When you buy flowers, shrubs and other outdoor plants, they often come packaged in plastic pots and trays that can be difficult to recycle. Whether you bought the plants from them or not, Lowe’s Home Improvement will take these plastic components and recycle them for free. To date, hundreds of thousands of pounds of plastic containers have been diverted away from landfills and recycled by the home improvement chain. Since most community recycling programs do not accept these types of plastics, this is an easy way to plant a garden and recycle the containers, too.

ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION

Has your workplace gone from business to casual? If you have a closet full of neckties and you’re unsure what to do with them, consider donating them to be made into quilts. The company Prairie Moon Quilts (prairiemoonquilts.com) takes all sorts of ties and sews them into new quilts. The all-volunteer upcycling group is called a “Necktie Social.” These quilts are donated to nonprofit groups to use for fundraisers and charity events to benefit their good works.

ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION

If your home is a popular spot for wasp nests, try this all-natural remedy before using chemical sprays and expensive repellants. First, wasps are not all bad when it comes to your home and garden; they eat invasive insects like flies. But to keep them far away from your home, try peppermint oil. Just soak cotton balls with peppermint oil and stuff them between cracks and crevices where wasps are prone to build nests. Wasps dislike the scent of mint so much they will avoid those areas. And never squash a wasp; killing one releases a pheromone that invites other wasps to swarm where the scent was released.

ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION