Expert Advice for your Lawn & Garden TV Host of Today's Homeowner^® and home expert for The Weather Channel

The potassium in wood ashes encourages strong stems in plants while the phosphorus in the ashes encourages root growth. Soils low in potassium often benefits from wood ash but be careful with acid-loving plants such as blueberries, rhododendrons and azaleas. To use wood ash safely, add a small amount to your compost pile.

Organic Landscaper Rachel DeToro offers these tips for natural pest management. Nesting boxes and food sources will keep birds nearby and they in turn will keep insects under control.

Even the most novice gardeners know the benefits of using compost in their gardens, but nobody wants to look at a compost pile. One solution is a pre-fab compost bin made of plastic.

Weeds popping up through paving stones or cracks in sidewalks can be a huge annoyance. Here’s a solution to stop them without back breaking work or toxic pesticides. Fill a spray bottle with household vinegar and spray it liberally on the offending weeds.

If you’re looking for low maintenance plants for your garden you don’t need to look any further than your own backyard. Organic Landscaper Rachel DeToro tells us that native plants are a great addition to the landscape because they are readily available and they require little special care since they occur naturally in the wild.

If you look hard enough you can find solutions to many of your lawn and garden problems “naturally.” The pungent aroma of many herbs acts as a natural insect repellent. Planting herbs like parsley or basil among your vegetables will offer them some protection from bugs and simplify harvesting a salad.

Roses love banana peels. They rot quickly, releasing minerals roses need such as calcium, sulfur, magnesium, and phosphates. Just cut them up and mix them in the soil at planting time or anytime you want to give your roses a boost. You can also make a banana peel tonic for use after the plants are established.

Mulching is a natural way to build up soil and add nutrients, but if you let your leaves stay where they fall they can create a natural habitat for pests and some diseases. If you put your leaves in a compost pile you may notice that many are still intact while the vegetable matter is broken down.

Organic landscaper Rachel DeToro tells us one of her favorite tricks for container planting is using seaweed as mulch. The seaweed can be rinsed (to remove salt and the pungent smell) and dried for use in potted plants.

Turn leaves into fuel for next year’s garden by shredding them before you compost them. Shredding one leaf into five or ten smaller pieces does several good things. First, it increases the surface area, giving microbes many more places to work.