Hot Home & Garden How-Tos
How To: Know when to use concrete mix & when to use rapid set
Unsure when to use concrete mix and when to use rapid-set? In this how to video Darren Baensch discusses when to use concrete mix and when to use rapid set. Make sure you are using the right materials for the job with this tutorial. Know when to use concrete mix & when to use rapid set.
How To: Prune a Japanese Maple tree
Sometimes your Japanese Male can get a little out of control and ends up looking like a bush. In this how to video, Dave guides you through the process of pruning a Japanese maple tree. Make sure you prune your Japanese Maple carefully because the tree takes a while to grow the branches back.
How To: Prevent poison ivy
Poison ivy is a real pain. And it is especially bad to have poison ivy in your garden. Learn how to identify and remove poison ivy with little to no risk to your skin with this gardening tutorial. Remember to be careful and wear long pants and gloves when handling poison ivy
How To: Fix brown patches on your lawn
Grass is like hair. You have bald patches where you wish it would grow and it sprouts up in places where you don't want it to grow. In this how to video, Dave shows you an inexpensive, resource-sensitive way to get rid of bare spots in your lawn. You can use the grass that sprouts up in your walkway to patch the bald spots on your lawn. Find out how with this tutorial.
How To: Make your hydrangea flowers bluer
Your hydrangea plant tag may say that it is blue but when it blooms it is more of a white color with a light blue tint. Learn how to deepen the blue color of your hydrangea flowers with this gardening tutorial. Get brighter, more intense blue hydrangeas with the tips from this how to video.
How To: Create the perfect flower pot
Want to have a beautiful potted plants but don't want to put in all the effort? You can create spectacular flower pots that last all season long with these four easy tips. You don't need to spend too much time on your flowers and you can get great results with this how to video.
How To: Use a composting toilet
The regular toilet is a huge waste of water, and those low flow toilets don't always get rid of your "business." The Keep it Green girls discover an eco-friendly way to discard human waste and create compost for your garden. Learn how to turn your waste into compost with the composting toilet.
How To: Make a homemade green cleaning solution
Want a green, clean home but are wary of mass-manufactured cleaning products? In this tutorial, you'll learn to create a simple, green cleaner using a baking soda and vinegar solution, which, beyond being environmentally friendly, is a lot of fun.
How To: Grow a sustainable garden
The EcoGarden is designed to give back to nature and show people how easy it is to go green in their own backyard. All you need to remember is to plant, feed and protect to grow your own sustainable garden. This how to video teaches you how to care for your beautiful and eco friendly garden.
How To: Use urine as fertilizer
Learn how to neutralize urine as it is used to create fertilizer for house plants with this tutorial. This is a great way to reuse your urine and make a great fertilizer for your garden. All you need is magnesium chloride and urine.
How To: Distinguish between edible and poisonous mushrooms
Learn which mushrooms are edible and which are poisonous with this tutorial. Mushrooms are abloom in this search for wild mushrooms. Stay safe when camping or just when you are picking food off the ground with this plant identification video.
How To: De-clutter your home
If you've been meaning to do something about all the clutter in your home, there's no better time than spring to get it done. So don't just spring clean this year, go one step further, and de-clutter. Get organized, and clear out all those "treasures" you no longer use. With a little know-how and the tips from this how to video, those items could put some easy cash in your pocket.
How To: Germinating seeds in paper towels
In this short how-to video, self-described earth mother Mayo Underwood demonstrates how you can germinate seeds in damp paper towels prior to planting them in your personal garden. Watch this tutorial and start some seeds of your own today!
How To: Make a natural air freshener
Air fresheners are often packed with chemicals or they plug into the wall and use electricity. In this how-to video, you'll learn how to make a natural, organic air freshener with an orange, a length of rope, and some dried cloves. Watch this video and make your own citrus air freshener today. Make a natural air freshener.
How To: Build a wasp trap in under a minute
Annoyed by summertime wasps? This how-to video will show you how to assemble a humane wasp trap in under one minute using marmalade, water, a disused plastic bottle and a pair of scissors.
How To: Plant a beautiful and functional container garden
When there isn't space in a garden for favorite plants, they can be planted in containers and placed on a patio or deck. This how-to clip provides instructions for how to plant a beautiful and functional container garden.
How To: Improve the efficiency of your air conditioner
Window and portable air conditioners use a lot of power to do their work. Make sure you're getting what you pay for by cleaning your air conditioner out periodically. The cleaning costs are negligible and can save you a lot of money. In this two-part tutorial series, you'll learn how to make your air conditioning units run as they should. Remember to be careful; air conditioners can be heavy. Get help if you need it and, of course, unplug the air conditioner before doing anything seen in this...
How To: Plant a dogwood tree
Beautify your surroundings and offset global carbon emissions by planting a tree. Oregonian writers Kym Pokorny and Anne Jaeger demonstrate best practices for tree planting as they plant a dogwood in this brief tutorial.
How To: Prune a high-density fruit tree
In this how-to video, Ed Laivo and Tom Spellman of Dave Wilson Nursery give you advice on how to prune high-density fruit trees as they look at Santa Rosa plums, pluots and nectarines in their own orchard. Watch this video to learn how to open your trees up for sunlight and airflow while simultaneously managing fruit buds so as to ensure uniform, healthy fruit growth.
How To: Thin your fruit tree
Thinning, or pruning, is the most important step in getting the best fruit from your tree. In this tutorial from Dave Wilson Trees, you'll learn how to thin your own fruit trees as they look at the plum, peach, apricot, nectarine, aprium and pluot trees in their own orchard as part of their spring maintenance routine. Watch this video and learn how to keep your fruit trees healthy and bearing uniform, healthy fruit!
How To: Understand why apple trees need to be pruned
Each year an apple tree should produce three things: new growth, fruit buds on last year's and older growth, and fruit on those fruit buds formed in previous years. In order to keep an apple tree in balance and fruiting, one must prune. However, pruning is often done poorly. In this, the first installment of his series on practical apple tree pruning, Stephen Hayes of Fruitwise Heritage Apples looks at the general structure of the apple tree.
How To: Understand the basics of apple tree pruning
Each year an apple tree should produce three things: new growth, fruit buds on last year's and older growth, and fruit on those fruit buds formed in previous years. In order to keep an apple tree in balance and fruiting, one must prune. However, pruning is too often done poorly. In this, the second installment of his series on practical apple tree pruning, Stephen Hayes of Fruitwise Heritage Apples looks goes over what to look for in a good secateurs, or pruning shears, and how to thin out sp...
How To: Replace a piece of timber fascia
Fascia goes along the top of your gutter line to hold the gutter in place. As fascia boards tend to break down over time, many builders are now using metal products in the place of timber. If you're looking to replace a piece of timber fascia, however, you'll be well served by this short clip, which offers installation tips meant to ensure that your replacement works for days to come. Replace a piece of timber fascia.
How To: Know when to use plasterboard, clout and twisted nails
There are thousand varieties of nails out there and it's not always easy to know which you should use for your project. This forty-second instructional clip will familiarize you with three common varieties of nail—i.e., plasterboard, clout and twisted—and prime you on their principal applications. Know when to use plasterboard, clout and twisted nails.
How To: Germinate Japanese maple tree seeds
Seeking to attain germination rates as high as 98%? Japanese-Maple.com's Ken Alston shares the little-known nursery secret to germinate Japanese maple tree seeds using resealable zipper storage bags and a standard refrigerator.
How To: Graft over an apple tree
Grafting, also known as "top working," is simple-but-essential technique that enables you to change the variety of fruit a tree bears. In this tutorial, Stephen Hayes of Fruitwise Apples Heritage reviews the essentials of top working while discussing an apple tree that was successfully grafted a year prior.
How To: Prune a mature apple tree with secateurs or shears
In this instructional pruning video, Stephen Hayes of Fruitwise Heritage Apples prunes "shoots," or the leave-offs of past years' growth of the Egremont Russet apple tree. He uses secateurs, or pruning shears, and emphasizes the need for balance and fruit bud management. Watch as Stephen prunes a mature Egremont Russet and learn some instructional apple tree pruning tips.
How To: Prune apple tree spurs
In this installment from the Fruitwise Heritage Apples guide to apple pruning, Stephen Hayes goes over the essentials of thinning spur systems, which develop naturally over time and can lead to overcrowding.
How To: Care for a neglected apple tree with a pruning saw
Pruning a neglected apple tree is not difficult. Unless the tree is seriously post-mature, diseased or very badly situated, a few simple principles and a sharp saw will see it right. In this video, yet another installment in the Fruitwise apple pruning tutorial series, learn to utilize a pruning saw to remove whole branch systems that are diseased, too low, too crowded or crossing while leaving the rest of the tree alone.
How To: Prune apple trees with a pruning saw
The Fruitwise Heritage Apple series of practical apple tree pruning tutorials continues with a look at the use of the pruning saw. In this short video, learn how to properly wield a pruning saw so as to prune apple trees both safely and effectively.
How To: Make bio diesel
Make your own backyard biodiesel with the help of Kipkay. It's easy to make a small batch that will work in any diesel engine. You won't need any special equipment--an old juice bottle will serve as the "reactor" vessel--and on such a small scale, you can quickly refine your technique and perform further experiments. Thanks go to Rob Elam for the original article in Make Volume 3To download Making Biodiesel MP4 click here or subscribe in iTunes. Check out the complete Making Biodiesel article...
How To: Organically fertilize a garden
Allen shows us how to organically fertilize your vegetable garden. Insect and pest control as well as fertilizer can be used to keep a garden safe for the whole family, as well as pets, as well as producing food free of chemicals. Watch this video gardening tutorial and learn how to organically fertilize a garden.
How To: Care for plaenopsis orchids
They're known the world over and grow in some pretty strange places. But, as Allen Smith shows us, orchids don't have to be foreign to you. They can however be tricky to care for. Phalenopsis orchids are a great orchid for beginners. Watch this video gardening tutorial and learn how to care for orchid flowers.
How To: Prune and take cuttings from a epiphyllum plant
Properly pruning and taking cuttings from a plant is essential to the life of the plant This gardening how-to video demonstrates how to prune a epiphyllum plants for optimal growth.
How To: Pot a rooted geranium cutting
The hard part of planting your geraniums is getting them to produce roots. Once you have done that it is important to transfer them to an adequate pot for further growth. This gardening how-to video demonstrates the proper way to pot up rooted geranium cuttings.
How To: Make and use elecampane as a cough syrup
Elecampane is excellent as a honey cough syrup. This home remedy cough is easy to make. Watch this how to video to learn how to make and use elecampane cough syrup from roots.
How To: Arrange Valentine's day red roses
Valentine's day is approaching and that either means giving or receiving red roses. In this how to video The Daily Lily shows you how to arrange roses in a glass vase. This flower arrangement is sure to stay lively and look beautiful in your home.
How To: Make a chandelier with CDs
It isn't a disco ball, but it does shine just like one. If you have some old cd's around the house use them to make a decorative chandelier for your room. Watch this how to video to learn how to put your CD chandelier together. All you need is: CDs, glue, and and old lamp shade. Make a chandelier with CDs.
How To: Vacuum an in ground pool manually
Maintaining your in ground pool means properly vacuuming it from time to time. This how-to video, made by Teddy Bear Pools & Spas, demonstrate how to manually vacuum an in ground pool. Watch and learn how easy it is to keep your pool running smooth all summer long by with proper vacuuming.
How To: Operate and clean an in ground pool cartridge filter
Maintaining your in ground pool means properly operating and cleaning cartridge filters. This how-to video, made by Teddy Bear Pools & Spas, demonstrate how to operate and clean your pools cartridge filter properly. Watch and learn how easy it is to keep your pool running smoothly all summer long with proper cartridge maintenance.