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Home And Garden

Spooky but safe: Important tips to limit risks this Halloween

Halloween may be the quintessential intersection of thrills and fun, with some universal traditions like trick-or-treating and devouring lots of candy — but there are dangers that can make the holiday tragic if not carefully avoided. That's why organizations like the American Red Cross of ...

Get Out There: The best Halloween candy to steal from your kids

Halloween is supposed to be about kids. The costumes. The trick-or-treating. The sugar rush that makes your child behave like an undersized, pre-pubescent maniac for four hours. But let’s be honest. Halloween is mostly about candy. And once your kids come home with their plastic pumpkins ...

Garden Help Desk: November gardening tasks and tricks

Aristotle is credited with saying, “Nature abhors a vacuum.” Whether or not this is scientifically true, I think of this quote whenever I clean up a garden bed in the fall. I know the bed won’t stay clean and tidy for long. Weed seeds already in the soil will germinate when conditions ...

Garden Help Desk: Preparing trees for winter in 2026

Here are some Do-s, Don’ts, and Depends to keep in mind while you are preparing your trees and shrubs for the winter season. Don’t Don’t prune. Save your routine pruning for spring and early summer. Pruning once midsummer has passed can stimulate new growth that won’t be winter ...

Garden Help Desk: Helping plants make the transition from outdoors to indoors

If you’re like me, you treated some of your houseplants to a few summer months outdoors in a shady spot. Hopefully you’ve been keeping an eye on the weather forecast so you can move them back indoors before overnight temperatures drop too low. The most tender indoor plants can be damaged ...

Some healthy noodle swaps lose what made pasta good

The pasta and noodles market in the United States is projected to hit nearly $10 billion in value by the end of 2027, despite steady sales declines in the traditional pasta market. Convenience and health concerns dominate the market, as both chilled and alternative pastas take center stage. But ...

EveryDay Strong: Why does my child hate school, and what can I do about it?

Do you know a child who has a lot of difficulty getting to school? Consider an anxious second-grader named Ella. Ella is a second-grader who says she “hates school.” She often refuses to get ready for school in the morning, and when she does make it to school, she complains of ...

Garden Help Desk: Keep critters outside the home this fall and winter

For most of the yard and garden season, we’re trying to keep a variety of critters out of our gardens and home orchards and off our lawns — insects, rodents, deer, skunks, etc. With October in full swing now, some of you may be finding a few of these unwanted visitors trying to make ...

Garden Help Desk: Timely garden tips for October

October is a pivotal month in the garden. A little work now can make a big difference when spring arrives — and you’ll definitely thank yourself later! Clean up garden beds to help deter pests and disease. Remove diseased plant material and compost healthy plant debris. Add a fresh layer ...

Garden Help Desk: There’s a type of serviceberry for everyone’s garden

If ever someone were to ask me for a suggestion of what to plant in their yard in Utah (which they never do!), I would say, “serviceberry, or a juneberry, or a shadbush.” It might surprise them to know that these are all names for the same plant, which is also known as saskatoon, sarvis ...