DIGEST

• It's no crime to kill your grass

  

  FORT WORTH, Texas - When summer heats up and the weekly lawn-care chores become exhausting and expensive, the idea easily takes root: "Why not get rid of the grass?"

• Gardening for food, rehabilitation

  

  Nicholas Rowan, a 22-year-old from Philadelphia's Mayfair neighborhood, is doing time for violating probation. He doesn't want to tell the world about his original crime, and inside the greenhouse on Philadelphia Prison System grounds in the Northeast, it doesn't really matter.

• YOUR PLACE: Bad smells, cracked driveways, subflooring

  Q: I have been having a problem with the cabinet under my sink in the main bathroom. It has a terrible odor coming out of it every time I slide open the doors. (The was house built in 1959.) I tried cleaning it with different products, put charcoal in it to absorb the smell, and also one of those atomizers that have a pretty smell, but nothing has worked. Do you have any idea what causes this smell and what I can do about it?

• Magazine Ideas: Don't let mosquitoes be a buzz-kill on the porch

  Pesky mosquitoes can take all the fun out of sitting on the porch. With only two hands, it's tough to sip a summer beverage, turn the pages of a mystery thriller and swat bugs all at once.

• Lost in a bog: The fantastic garden of 'Lord Breaulove Swells Whimsy'

  

  It's very warm today, well into 80-degree territory. Nonetheless, Victor Allen Crawford 3d is dressed in a pressed linen suit and tie, long-sleeved shirt with French cuffs (and links), polka-dotted pocket square, the whole enchilada.

• HOME STYLE: Bottles that catch mice; rose names; regional linoleum

  Plastic water bottles can get a second use as humane mousetraps with a device called Catch A Mouse.

• Six eco-friendly paints that won't raise a stink

  

  We opened the lids on six eco-friendly paints, the kind made with fewer dangerous chemicals, or at least less likely to emit them.

• Grass vs. Grain: A beefy taste test

  Beef - it's what's for breakfast.

• Smokin' hot: Today's range hoods are not only functional, they're also good-looking

  A little embarrassed that you burned dinner again tonight? It's time to turn on the range hood to suck out the bad smell, one of the obvious signs of your kitchen misadventure.

• Check out this new sink made out of bamboo

  Eco-chic bamboo has been finding its way into floors, furniture, countertops and even bedsheets. Now it's been shaped into a bathroom sink.

• Interest in patio gardens is through the roof

  Interest in patio vegetable gardens and edible landscapes is going through the roof. We have known that this explosion was going on in Europe and wondered if it would hit here, too.

• Couple converts yard into low-water landscape

  For nine years, Louis Almaraz and his wife, Debra, watered their front lawn in Fresno, Calif., like any other homeowners. For most of those years, the couple often talked about changing their landscape - to something along the lines of a desert theme.

• 6 ways to decorate with books

  Rows of books crowding your home? Here are six new ways to display and decorate with books:

• Restoring ornate house is costly, but owners say it's worth it

  Roger and Edward Maki-Schramm weren't sure about the house on East Grand Boulevard in Detroit when they first saw it four years ago. The house had been subdivided into several apartments years before, and there was plaster damage and other concerns.

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