Hand-watering raised beds every summer morning is the gardening chore I always underestimated. By July, my tomatoes were wilting before noon, and my water bill was climbing faster than my pole beans. That’s when I started testing drip irrigation kits, and the difference in plant health and free time was immediate. The best drip irrigation … Read more
Watering a lawn by hand wastes time and money, and forgetting to adjust your schedule when rain rolls through wastes even more. The best wifi sprinkler controllers for lawns fix that by connecting your irrigation system to the internet and pulling live weather data to skip unnecessary watering. Our team spent three months comparing 12 … Read more
Hard water ruins everything it touches. I learned this the hard way when my water heater died at year six, and my showerheads looked like they had been dipped in concrete. If you are searching for the best water softeners for hard water, you already know the symptoms: white scale on faucets, stiff towels, spotty … Read more
If you’ve been thinking about ditching your old gas or electric range, this is the year to make the switch. Induction cooking has moved from professional kitchens into the mainstream, and the best induction cooktops for kitchens in are faster, safer, and more precise than anything we tested five years ago. I spent the last … Read more
Your climbing roses deserve more than a flimsy cage that buckles the moment a strong gust rolls through. After watching two plastic obelisks snap in our test garden and one powder-coated model turn chalky after a single coastal winter, we pulled together a hands-on roundup of the best obelisk trellises for climbing roses that actually … Read more
After spending eight weekends testing retractable hose reels across three different gardens, I can tell you that the difference between a good one and a great one shows up the moment you finish watering and let go of the hose. The best retractable hose reels for gardens disappear into your wall and come back when … Read more
I’ve spent the last three months testing expandable garden hoses on a 1,200-square-foot backyard, a small RV pad, and three different container gardens. After draining, dragging, kinking, and storing eight models across more than 90 days, I can tell you this: the best expandable garden hoses for watering in are not the cheapest ones on … Read more
Two years ago I lost an entire Saturday to a flat tire in my wheelbarrow. I was hauling compost across a thorny back lot, and a stray piece of barbed wire took out the inner tube while I was halfway across the yard. That frustration sent me on a months-long hunt for the best no … Read more
I remember standing in my friend Mark’s 900-square-foot living room last December, freezing despite his central heating cranked to 75. He kept pointing at a tall cabinet humming quietly in the corner and saying, “Just give it 20 minutes.” Twenty minutes later I was in a T-shirt, and I’d stopped shivering for the first time … Read more
I spent the last two summers installing and living with whole house fans in three different homes across Northern California, and the difference in my electric bills has been eye-opening. My July bill dropped from $312 to $87 after switching from AC to a properly sized whole house fan for nighttime cooling. A whole house … Read more