Tips on Cleaning a Water Feature, Defending Plants From Hungry Rabbits, and More

A quick way to clean the algae out of a garden water feature after a long, dark, and wet winter is to use a power washer. It only takes a few minutes to dislodge the long mats of algae, and the low volume of water that blows out of the nozzle doesn’t disturb even the smallest of rocks. Start at the top of where the water flows and work your way down to the bottom of the feature. This is a lot easier and more effective than grabbing the strands by hand and then using a brush to clean the rest away. You can see the difference in these “before” and “after” photos. I enjoy this a lot more than power washing the patio.

—Jeffrey Steiner, Albany, Oregon

There are a number of plants rabbits attack in the winter that they never even touch during the growing season. While there are some very good repellents, who wants to go out in a snowstorm to reapply?

The bunnies have (not so kindly) taste-tested my specimen plants—fothergilla, dwarf hornbeam, and variegated cotoneaster— so I’m proactive now. Using multi-tier, heavy-duty plant hoops as frames, I form and then cut chicken wire to fit snugly around the outside. I attach the wire to the hoops with plastic zip ties. Then I place these cages over the top of the susceptible plants before the ground freezes and the rabbits come looking for a meal. I pull off the cages in spring and then stack and store them intact, ready to protect my plants again in fall.

—Tony Fulmer, Arlington Heights, Illinois

To mark the placement of bulbs and seeds I’ve planted in the garden, I purchased a large bag of multicolored golf tees (the tallest available). I use the different colors to code what is planted. The tees slide easily into the ground near the seeds or bulbs, which makes it easy to watch