You needn’t rely on noxious chemicals for lush and healthy grass

Corn gluten is the base of a natural lawn fertilizer that suppresses broadleaf weeds. WOW! Plus. $99.99 for four 20-pound bags. Gardensalive.com.

The ideal lawn, as weed-free as a putting green, may not be such an ideal after all—especially if it requires destructive fertilizers and pesticides, plus heavy watering, to achieve. Consider the environmental costs. Herbicides and insecticides not only do in pesky weeds and bugs, but they also kill the good guys: earthworms and microorganisms essential to the life of the soil, as well as pollinators such as bees. These poisons also threaten the health of humans: They have been implicated in cancers and neurological problems, especially in children under age 5.

Once the soil is depleted of its natural nutrients, what to do? Why, pour on the chemical fertilizer! Yet 60 percent of the nitrates in lawn fertilizers end up in our groundwater, damaging the health of ponds, lakes, and bays.

There has to be a more earth-friendly way to have a nice lawn. And there is. An organic lawn is actually easier on you as well as the environment. In time, a healthier lawn will automatically crowd out many of the weeds. Try taking these steps to kick the chemical habit.

Check out these three alfresco gizmos

Groove to your iPod inside and out with Eos' Wireless Home Audio System.	Eos' Wireless Home Audio System Listen to your favorite tunes while sunbathing thanks to the Eos, an indoor-outdoor wireless iPod system. Dock your iPod in the base station (which plugs into a standard outlet); your music will be beamed to four weatherproof speakers up to 150 feet away. Speakers also need to be plugged in. $299 (docking station plus one speaker); $149 (each additional speaker). In black, shown, and white. 877-465-3927, eoswireless.com.
Shine some light on the festivities with these colorful floating Solar Orbs from Hammacher Schlemmer.	Hammacher Schlemmer's The Place Anywhere Outdoor Solar Orb Light Float these water-resistant orbs in the pool or set them into the ground (aluminum bases included). A solar panel inside the 10-inch plastic cuties continually recharges itself; the units, which change colors from pink to green to blue, automatically turn on at night to provide eight hours of illumination. $40 each. 800-321-1484, hammacher.com.
The tiniest computer to date, this device slips right into a pocket or a purse.	Oqo Model 02 Can't bear to leave your work at the office? Now you don't have to—this mini computer goes wherever you go. Use the 1-pound, palm-size gadget, which runs on the new Windows Vista operating system, to wirelessly surf the web and write e-mails. The Bluetooth-enabled device runs various applications at once, so you can work on different documents; it also features a 60-gig shockproof hard drive, a 5-inch LCD screen, and a backlit keyboard. $1,849. 877-676-6688, oqo.com.

—Inspectress Gadget

A who’s who of Home bloggers

Hel-looo, anybody home?

You mean to say that you’ve been reading our blogs for months and haven’t yet figured out the real identity of Style Provocateur?

Oh, of course—you knew all along that it’s senior decorating editor Carole Nicksin. Me, too. But then, I work there and all.

And who else but Home’s VP/editor-in-chief (I mean, our really talented musical boss) Donna Sapolin could come up with the Room Whisperer’s darling list of tunes to redecorate by? Um, yeah, she has really good taste.

Then there’s BrickChick.

Right, I mean Carolyn Weber, senior building editor.

What about the rest of the Home Team?

Oh, they’re here, too. Want to meet them?

Sure…no, no, no, you always look great, and they’ll love your cute PJs. Well, maybe just throw on a robe or something.

Lend an ear—makeover inspiration is only a beat away.

I delve into color daily. I contemplate palettes to flesh out decorative schemes for rooms and shape shots for photography, and I review the tones we use for magazine layouts. I can safely say I’m a color person. But I’m also very much a music person—one tune or another is always cycling through my head, and I’m forever humming or singing.

Since both music and color inform the spaces I move through, I thought I’d share some color-driven songs to inspire your decor and fill your rooms with rhythm. The following lists cut across a wide range of genres and time periods. The selections range from riotous to subdued, but whether you’re listening pre-, post-, or during your design process, they’re sure to help define your sense of place and make you focus on the energy exuded by a particular hue.

Give a quick listen on your favorite music site and then download one or more before taking your next decorative step. —Room Whisperer

Open House: April 12-22

Tour our latest show home in Westport, Connecticut, and raise money for Susan G. Komen.—BrickChick

Urban Hardwoods Gives Local Timbers a Second Life

View the slide show

Jim Newsom always knew he was a “wood guy.” In the late 1990s, he began to salvage beached logs from the shore of Seattle 's Elliot Bay , turning them into decking planks. In 2002, he expanded his efforts and founded Urban Hardwoods. The Seattle, Washington-based company reclaims local fallen or diseased trees and, depending on their condition, transforms them into furniture, cabinetry, and flooring, or into raw lumber. The aim is not only to reuse the resource, but also to “reconnect people with creations from their natural environment,” Newsom says.

Kitchen & Bath Show Preview

The annual Kitchen & Bath Industry show in Las Vegas is almost a month away, but we’re already feeling the heat—and sensing a trend: Steam is on the rise. In past seasons, the powerful stuff (which unclogs pores, powers aircraft carriers, and speeds cooking in commercial kitchens) was added to residential ovens. (Check out 2005 Kitchen & Bath Awards and Buying Guide: Wall Ovens.)

And last spring, LG Electronics introduced the SteamWasher (click here for video demo), which features steam-assisted deep-cleaning wash cycles, as well as a 20-minute water- and detergent-free mode that removes wrinkles and deodorizes up to five garments at a time. This latter option is eco-friendly because it reduces water usage (you aren’t running a wash load) and dependence on chemically based professional dry-cleaning. Now two more appliance companies are following suit.

Whirlpool has added a 10-minute steam cycle to its popular front-loading Duet model, and Kenmore is introducing a similar feature in its Elite HE5 and HE3 Steam Dryers (shown). Available in September, the units require hookups to household water and are estimated to cost $100 to $150 more than similar—but steamless—models. —BrickChick

Why Does Adam Cvijanovic Paint Murals of Flying Houses?

Visitors view Adam Cvijanovic’s Suspension of Disbelief 2007, an 18-by-18-foot canvas being shown at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art.

A detail of the work.

Flying homes are a central motif in Suspension of Disbelief 2007.

When I first saw Suspension of Disbelief 2007, Adam Cvijanovic’s frescolike canvas currently on view at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MassMoCA), I was taken by its explosion of color and its content: a home, bedsheets, tires, flip flops, a container of Ajax, and other household objects whirling in a blue sky. I immediately thought of the coastal hurricanes and The Wizard of Oz.

The 18-foot-square work is part of the artist’s ongoing statement about the changing meaning of home in America. No longer are our homes safe havens, shielding us from harm and providing us with a sense of security. Rather, as Hurricane Katrina showed, they’re physically vulnerable structures, easily destroyed by an act of nature. But more insidious, our houses no longer root us to a specific place or community—at least not in these transient times, when everything is in flux, and it’s common practice to live somewhere for a few years and then move on, spurred by want or financial necessity. 

Ironically, Cvijanovic paints his murals on Tyvek, a flexible, protective wrapping used in home construction. But there are also practical reasons for his choice. “It’s cheap and transportable,” he says of the material. Since you can’t move a wall from place to place, making traditional frescoes isn’t an option; instead “the only plausible way to work is to have something you can put up and take down,” he says. As for materials, the artist uses a mixture of water-based and highly pigmented vinyl paints.

Suspension of Disbelief 2007 is on display at North Adams, Massachusetts–based MassMOCA through April 27. The piece is part of “Unhinged,” a two-person show that also features the work of photographer Peter Garfield. Cvijanovic has another exhibit, “Project Room: Studies for the Fall of Babylon,” on view through April 14 at New York City’s Bellwether Gallery. —Susan Weiman, assistant to the editor-in-chief

Options for Green Furniture Grow

Think Green. That was the biggest trend at this week's semiannual home furnishings fair in High Point , North Carolina. In this case, green is not a color trend, but a large-scale effort on the part of several furniture makers to incorporate eco-friendly practices, including the use of soy-based foam, recycled materials, and renewable species of wood.

“It's an ongoing green journey,” says Reyna Moore, director of marketing and sales, Norwalk Furniture. Currently, the company's numerous eco-conscious efforts include creating a new recycled-wire-and-steel coil system for sofas and chairs; using recycled materials in the cotton batting, fiber wrap, cardboard, and deckpad of its upholstered products; and switching from petroleum- to soy-based foam. All of this comes at no extra charge to the consumer, according to Moore, who hopes that eventually these practices could even yield savings. “Petroleum prices keep increasing, but the cost of soy should remain stable,” she says.