Give your lawn a makeover Dallas TX

If you haven’t gotten around to sprucing up your yard this summer, now is the time. Nurseries and home centers want to get rid of their spring stock, and they’re practically giving it away.

Some plants are diseased. Let them be. But many only need a pruning and some water to spring to life and put color in your landscape.

I finally called it quits for this year’s planting (I think) after picking up another carful of plants last week. Some cost me just a quarter.

But it’s not too late to plant a flower garden. This time of year, the plants mature quickly if you give them water. And with the usually long, mild fall seasons we have, you will be enjoying the blooms through September and, maybe, into October.

Want a backyard makeover? Forever & Ever Hydrangeas is offering a $20,000 landscape job to one winner in a sweepstakes. You can enter quickly at foreverhydrangea.com/sweepstakes or print your name, address and phone number on a piece of paper no larger than 8 1/2-by-11 and mail it to Forever & Ever Hydrangea Back Yard Makeover Sweepstakes, 16127 Winans St., Grand Haven, MI 49417. Entries must be postmarked by Sept. 3, one per household. Good luck, and let me know if you win.

Clean and ‘green’

It’s hard to buy a cleaner today that doesn’t claim to be “green.” I think you need to know the brand or read the fine print to be sure. You can also be sure by trying these environmentally friendly cleaning tips from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency:

For drain cleaner: Pour into the drain, separately, 1/4 cup of baking soda, 1/4 cup of salt and 1/2 cup of vinegar, then follow with hot water.

Furniture polish: Use lemon oil or olive oil.

Glass cleaner: Use vinegar and water in equal parts, or use cornstarch and water.

Oven cleaner: Place salt on spills, spot-clean with baking soda and soapy water using steel wool or another scrub pad.

Scouring powder: Use baking soda and water, and a scrub pad.

Ant control: Use molasses or honey in a lid; put outdoors on ant trail.

Fertilizer: Use coffee grounds or compost material.

Copper cleaner: Use vinegar and salt on a damp sponge.

Air freshener: Summer citrus fruit and cinnamon in water.

Bug spray for house plants: Put plant in the sink with a small amount of mild dish soap (not the disinfectant type) and an inch or so of water. Splash on leaves and soil.

Treating fabric stains: Use baking soda and liquid soap on a wet cloth to spot-clean.

Flea repellent: Use cedar chips in your pet’s bedding and Brewer’s yeast in their food.

Geri Nikolai writes about home and garden for the Rockford Register Star. Contact her at 815-871-6850 or gmnikolai@gmail.com.