Many devoted gardeners are looking for ways to spruce up their gardens this time of year. Feng Shui is a great way to set your garden apart and incorporate it into your modernized lifestyle. According to the core principles of Feng Shui, everything consists of one of the Five Elements: Metal, Water, Earth, Wood and Fire. Keep the Five Elements balanced in your garden to raise chi (Life energy) and keep it flowing energetically. When choosing pots for your Feng Shui garden, keep the following guidelines in mind:
· Use planters and pots made of stone, metal, wood and terra cotta to incorporate some of the Five Elements.
· Double up on two Elements by placing clay pots inside metal containers or wicker baskets: clay is the Earth element, metal is the Metal element and wicker is the Wood element.
· When using colored pots, make sure the colors of the pots and the plants they contain work well together according to the Five Elements.

(Source: Jennifer Lawler and Holly Zeigler, Feng Shui Your Garden for Dummies [New York: Wiley Publishing, 2004])

With Memorial Day and Fathers’ Day just around the corner, ‘tis the season to bring out the barbecue! Make each grilling session enjoyable by following a few simple barbecue tips:

· Warm your meat before grilling. Remove meat from the refrigerator about an hour before cooking and keep it in a cool kitchen or garage. This will result in more succulent results!

· Be cautious with raw foods. Never mix your raw meat. Use separate marinades, separate cutting boards and separate containers to ensure contamination-free cooking.

· Keep the bugs away. Summer barbecues almost always mean pesky bugs. When barbecuing and/or eating outdoors, try lighting Citronella candles to ward off mosquitoes and other unwanted guests.

· Always clean up. You should clean your charcoal grill after each use by using a wire brush and warm, soapy water. A gas barbecue can be cleaned by simply burning off the grill for about 10 minutes.