Planning your planting? Add a rain garden or barrelMany of us try to hurry spring along by planning our spring gardening. This year, think about an eco-friendly rain garden, or a simple rain barrel.Experts say we are depleting our water supply and suffering heavier storms. Both good reasons to keep water runoff to a minimum. 

Home show offers an idea factory Just in time to soothe the winter doldrums, the Old House New House Home show is back Feb. 12-14 at Pheasant Run Resort. The home show features 300 displays, professional advice and acres of good ideas for your kitchen, bath, garage and more.

Rural charm; city conveniencesA little bit of country, near shopping, made an Oswego apartment the right place for this family.

Original engravings might be from a bookBooks on flora and fauna were popular during the 18th and early 19th centuries. A number of naturalists, primarily in Europe but also in the United States, published tomes on exotic (and domestic) birds, animals and flowers.

Novel ideas for a romantic makeoverTeresa is a romance novel writer, but she did not have an inspiring place to write her novels.

Mortgage rates up a bit

Kelly Hess and her husband, David, spent $8,000 in April remodeling the outside of their Dallas house, and they paid for it without a home-equity loan.

Are too many coffee grounds bad for plants? Should you worry about using too many coffee grounds in your compost? Will it affect the soil acidity?

Yellow flowers top gardeners' picks

Yellow is bursting out of the gate as the hot color this year for inside the home as well as in the garden.