Home and Garden

Choosing paint colors: Why so hard?

For months, I have been looking for the perfect yellow/wheat color for our bedroom wall. When I’m at a hardware store, I pick up more swatches and bring them home, certain I have just the right tint. I put the swatch up — under different light — and realize it’s another mistake. I’m a failure at picking paint. Time for professional help.

Cleaning racks: Submerge and scrub

Cleaning oven racks is a twice-a-year chore for me, unless I’m really doing a lot of baking and roasting. I have an easy way to clean the oven interior — my oven has a self-cleaning feature.

Plant society plans two events for March

The Wenatchee chapter of the Native Plant Society has planned two events this month. The first event is a viewing of the environmental documentary “A Sense of Wonder” at 7 p.m. March 16 at the Wenatchee Valley Museum & Cultural Center, 127 S. Mission St. The film is about pioneering environmentalist Rachel Carson, who wrote “Silent Spring” about the risks of chemical pesticides.

Weed work pays dividends all season long

The state Noxious Weed Control Board has decided that 128 introduced plants have overextended their welcome by becoming invasive, dominating native plants and creating economic hardship. If you bicycle anywhere in North Central Washington, you can name at least one nuisance plant — puncture vine. It grows flat on the ground with long spreading stems and produces yellow flowers and insidious seedpods.

Let this garden favorite provide that treasured blue color

Blue is one of the most sought- after colors in the flower border and if you wait too long once the growing season arrives it will be pink or orange for you. One of the best sources of this treasured color lies with salvias like Victoria Blue, the All America Selections-winning Strata and Evolution, as well as the new Cathedral Deep Blue and Velocity Blue.

Local Master Gardeners plan free spring classes

The WSU Master Gardeners of Chelan County will conduct several free “Garden for Food” classes this spring. The “Square Foot Gardening” class will provide information on how to grow vegetables and how to cut down on weeding, watering and heavy digging in a small area. The class starts at 10 a.m. Wednesday at AG Supply Ace Hardware, 220 Grant Road in East Wenatchee and at 9:30 a.m. March 13 at the KPQ Home & Garden Show at the Town Toyota Center, 1300 Walla Walla Ave.

Demonstration garden will allow for hands-on learning

For gardeners, spring is really the New Year’s celebration. It is an opportunity for new gardens and new ideas. This spring, the WSU Chelan County Master Gardeners will begin a new venture, a demonstration garden. The garden is planned in phases over the next five years. It will grow on one acre at the WSU Tree Fruit Research and Extension Center near the corner of Western and Springwater avenues in Wenatchee.

Recycling in Douglas County paid off in 2009

Spring is just around the corner and it will not be long before the 2010 Enhanced Recycling Program begins throughout Douglas County. But before we move into 2010, let’s first look back on 2009 and see what was achieved. Here’s a breakdown of municipalities and the amount of recyclables collected last year:

Countertops made of recycled material

Maybe it’s time to consider an eco-friendly alternative for your home

Remodeling your kitchen? Coming down with a case of granite fatigue? Never fear, a remedy is available: Install a countertop made from recycled materials. The new look can personalize your kitchen and boost the health of the environment, too. Countertops may contain colorful fragments of recycled beverage bottles or porcelain from old plumbing fixtures such as sinks and toilets. Even recycled paper is making an appearance as a counter surface.

Plan your to-do list with a home projects calendar

January: Make a list of projects you plan to complete during the year. Post important emergency info: Location of main gas valve, for instance, or contact numbers for heating and cooling service.

Mixing high-end and low-end furniture

Dressing a room can be a lot like dressing yourself. You invest in the pieces you want to last many years and shop for steals on accessories that change with trends.

Aches, pains, cramps ... Eradicate those garden pests!

Gardening is awfully good for the soul, but it can be hell on the body. The former is the stuff of February daydreams. The latter — all that pain from hauling and bending, raking and pruning — fades in winter.

New-home trends

Here are some of the results of Better Homes and Gardens’ Next Home Survey, and some of the trends that may influence new-home building and home-improvement projects in 2010: • 87 percent of respondents said a greener, more-energy efficient home is a priority.

Beauty in bits

PHILADELPHIA — The answering machine gives her away: “You have reached Barbie. I’m either grouting, gardening or watching ‘Law & Order’ ...” Those are the fixations, in correct order, of Barbie Henig, a mosaic-maker, gardener and crime-series fan from Ardmore, Pa., who has been known to create some rather unorthodox mosaics — on bowling balls and basketballs — using grout-sealed shards of pottery and glass scavenged on an out-of-the-way beach in Ventnor, Pa.

In the Garden: Go ahead and start your pruning

This is shape-up time for many shrubs and trees. There’s a lot to be said for judicious pruning this time of year. It reinvigorates plants, opens them up to more sunlight and gets rid of dead and diseased wood. Plants are completely dormant now and haven’t started their burst of spring growth yet. But as days lengthen and inch up into warmer temperatures, emerging bumps along branches give the promise of spring.