Give your place a Scandinavian vibe with textiles, accessories and furniture pieces

The natural shape of this stunning flowering tree is usually flat-topped or domed. Therefore, pruning is not needed for it to form its natural shape.

Terence Conran is a British designer, author, developer and entrepreneur who already has plenty of professional titles to fill a business card, but he could probably add “amateur philosopher” to the list. This sideline talent emerges in the introduction of his latest book, How to Live in Small Spaces. As the title suggests, the book deals with home designs and strategies for square footage at the lower end of the scale. No mega-mansions on these pages, which instead feature homes modest in size but rich in livability.

Shake things up in the backyard this summer: Cocktail gardening puts a new twist on edible landscaping.

When Key Biscayne’s Rusty Pelican restaurant underwent a five-month, $7 million remodeling in 2011, Derek Shambora received a call from a general contractor working the site.

Your dishwasher, sink drain and garbage disposal do the major dirty work in your kitchen, and you can keep them smelling fresh and running efficiently with a few easy steps.

DAP’s new Presto Patch simplifies structurally sound drywall repairs.

The neon brights that peppered the 1980s are back, in fashion and decor. Highlighter hues and glow-in-the-dark tints provide a shot of adrenaline after a few seasons of mellow, mushroom-y color palettes.

Three Floridians will bring their design sense to HGTV’s reality competition show, HGTV Star, when it returns for its eighth season at 8 p.m. Sunday. Striving for their own show on the network are Crisermy Mercado, 27, of Miami; Anne Rue, 41, of Lake Mary in Central Florida; and Tobin Green 36, of Tampa; along with seven other interior designers who hope to impress judges with their designs and performance in meeting unexpected challenges.

Use a snail bait with the active ingredient iron phosphate, which is available at garden centers. It’s much safer than other baits. Or you can make your own traps to attract snails, which make collecting and discarding them easier. But traps are generally only effective for short distances, so they need to be located where you are finding snails.

The natural shape of this stunning flowering tree is usually flat-topped or domed. Therefore, pruning is not needed for it to form its natural shape.

Use a snail bait with the active ingredient iron phosphate, which is available at garden centers. It’s much safer than other baits. Or you can make your own traps to attract snails, which make collecting and discarding them easier. But traps are generally only effective for short distances, so they need to be located where you are finding snails.

First, it is important to understand the difference between organic and inorganic mulch. Organic mulch refers to organic matter such as bark, wood chips, leaves, straw, etc. Inorganic mulch is made of stones, glass, ground tires and other materials.

The black mold is sooty mold, which is not a plant disease. It does however indicate that the plant has a sap-sucking insect infestation such as scales, mealybugs or aphids. Once the insects are under control, the sooty mold disappears. A fungicide treatment would not be effective.

Saving water is easier than you think! Most people overestimate the amount plants require. Keeping soil constantly moist or wet reduces oxygen in the soil, which is needed for roots to function. It also leaches plant nutrients from the soil, causing nutritional deficiencies (for palms, some deficiencies are lethal). It causes stress, which makes plants more vulnerable to disease and insect infestations. It increases weed problems. And most importantly, it wastes water. Remember, fresh water is a limited resource.

Your photo shows the tiny male flowers that are on a fruit-like structure that has rotted. After the pollen has been shed, this structure rots away. So what you are seeing is perfectly normal.

Your great images helped me diagnose the problem. Your lawn is most likely infected with brown patch disease. Read this fact sheet to make sure that the symptoms of this disease match up to the symptoms in your lawn: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/lh044.

Based on the photo you sent, your plants are infested with the rugose spiraling whitefly. It used be known as the gumbo limbo spiraling whitefly.

Amaryllis grow well outdoors in South Florida and a whole bed in bloom can be stunning.