• To prevent the line on your string trimmer from jamming or breaking, treat with a spray vegetable oil before installing it in the trimmer. To create perfectly natural markers, write the names of plants--using a permanent marker--on the flat faces of stones of various sizes and place them at or near the base of your plants.
  
• Got aphids? You can control them with a strong blast of water from the hose or with insecticidal soap. But here's another suggestion, one that's a lot more fun--get some tape! Wrap a wide strip of tape around your hand, sticky side out, and pat the leaves of plants infested with aphids. Concentrate on the undersides of leaves, because that's where the little buggers like to hide.
  
• The next time you boil or steam vegetables, don't pour the water down the drain, use it to water potted patio plants, and you'll be amazed at how the plants respond to the "vegetable soup."
  
• Use leftover tea and coffee grounds to acidify the soil of acid-loving plants such as azaleas, rhododendrons, camellias, gardenias and even blueberries. A light sprinkling-- say, a layer of about one-quarter of an inch--applied once a month will keep the pH of the soil on the acidic side.
  
• Use chamomile tea to control damping-off fungus, which often attacks young seedlings quite suddenly. Just add a spot of tea to the soil around the base of seedlings once a week or use it as a foliar spray.

Here are a few things you can do to spruce up your home.

• Power-wash siding, walls, gutters, roof tiles, driveway and/or sidewalks.
• Wash your windows.
• Keep the lawn mowed.
• Patch any brown or bald spots in your yard.
• Edge the sidewalks and borders.
• Rake leaves and sweep walkways.
• Pick up trash, garden tools, pieces of projects not completed.
• Trim branches and overgrown bushes.
• Check lighting.