Painting Tools & Supplies

Repairing Drywall

A hole in your drywall is never fun, although it may have been caused by fun. Maybe it was from a wild party or maybe someone was making an emphatic "point."

Anyway you look at it (or through it), a hole is a hole and needs to get fixed.

Fortunately there are a few tricks I can show you in How to Repair a Large Hole in Drywall.

For smaller holes caused by doorknobs, kids, toys and other elements of home life there is the tutorial Repairing a Small Hole in Drywall

Don't have holes but just dents, popped nails or drywall tape? Then Tips for Repairing Drywall is the tutorial you need.

And after the repair, you'll have to paint the wall so take a read through Repairing Textured Walls and How to Paint a Room.

Repairing Drywall originally appeared on About.com Home Repair on Sunday, March 14th, 2010 at 09:08:46.

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Frozen Peas Do You Use Inoculant on Peas?

I can remember planting peas on St. Patrick's Day only once, in all my years of gardening. I was pushing my luck then and the peas I planted later in the season quickly caught up to the early peas. The only thing I accomplished was the satisfaction of finally getting something planted in the garden. Although planting your peas on St. Pat's Day is a time honored tradition, for many of us the ground is still too cold and wet to successfully start them (if you can see the soil at all).

However I do like the idea of tying yearly chores to holidays: pruning the apple trees on Washington's Birthday, feeding the lawn after Labor Day, pinching fall flowers until July 4th. It's a great gimmick to keep you on schedule. Too bad all I can do on St. Pat's is make sure I have my pea seeds ready to go. I hope you're one of the lucky ones who will be out there planting yours.

If you are an early pea planter, do you recommend the use of inoculant, a powder containing millions of rhizobia bacteria that help legumes fix nitrogen, especially in cool, wet soils?

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Photo: © National Gardening Bureau. Used with Permission.

Frozen Peas Do You Use Inoculant on Peas? originally appeared on About.com Gardening on Wednesday, March 17th, 2010 at 01:26:30.

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Common Plantain

Now a ubiquitous lawn weed in North America, common plantain was brought to the New World by colonists from Europe for its medicinal uses. Common plantain's medicinal qualities are too numerous to elaborate here, but one of them is something that the average homeowner might well make use of....

If you have been stung by a bee, try crushing the leaves of common plantain by rolling them roughly between the palms of your hands to release the juice, then applying the pulp to a bee sting. Many report relief from doing so. Of course, if you suffer from bee sting allergy, you should follow proper medical advice to treat the bee sting.

Erin Huffstetler, About.com's Guide to Frugal Living, lists common plantain as an edible plant, noting that the young leaves can be added raw to salads, while older leaves should be sauteed.

For those who say phooey to all that and just wish to learn about common plantain control, Colleen Vanderlinden, About.com's Organic Gardening Guide, writes, "The only surefire way to get rid of plantains is to dig them up, getting all of the root out." But because common plantain is green and stays short, it's rather unobtrusive, as lawn weeds go. In out-of-the-way problem areas where you have trouble establishing grass (due to shade or compaction), consider allowing common plantain to stay if it's already present. It will blend in fairly well with whatever grass is present and will tolerate heavy foot traffic.

Common Plantain originally appeared on About.com Landscaping on Wednesday, March 17th, 2010 at 08:11:45.

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Wall Color Ideas and Ralph Lauren Paint

Even though I have previously cast doubts on designer paint, it's hard to ignore the fact that a lot of these premium paints make serious inroads in color design.

Of all of these premium paints, I always find myself gravitating to Ralph Lauren Paint (if you had asked me two years ago, I would have scoffed at the idea).

Where other paint manufacturers often seem moribund with their collections, RLP keeps on coming up with new stuff.

Two of RLP's collections provide great wall color ideas:

Image Copyright Ralph Lauren Home

Wall Color Ideas and Ralph Lauren Paint originally appeared on About.com Home Renovations on Wednesday, March 17th, 2010 at 03:00:03.

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