Visit the new Linens ‘N Things (www.lnt.com) to discover a wide assortment of highly recognized and popular home and living brands (over 2,000 brands and growing everyday). A sampling of the well-known, international brands you’ll find include: Calvin Klein, Vera Wang, Le Creuset, Versace, Viking Range and Laura Ashley, as well as more recently launched lines such as DwellStudio, Perry Ellis Bedding and Blissliving Home. It all adds up to a comprehensive online destination, filled with over 200,000 top branded products for every room in the home — from bedding and bath to dining and decor and much, much more.

But top brands and a huge product selection is just the start. New categories have been added too, including pet products; a large selection of high quality nursery bedding, accessories and baby gear, such as CoCaLo; a variety of travel accessories and luggage for any occasion. Be sure to check the site daily for its ever changing “Deal of the Day” and Clearance Center that promise deals like you’ve never seen before. With a focus on pricing its products for today’s cost-conscious, quality-driven consumer, the new Linens ‘N Things (www.lnt.com) prides itself on its leading staple of brands offering products at every price point.

The new Linens ‘N Things (www.lnt.com) is built on an innovative, technologically-advanced e-commerce platform that enhances the online shopping experience based on real-time consumer demand. The website changes automatically by the day and even by hour based on what customers are buying. New brands and products are added constantly while the existing inventory is continually remerchandized to meet the consumer demand and desires.

The new Linens ‘N Things (www.lnt.com) builds on the enormous customer following that started 34 years ago with a single store in West Orange, New Jersey. Recognized as one of the top two home retailers in North America, something that very few home textiles and housewares brands have achieved, the new Linens ‘N Things (www.lnt.com) offers consumers the ultimate shopping experience that includes new and noteworthy retail partnerships, from brands that have been trusted for decades to leading brands in contemporary home furnishings, accessories and much more.

About Linens ‘N Things (www.lnt.com)

The first Linens ‘N Things store opened in 1975 in West Orange, New Jersey, offering high-end linens at discount prices. The company grew to become the second largest specialty retailer of home furnishings and decorative accessories with 589 stores across North America. Now part of the Gordon Brothers Brands and Hilco Consumer Capital portfolio of retail brands, the new Linens ‘N Things hits home with consumers as a popular e-commerce website, featuring top brands, new categories, hot deals, and the ultimate shopping sensation. Poised to become the modern standard in retailing, the new Linens ‘N Things caters to the demands and desires of today’s consumer.

Add a splash of color by planting annuals around the home using the Black & Decker 18-Volt Cordless Electric Cultivator (Item #175332, $99.97). Line the front walkway or fill window boxes with shades that complement the home’s exterior color scheme. Select species that thrive in your area of the country, such as Dahlias and Begonias. Make sure to pay particular attention to the growing conditions around your home, including the availability of water and sunlight, and visit your local Lowe’s to browse through the 2009 Garden Club Select Flowers of the Year, a group of regionally-grown varieties that have been rigorously tested and are guaranteed to thrive in both garden beds and containers.

To make neighbors green with envy, ensure that plants and shrubs are well-nourished. While the three vital elements for lawn and plant growth — oxygen, hydrogen and carbon — are available from the environment, other important nutrients can be supplied through fertilizer. Sta-Green’s 14 Lb. Ultra Lawn Fertilizer (Item #304462, $14.47) will help keep all grass types, from Bermuda to Fine Fescue, healthy and flourishing. For specific outdoor plants, such as roses or rhododendrons, plant foods with targeted nutrients can help each variety bloom to its fullest potential.

Eye-catching lawns also require weekly maintenance to keep them in tip-top shape. If your mower has been in hibernation since last year’s growing season, prep it now for the busy months ahead with a few simple tasks. Installing a new spark plug, cleaning the filter and replacing last year’s oil and gas will have your mower up-and-running in a snap.

EasyBloom users receive care instructions for more than 400 additional plants, including Supertunias, Diamond Frost and Superbells

PlantSense Inc., maker of the EasyBloom plant sensor, announced today that it will expand its comprehensive online plant library through a partnership with Proven Winners^®, a leading brand of high-quality flowering plants in North America. More than 400 new plant overviews, photos and care instructions have been added to give casual gardeners a better sense of what they can grow in their backyard, home or office.

EasyBloom has already helped thousands of people create the beautiful garden they want. It’s as easy as “Ready, Set, Grow”: just place it in the soil for 24 hours, indoors or outdoors, and EasyBloom takes detailed “plant’s eye view” measurements of sunlight, temperature, humidity and soil condition. Afterwards, plug it into a Mac or PC and the data is quickly analyzed and matched to the library of plants on EasyBloom.com. A straightforward, easy-to-read report then explains which plants will thrive in that location, or how to help ailing plants already there.

With the Proven Winners additions, EasyBloom.com features more than 5,000 species of plants including flowers, trees, vegetables, herbs and shrubs. New plants in the library include the popular Supertunia, which is a drought-resistant petunia hybrid; the heat- and drought-resistant Euphorbia ‘Diamond Frost’; and Superbells, a Calibrachoa hybrid which is extremely low maintenance.

Each plant is searchable by name, color, height and season, plus special features including fragrant flowers, North American natives, good for cut flowers, etc. In addition, the library offers specific directions on how to care for each plant and what pests to watch out for.

“We are dedicated to helping people make expert decisions on what plants they can grow, and how to take care of their plants,” said Matthew Glenn, founder and CEO of PlantSense Inc. “This partnership with Proven Winners makes it even easier for our customers to make great choices, and explore all their possibilities for creating a beautiful garden with no fuss.”

Proven Winners plants are sold in just about every garden center in North America. The organization’s goals are to introduce the best, most unique, high-performing plants, to produce them under the highest quality standards, and to market the plants innovatively. As part of this partnership.

“EasyBloom is a natural fit for Proven Winners because we are both dedicated to helping gardeners succeed, and have fun doing it,” said Marshall Dirks, director of marketing for Proven Winners. “We are happy to be working with PlantSense to help casual gardeners, and hopefully introduce some new people to the joys of gardening as well.”

Priced at $59.95, EasyBloom is available at major online retailers including Amazon.com

ABOUT EASYBLOOM
EasyBloom takes the guesswork and frustration out of gardening by easily revealing which plants will thrive in any location, and how to care for ailing plants. Through detailed “plant’s eye view” measurements of sunlight, temperature, humidity and soil condition, EasyBloom allows anyone to enjoy a beautiful indoor or outdoor garden — from a single bedroom begonia to a backyard bed of roses. It was developed by PlantSense, Inc., a team of garden enthusiasts based in San Francisco. For more information please visit www.easybloom.com.

ABOUT PROVEN WINNERS^®
Proven Winners is a brand that encompasses all that is gardening. Annuals, perennials and flowering shrubs are marketed and advertised to help beginning and expert gardeners have success. In 2007, they celebrated their 15th anniversary and look forward to finding new and innovative ways to make gardening remain the #1 hobby. For more information, go to www.provenwinners.com.

“Your front entry is the first thing people see when they drive by your house, whether they make it through the threshold or not,” said Griffin. “For pure vanity, you want to express your style and make a welcoming statement. In addition, if your home is on the market, people make purchasing decisions very quickly after seeing your home. An attractive first impression will help potential buyers fall in love with it immediately.”

Fresh Front Door
For about $75 you can transform your front door into a knockout. Choose a paint color to match the architectural style of your home. A great example is to try a rich charcoal gray or even dark ebony on a modern home or a cobalt blue or striking red on a traditional home. Install a coordinating kick plate, dynamic door numbers and a door knocker, which are the diamond earrings of your front door according to Griffin.

Lush Landscaping
Consider potted plants instead of a full lawn renovation. Strategically place full, green plants like ferns into pots on your stoop or walkway leading up to the door. Ferns are about $10 each and you can find attractive pots for as little as $5. Be sure to coordinate your pots in the same material so the look is cohesive. Flank each side of your door with substantial topiaries at least four feet tall so you can see the tops of them from the street. This is a great option for apartment dwellers and condo owners who might not be allowed to paint the door.

Lovely Lighting
Lights should be functional at night but also look fantastic during the day. Replace standard flush mounted fixtures with lantern-style lighting for a chic addition and accessorize with pathway lighting. You can use CFL light bulbs in fixtures which helps save on energy costs and are an added safety benefit.

Furniture Flair
Space permitting, don’t shy away from adding outdoor furniture such as rocking chairs, tables and even lamps. Outdoor pillows in weather resistant fabric will add extra flair to punch up your front patio furniture. Pick a contrasting color for your furniture to accent the colors of your home. For instance, if you have white columns use dark woods to make them stand out.

For more tips on upping your curb appeal, visit Lowe’s stores in the United States and Canada or Lowes.com. Watch Griffin give her tips at LowesCreativeIdeas.com/frontdoor.

About Lowe’s
With fiscal year 2008 sales of $48.2 billion, Lowe’s Companies, Inc. is a FORTUNE(R) 50 company that serves approximately 14 million customers a week at more than 1,650 home improvement stores in the United States and Canada. Founded in 1946 and based in Mooresville, N.C., Lowe’s is the second-largest home improvement retailer in the world. For more information, visit Lowes.com.

This is definitely one of the coolest, green innovations that I didn’t see coming. Its a great idea, albeit impractical for small homes and yards, or very cold climates for that matter (however, they have installed some in Canada). Its from Portable Farms™. You can order a kit as small as 6′x8′, which will grow about 400 vegetables and 100 pounds of fish in a year.

There are larger kits available. According to Portable Farms, once a system is up an running, it takes about five minutes of maintenance per day, plus a monthly draining of the system.

During this sour economy you can grow your own food and feed your family and friends organic vegetables and high-quality protein every single day of the year from a Portable Farm™ at your location with minimum water, no soil and very little electricity or maintenance. They can also be Solar Powered.

Growing the fish is probably the most intriguing part of this concept. The fish will naturally provide nutrients to the plant matter. The plant matter absorbs the excess, essentially cleaning the water for the fish. The kit provide most of what you need to run the system. In order to setup you’ll have to pickup parts, such as the gravel and tanks locally. Also, cold climates would want a greenhouse and heating in winter. Solar powered assistance could keep this a truly eco-friendly solution for northern climates.

Davis has been refining his invention for 37 years to reduce the chronic problems of waste sediment in the fish tanks and grow trays. He recently created a new water-circulating system that solved all the clogging problems in the fish tanks and gravel-filled trays making it possible for the system to automatically remove the sediments to grow healthier fish and vegetables. The new system made it possible to fully automate the farm by circulating warm, nutrient-rich water throughout the system, using all his own unique engineering and technology, so that anyone, anywhere, could raise their own food and become self-sustaining. The farm does not use any fertilizers or pesticides, and requires only 3 minutes per day for maintenance.

Portable Farms LLC
http://www.portablefarms.com

Nothing says home sweet home quite like a meal made from scratch, so start reaping what you sow and incorporate homegrown ingredients into your favorite dishes. Creating an edible garden harvests other great rewards too, including taking a load off of your wallet and saving you a trip to the grocery store. Plus digging in the dirt can be a great stress reliever and just plain fun for the whole family.

Popular herbs, fruits and vegetables like tomatoes, corn, cucumbers and onions are easy to grow in your own garden and are flavorful alternatives to store-bought varieties. Herbs can grow almost anywhere in nearly anything that will hold soil and water. All you need is a good pot with adequate drainage, great potting soil, fertilizer and seeds. This makes herbs an ideal choice for small-space gardens and shallow planters placed in a greenhouse window or hung a few steps from the kitchen door. With all of the pot choices available from traditional terra cotta to modern stoneware beauties, expressing your decorating style can be rooted in every corner of your home. For all your planting information needs, including tips, projects and specific plant information, visit Learn2Grow.com.

Take your green thumb from the garden to the stovetop and fill your belly with tasty recipes from MyRecipes.com. Try the Sliced Tomatoes with Corn & Basil recipe for the perfect spring treat or the refreshing Cucumber & Onion Salad recipe for a great addition to any get-to-together. (Fun tip: Place a whole egg in its shell in the soil beneath your tomatoes to help nourish and feed them.) Sit back and sip on Iced Orange-Mint Tea to indulge in your hard work. The beverage puts an interesting twist on a summer classic by combining the sweetness of citrus with the crisp refreshment of mint.

If you’re a pro with an already extensive edible garden, create a stunning twist by growing oversized flowers and produce to welcome back spring. Larger-than-life sunflowers, pumpkins and cabbages are sure to add a festive element to your plot. Launching on March 4, LowesCreativeIdeas.com/GiantGarden will have plenty of articles, blogs, photographs and interesting tips on how to harvest a massively fruitful garden, because bigger is definitely better.

For more information and tips on edible gardening, visit Lowe’s stores nationwide and in Canada or Lowes.com and LowesCreativeIdeas.com.

With 30,000 plants available for purchase online, PlantScout, at Dave’s Garden is a great tool to find the plant you’re looking for. Launched in 2004, this innovative plant finder is the only tool of its kind in North America and has helped over 750,000 gardeners find sources for their must-have new plants.

Each year, millions of visitors and members turn to Dave’s Garden for real-world experience and advice from their fellow gardening enthusiasts. A large percentage of visits to this informational website are by gardeners on the hunt to find a particular plant.

Now entering its sixth gardening season, PlantScout lets members and visitors find sources for 30,000 plants available from 160 reputable mail order sources. In 2008, gardeners used PlantScout over a million times to successfully locate sources for plants they were seeking to buy.

“PlantScout is so popular with gardeners because it’s exactly what they need to find a source for every plant, seed, and bulb they want to buy,” says Dave Whitinger, founder and developer of Dave’s Garden. “It’s also a hit with the mail order community because it is extremely cost-effective and easy to participate in PlantScout.”

The top 10 purchased plants to date from PlantScout are:

1. Miracle Fruit
2. Queen of the Night
3. Sweet Olive
4. Corkscrew Hazel
5. Purple Passion Flower
6. Night Blooming Jasmine
7. Silk Tree
8. Corkscrew Vine
9. Sweet Shrub
10. Fringe Tree

ABOUT DAVES GARDEN – Dave’s Garden is the largest community site on the web for friendly and knowledgeable gardeners to research the latest gardening techniques and products, share their expertise, and interact with others who share an enthusiasm for gardening.

As we head toward March, thoughts of spring and the outdoors enters our minds. It is time to get the outside of our home ready. One of the most visible features is your lawn. True Green gives us some helpful tips on prepping our lawn for spring.

Things to do:

• Rake the matted grass to remove the dead top growth and to allow new grass shoots to develop. No need to completely remove the thatch since it helps protect against weeds.
• If grass is thin and soil compacted, use a mechanical aerator to remove small soil plugs or cores out of the lawn. If in doubt about aeration, remove a square foot section of lawn at least 6 inches deep. If grass roots extend only into the first 1-2 inches, your soil may be compacted and could benefit from core aeration.
• To treat thin spots, loosen the soil surface to a one-inch depth, spread grass seed over the soil surface and gently press the seed into the soil. Lightly cover with straw or seeding mulch to encourage rapid seed germination.
• Determine which fertilizer will give your lawn the boost it needs. Take advantage of free services provided by local Extension Services and professional lawn care companies. Many will perform a free analysis to determine your lawn’s overall health and treatment options.
  If you choose to fertilize your lawn yourself, use a rotary spreader to fertilize your lawn. Before you start, check the calibration to ensure accurate application. Avoid spreading fertilizer by hand because it is difficult to distribute it evenly and consistently. Water after you fertilize to help nutrients soak into the soil and reach the roots.
• Water your lawn heavily and infrequently. Turf grass should be watered so that the soil is wet to a four-inch depth. To determine the depth of soil moisture, push a screwdriver or a garden trowel into the soil. If it meets little resistance, then the soil is wet. If it does not push easily into the soil, then it needs additional water.
• Mow lawn at a correct height, usually between 2 and 2.5 inches in the spring, and keeping it as long as 3 inches in the summer. It is best to mow more frequently and cut less, no more than 1/3 of top growth with each mowing.
• Inspect your lawn mower blades. The sharper the blade, the cleaner the cut, and the better your lawn will look. If your blade is dull, carefully remove it and have it sharpened at a repair shop. Sharpen blades at least twice a season. If the blade is chipped or has other damage, replace it.
• After you mow, return grass clipping to recycle nutrients and reduce the need to apply added fertilizer later in the season.

For more spring lawn care tips or for specific concerns about your lawn, visit TruGreen.com.