DIGEST

• How to avoid splinters on your deck

  Q. A wood deck has splinters in several areas, especially on the steps and railings. I've gotten splinters in my hand from the railing and children and pets use the deck. What suggestions do you have for repairing the deck?

• Tips to help protect your home

  By Mary Beth Breckenridge -- House break-ins peak during the vacation months of July and August, the Insurance Information Institute says. These tips from the institute can help protect your home:

• How to make your space attractive to wildlife

  A young bunny munching on grass is barely aware of the audience he attracts while he eats lunch.

• How to get rid of cockroaches

  Do you have a roach infestation? If you're tired of sharing cockroach stories with your psychiatrist or appalled mother, keep in mind that simply killing all of your cockroaches will only fix your problem temporarily. The only permanent way to get rid of roaches is by making your living space inhospitable to them ... and then killing them, if necessary.

• Empty house? Take these precautions

  -- Q: I have a house in Phoenix, Ariz. During the summer when no one is living there, is it better to leave the air conditioning set at 85 degrees, or should I turn it off completely? The daytime temperature can reach 110 degrees, but I'd like to save on electricity.

• Everybody in the pool: Torres inspires older women

  

  Beth Walsh is swimming laps again at age 57. Stasi Turrell has returned to walking, 13 weeks after giving birth to her fourth child. And Geralin Thomas is lifting hand weights and skipping rope at 47.

• Hammocks give you a lift in more ways than one

  The next time you're out of gift ideas for someone, maybe you'll consider a hammock.

• Bulldozing homes to build new ones can sometimes revitalize established neighborhoods

  

  The first part of Mark and Constance Eddy's homeownership story is classic: In 1998 the newlyweds bought a "starter" home in a post-World War II subdivision in Prairie Village, Kan.

• Choose bamboo carefully before planting to avoid a runaway forest

  Bamboo is a good news/bad news landscape plant.

• Jennifer Bertrand enters the great unknown after winning HGTV's ‘Design Star'

  Jennifer Bertrand, you've just won the third season of "Design Star." What are you going to do now?

• GREEN THUMB: Chrysanthemums, bougainvillea and hydrangeas

  Q: I have some small chrysanthemums in my flower garden that are doing strange things. They actually bloomed in June with small flowers and have continued to grow more small buds. But recently just as the buds start to open the edges of the flowers turn brown and then wither. The plants are loaded with little buds. I would love to have even half of them come to full flower. Isn't this about the right time for this to fully flower? What is wrong? (I have amended my very cement-hard clay soil somewhat by side dressing and water every other day. The area has pine mulch.)

• FIX IT: Tips on cooling off the house

  Q: My husband thinks you get better cooling and airflow if you leave some windows open while running the air conditioning. He leaves two windows open on the second floor of our house 2 or 3 inches. One of the windows is above the air conditioning unit. I think it is inefficient and wasteful.

• YOUR PLACE: Stinging insect infestation; foam insulation

  Q: We have a flower bed that seems to be infested with some species of bees - either yellow jackets or hornets that have burrowed into the soil. Whenever we attempt to water the flowers or weed, out they come. What can be done?

• Now's the time to get out and find fresh produce for the winter

  It's not often I urge our kids to eat more frozen pizza and ice cream bars. But this time of year I need to clear out the freezer - I need the space.

» More