the hardboiled egg while you dip it in the dye. Just separate the wires to gently release the egg and let dry.