Home & Garden

Impress your friends and improve your short game at the same time. Building a putting green in your yard may be simpler than you think.

A quick surf of the Internet will turn up more advice and how-tos than you can possibly use.
• iHowd.com gives you complete instructions in five easy steps.

The cities of Brainerd and Crosslake are celebrating Lake Country blossoms and gardens, and you can be part of it.

Spring is here and the birds are flocking back—literally. Here are some tips from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources to help them settle in for the summer:

Did you know that certain state and county government agencies sometimes have grant money available for shoreline restoration projects? These programs can provide funding to organizations, associations, private citizens, or local units of government to:
• help expand the diversity and abundance of native aquatic and shoreline plants;
• improve and protect the quality of shoreline habitat;

Fireplaces do more than fill your home with a glowing, cozy ambiance. These days, fireplaces and biomass stoves are becoming an integral part of your home's heating system. There's even a tax credit available for installing a biomass stove in your home. (To find out more, click here).

The first poultry-litter power plant in America was built two years ago near Benson, Minnesota. The 55-megawatt renewable energy power plant came online in mid-2007 and annually converts more than 500,000 tons of poultry litter, as well as other biomass, into electricity—enough electricity to power 40,000 homes.

Submitted by Crow Wing Power

by Chip Borkenhagen

Here is what Colleen Coyne, DNR communications director, and Jean Goad, DNR Northeast Region information officer, have to say about the ubiquitous geese—and what can be done to discourage them from visiting your shorelands:

The yard is beautiful, the flowers are blooming—and the weeds are thriving. All that time and effort and you can't beat the weeds!

But the University of Minnesota Extension Service is here to help. And their experts and master gardeners are as close as your keyboard.