My choices are to use a reverse mortgage, sell my home, get a home equity line of credit (if I qualify; I can’t qualify for a home equity loan) or use one of the home equity investment companies you talked about in the column.

Hometap is one of the companies you talk about in the article, and they do business in California. I’ve been talking with them, but they are only available to me by phone or online. I like to have something I can hold in my hands.

Everyone I talk to has a different opinion of what I should do. Because of my age, I want the least complicated solution. That’s why I like Hometap, but am afraid of giving away a percentage of my home. I have no mortgage, no debt, and a credit score 825. But my income consists only of Social Security and the annuity.

Do home equity investments sound safe to you? It’s hard to find someone who knows about them besides the companies themselves, with whom I’ve been in touch only online. Can you help me?

There are three or four of these sorts of companies. We’re familiar with the two most well-known: Unlock and Hometap. Both companies seem to be growing quickly. However, they don’t lend in every state (for a list of eligible states, please check their websites).

In general, we like the concept. It solves a specific financial problem for people who need money to either pay off debt or pay off a co-owner of the home or former spouse. The reasons some homeowners would consider alternative financing offered by these companies is that homeowners might have low-interest mortgages and these homeowners don’t want to get rid of them. Other homeowners might be stuck with their existing loans and can’t refinance because of a credit or debt issue or they might have an employment or income issue.

But, they’re an expensive alternative to a home equity loan or line of credit, or even a reverse mortgage. When you sign up with one of these companies, they do not just take a percentage of appreciation. They take a percentage of your home’s entire value. This distinction is everything.

You won’t owe anything annually to these companies because they now own a percentage of the property. You will still have to make your insurance and real estate tax payments. And, you’ll need to fix anything that goes wrong. Unlike a reverse mortgage, which doesn’t need to be paid back until you sell the home or move from it permanently, these agreements terminate after a certain number of years. At that time, you must pay back the outstanding amount either by selling your home or refinancing.

How much will it cost? If your home is worth $500,000 and you take $50,000 (10% of current value) worth of equity, you will have to pay some sort of upfront fee of 4.5% to 5% of the amount you withdraw, plus you will hand over between 10% to 20% of the total future value of your home. So if it appreciates to $700,000, you’d owe $105,000-$140,000 on that $50,000 you received. Think of these products as having an equity partner in your home. You still control the property, but the company receives, in some cases, 20% of the sales price (not the equity) when you cash out.

To determine what the company would get, you’d need to go through the numbers with them or visit their website and view the examples. None of these home equity arrangement companies have offices you can visit. As you’ve discovered, it’s all done online or over the phone.

You could sell, but the advantage of staying is considerable. If you sold your home, you’d face capital gains taxes of up to 23.8% on appreciation above $250,000, which is the amount of profit you can keep tax-free. You might also have to pay taxes on the profit to the state in which you live. Then, you’d need somewhere to live, and California rents are expensive. You could run through all of your equity in 10 years.

In terms of cost, the cheapest solution to your cash flow problem would be to get a home equity loan or line of credit. But if you can’t qualify for one, and it would defeat the purpose of having to pay back the money, then that’s out.

The next best option would be a reverse mortgage. Available to those who are 62 and older and who own their own home (or have a very small mortgage), these loans have upfront expenses that can be built into the loan. The homeowner can tap their equity in the form of a lump sum, annuitize the equity, or do a line of credit that can be pulled from as needed. When you die, or sell the home, the outstanding balance is repaid. What many people don’t like about reverse mortgages is that there is typically little, if any, equity left for heirs.

You can talk to a HUD housing counselor about whether a reverse mortgage is right for you. And, then look at whether selling your home, doing a reverse mortgage or using a home equity product is your best financial choice going forward.

Ilyce Glink is a financial journalist and book author and Samuel J. Tamkin is a real estate attorney. ThinkGlink.com

When looking to infuse a sense of timelessness into your home décor, one simply can’t go wrong with neutrals. Neutral colors remain one of the biggest design trends. Neutrals can be used to create interiors that are warm and layered and can be used as the cornerstone for sophisticated interiors.

Looking to infuse neutral colors and tones into your home? Here are some top tips.

Start with a foundation

Choose a neutral paint color for larger areas such as walls, flooring or large furniture pieces.

Layer shades

Mix warm and cool neutral, such as beige, taupe, gray and ivory, to create dimension instead of relying on a single flat tone.

Focus on texture

Materials such as bouclé, linen, rattan, stone and wool all add richness and keep neutrals from feel bland or uninspired.

Add natural materials

Textures and materials such as wood, clay and jute pair beautifully with soft tones, grounding the look with an organic feel.

Play with contrast

Pair light neutrals like ivory with deeper shades such as black, charcoal or chocolate brown to create a sharp sense of contrast.

Use metallic accents

Brass, bronze or black finishes bring subtle glam without overpowering the palette.

Let there be light

Neutrals reflect natural light beautifully. Use sheer drapery or strategically placed mirrors to enhance brightness.

Bring in greenery

Plants can be used to help add a sense of calm and a healthy feature.

Add one muted color

Muted tones can be layered into a neutral room to help add depth and interest.

Invest in timeless pieces

Neutrals colors are timeless. Invest in larger pieces in neutral tones and update the look easily with seasonal accessories.

©2025 Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Q: We will be selling our home in the near future, and a neighbor a few doors down has expressed an interest in buying our home. She would be downsizing from a larger multistory home to our smaller ranch home.

If we each have our own real estate attorneys representing us, is it necessary to involve a real estate agent? Of course, an essential first step is establishing the value of our home. If we disclose to a real estate agent that we will most likely sell to our neighbor, will they want to invest their time if there is not likely to be a commission? Would it be simpler for each of us to pay for independent appraisals? Everyone’s new best friend, AI, suggested paying a real estate agent a flat fee for a comparative market analysis.

Your thoughts are greatly appreciated!

Well, the AI you used is giving you some good advice. But we suspect you’re only getting a partial picture of the information you need to get your home closed successfully.

We’ll start with whether you and/or your neighbor must hire a real estate agent to assist you if you and your future buyer both use attorneys to close the deal. The short answer is no.

Once you’ve found a buyer for your home, the two real estate attorneys can get together to put together a contract for the purchase and sale of your home. Once the contract is signed, the attorneys can do what is necessary to shepherd the deal through closing.

We note that in some states, real estate attorneys are not involved in residential transactions. When attorneys in those states are involved, they’re usually closing attorneys hired by the buyer or buyer’s lender or settlement agents. These closing attorneys or settlement agents do not represent the buyer or the seller but handle the paperwork for the buyer and seller. If you lived in one of those states and didn’t have an agent, you and your buyer could hire an agent for a flat fee to provide you with guidance and to answer whatever questions come up during the sales process.

Since you reference real estate attorneys in your question, we’re guessing you live in an area where attorneys help buyers and sellers close their house deals. Your attorneys can provide you with the documents and other paperwork you’ll need for the deal.

When it comes to value, agents are useful when it comes to figuring out what your property is worth (that’s the comparative marketing analysis), but they’re not the only source of that information. Websites like Zillow, Trulia, Redfin and Homes.com list recent sales prices and offer lots of information about homes that are for sale or have recently sold. Appraisers will charge you a flat fee and provide you with a report outlining how they came up with the value for your home.

In densely populated areas, you might have an easier time making that calculation. In large condominium buildings, homeowner associations, or even urban areas, you could look at comparable units that have recently sold that are in similar condition to yours and make an educated guess.

But if your home is in a development, suburb or rural area where fewer (or few) homes have changed hands, you might need the help of a third party to assist in valuing your property. Of course, you can talk to real estate agents and ask them for their opinion as to the value of your home. The most successful agents in each area possess a lot of detailed knowledge about the local marketplace and are generally thoughtful about how to price homes. You also can hire an appraiser to do the same.

Some appraisers are good, and some leave a lot to be desired. When Sam sees appraisal reports in his practice, those reports tend to support the exact value of the home in the transaction he is working on. The appraisers in those transactions know what the buyer is offering for the home, and the appraiser is there to make sure the values in the neighborhood support the contract price. In a rising or hot market, most homes tend to appraise out. If a market has stalled, or home prices are declining, then the buyer might be at risk of not getting their loan approved (assuming they need financing).

Regardless, you should educate yourself about how your home compares to other, similar properties in the neighborhood. You should know how quickly homes are selling, the pros and cons of your home and how it compares to others that have sold, and any other information in your neighborhood that may impact the value of your home going forward.

Agents like to say that pricing a home is more art than science. Once you’ve done your own research, and you have an idea of what your home may be worth, you can then decide whether you want to talk to a few local real estate agents to confirm the pricing range you have in mind or hire an appraiser. You may ultimately do both.

If you ask a real estate agent to spend the time to construct a comparable market analysis, you should be honest with them about your intentions. They may charge you for their time to do the report or not, with the hope that if your deal falls through with this buyer you may decide to use them and list the home.

(Ilyce Glink is the author of “100 Questions Every First-Time Home Buyer Should Ask (4th Edition).” She writes the Love, Money + Real Estate Newsletter, available at Glink.Substack.com. Samuel J. Tamkin is a Chicago-based real estate attorney. Contact Ilyce and Sam through her website, ThinkGlink.com.)

©2025 Ilyce R. Glink and Samuel J. Tamkin. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Q: I live in a 300-plus unit condo complex. There are two things going on in our condo that seem like inappropriate board overreach.

First, the new president has required that the Pledge of Allegiance be recited before meetings. But American citizenship is not required to own property in Illinois. Plus, reciting the pledge has nothing to do with condo business.

Second, the board president is bringing back piped-in Christmas music in our common areas. It stopped for a while. Most of our owners are Christian; however, many are not.

Is any of this unethical or illegal? It seems that one can go into one’s condo, and say the pledge or play Christmas music till they are blue in the face. Thank you for your advice.

We hear your frustration, and you’re right to question these decisions.

We’re not quite sure why the board president feels the need to have unit owners and board members recite the Pledge of Allegiance before board meetings. There are so many reasons not to do this. When you purchase a condominium, you may be a foreigner living in the United States. Or, owners may have different political views. You didn’t mention if the president of your board requires everybody in attendance to recite the pledge, but that can also be problematic for some owners.

To us, it seems like condo boards have enough issues to deal with when it comes to running associations. And yet, your board president is making questionable governance choices that could divide your community.

Here’s the thing: Your condo board has broad authority to manage common areas of the property and conduct meetings, but that power isn’t unlimited. Every action should serve a legitimate purpose related to maintaining property values, managing finances, or enhancing residents’ quality of life.

The pledge requirement? You’re right. That’s purely symbolic and unrelated to condo business. While a private condo association isn’t bound by First Amendment constraints the way government entities are, requiring this could make non-citizen owners and others uncomfortable for zero practical benefit. Board members can personally recite it before the meeting starts if they choose.

Association boards can decorate and play seasonal music in common areas, but exclusionary choices in a diverse community are tone-deaf at best. Many associations opt for “holiday” rather than specifically religious decorations, or incorporate symbols and music from all major religions, to respect everyone.

Your best move? That depends. You didn’t mention whether the building is run well, with everything else other than these issues going smoothly. We think that’s important too. Many associations are run poorly, and adding issues like these certainly makes it even more challenging to live in that association.

If the building is poorly run and you have these other issues to deal with on top of that, then rally like-minded neighbors and try to get everyone to attend the next board meeting. Request time on the agenda to discuss these concerns professionally and dispassionately. Review your bylaws — most require boards to act in the community’s best interest. If enough owners agree these policies are divisive and the board is doing a poor job, you can vote in new board members at the next election.

Document everything, stay civil, and remember: board members are volunteers serving all owners, not just those who share their personal beliefs.

Which brings us to our final point: If you don’t like how your association or condo building is being run, step up! Volunteer to help out. See how these things work from the inside out. We know that everyone is busy, but if you don’t make time to help out with the running of your association, you’re stuck with what you get.

Ilyce Glink is an author. Samuel J. Tamkin is a Chicago-based real estate attorney. Contact Ilyce and Sam through her website, ThinkGlink.com.

©2025 Ilyce R. Glink and Samuel J. Tamkin. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Do you wage a constant war against mold and mildew in your home, especially in your bathroom? You’re not alone. Millions of people fight this scourge, and businesses have tried to develop all sorts of products to slow or stop the growth of this ugly, black organism.

Your chances of slowing mildew and mold growth increase exponentially once you understand the basics of how and why it flourishes inside and outside your home.

Mildew and mold are very similar to fire. Have you given much thought to what you need to have a fire? You need just three things: fuel, oxygen and a heat source. Take away any one of those three, and you don’t have a fire.

Mildew and mold need just three things to grow: mold spores, food and water. Eliminate just one of those, and you don’t have mold and mildew. It’s pretty much impossible for you to eliminate mold spores in your home. There are millions and millions of them coating just above every surface in your home. You’d need constant, expensive filtration systems to capture these tiny spores. Only high-tech laboratories can afford this type of filtration.

You have mildew and mold food all over your home. Dust, grease, body oils, soap film, etc., are all excellent food sources for mildew and mold. You can eliminate these by doing a deep clean of every surface in your home. Who has the time for this? I know I don’t. You’d have to be cleaning like crazy each and every day.

That leaves you with water. Eliminate water and you’re golden. This is why folks who live in the desert or a very arid climate have fewer issues with mold and mildew than those of us who get lots of rain.

Let’s talk about hot, steamy showers. I’m talking about the ones where, when you exit the shower, so much condensation has formed on the mirror that droplets of water have run down the glass.

You probably think the condensation just forms on the mirror. You’re wrong. I’m sure you remember your high school physics class about dew points, right? All the surfaces in your bathroom are pretty much the same temperature as the mirror before you turn on the hot water. Exterior bathroom walls in cold climates are very problematic. The surface of the wall could be five or 10 degrees lower than the mirror surface!

This means that condensation forms on the walls, ceilings and all other surfaces in the bathroom in addition to the mirror. You don’t see the condensation because the surfaces are not reflective — but, believe me, it’s there.

I know you can’t eliminate water or water vapor in your bathroom. Your challenge is to minimize as much of it as possible to stop or minimize the mold and mildew you so dislike.

You can start with an excellent bathroom exhaust fan. Most homes have ones that do very little to exhaust the water vapor. The best ones will suck hundreds of cubic feet per minute of moist air and expel it to the outdoors. Never allow this humid air to dump into an attic space or out under a roof overhang. Install a roof vent or a wall vent outlet, much like a dryer vent, on vertical walls.

Keep in mind that these powerful fans must be able to pull into the bathroom the same amount of air they’re sending outdoors. This means you may need to crack the door a bit or install a new louvered vent in the bottom of your bathroom door. You can also keep the bathroom door open a bit, but this eliminates complete privacy.

In you live alone or are not overly modest, you might be able to shower with the bathroom door open. This will help send much of the steamy water vapor out into the rest of the home, where it mixes with drier air. I know this will make the bathroom cooler, but you can offset this by installing a radiant heater in the bathroom to keep you toasty warm in your birthday suit.

Here’s the hard part. Mold and mildew will not have a chance as long as you dry off all the surfaces in your shower area. A high-quality squeegee can help. You need to get all, or much of, the liquid water from the glass, tile or acrylic surfaces into the drain. You can also use old towels to dry off the surfaces. Do this, and I can almost guarantee you that your caulk and grout will never have a mold or mildew issue.

It’s easier said than done. You may still be in a sleep daze, or running late, and can’t take the extra minute it takes to dry off everything. I get it. You may want to install a vertical oscillating fan in your bathroom that you can turn on as soon as you have your robe on.

Do you have a shower curtain? Be sure to wave it back and forth to try to get water off of it. Don’t pull the shower curtain all the way across the shower area to make it look pretty. You need air to get into the shower. Keep glass shower doors open after you leave the bathroom.

Leave the bathroom door wide open after you walk out. Your goal is to have all the surfaces in the bathroom dry as rapidly as possible. Do whatever it takes to get the condensation to evaporate as fast as possible.

Subscribe to Tim’s FREE newsletter at AsktheBuilder.com. Tim offers phone coaching calls if you get stuck during a DIY job. Go here: go.askthebuilder.com/coaching

©2025 Tim Carter. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Are you surrounded by off-site storage businesses like I am? Within a 15-mile radius of my rural home in central New Hampshire, there are thousands of storage spaces in metal buildings one can rent for a king’s ransom.

Within the past few months, an enormous multi-million-dollar national brand opened a three-story storage facility near me. It’s got three loading docks for renters to store or retrieve their belongings. Just 1,000 feet away, a more traditional single-story metal building with 50-plus units came online in the past month. Times must be really good for people to have so many possessions that they have to store them at one of these places.

The most shocking thing is the cost to rent a space. Are you sitting down? A tiny 5-foot by 5-foot by 8-foot tall cubicle costs $90 per month. That’s $3.60 per square foot per month. A 10-foot by 15-foot by 8-foot tall space is $194.95 per month, or $2,339.00 per year.

The good news is you might have quite a few options to avoid these breathtaking monthly fees. The best solution depends on the size of your lot and your local zoning laws. Your existing garage, should you have one, may be a storage goldmine you’ve overlooked.

I found myself in a storage crisis 15 years ago. I moved from Cincinnati to central New Hampshire. My wife and I had 35 years of accumulated possessions, plastic bins full of cherished toys used by our three children, and lots of furniture. We moved from a larger house to a smaller one.

I had to rent a very large off-site storage space the day the movers arrived. We packed it full of all sorts of stuff. It cost me about $200 a month back in 2010. That same space today is now close to $350 a month.

My lot was large enough that I could build a large 16-foot by 24-foot free-standing two-story shed. I built this shed 13 years ago in my spare time. It only took about two months to complete it. You can purchase the detailed plans of my shed. The seventeen pages were drawn by an architect friend. Go here to get the amazing plans: https://go.askthebuilder.com/ShedPlans

The materials for my shed cost just over $10,000.00. It’s a deluxe shed that matches my house. It’s got a handy 6-foot-wide overhead door, a man door, skylights and two windows. I could have spent less, but I wanted the shed to look like it had been built at the same time as my home. I moved my possessions into the shed in 2012, and since that day, I’ve saved over $50,000 in off-site storage fees. You can save big money, too!

You may want to purchase a pre-built shed. These are built to minimum standards in my opinion, but one might suffice for you. I priced out a 12x10x7-foot shed that has a window and a large door. The cost is only $3,299.00. This shed, if maintained, might last for decades.

You can purchase larger pre-built sheds that can be delivered to your lot. Just be sure you check your local zoning laws before you sign a contract. It’s also important to anchor these sheds to the ground so they don’t blow away in a severe windstorm.

Your existing garage may have a tall ceiling. The garage at my son’s new home has a ceiling that’s almost 14 feet tall. This winter, he and I are going to build a loft with just enough headroom that he doesn’t have to duck up on the loft or underneath it down below.

I built a similar, smaller loft that was 4 feet deep in my last home. I made the bottom of the loft just 6 inches higher than the height of the hood of my wife’s car. She could pull forward and park the front of the car under the handy loft.

This small loft created 640 cubic feet of storage space from what was previously just empty air. Compare that to the tiny 200 cubic feet of space you’ll get with the 5×5 off-site storage locker for $90 per month! My loft only cost several hundred dollars to build.

Do an online search and you’ll discover all sorts of unique storage solutions for garages with taller-than-average ceilings. There’s one system I’d not recommend for my friends or family. This system requires you to install metal tracks on the ceiling. Large plastic bins slide into the tracks.

You need to be on a ladder to slide the bins into the tracks. That’s a very dangerous maneuver, in my opinion. You can lose your balance and fall off the ladder while lifting a heavy bin over your head.

Should you decide to build your own shed or buy a pre-built one, I urge you to watch a video I recorded years ago. The biggest mistake most make is buying or building a shed that’s too small. Empty sheds look spacious, but as soon as you start to put things in them, they shrink in size like a deflated balloon.

I show in my video how to place the things you want in the shed on your lawn or driveway apron. Boxes and bins are easy, as they can stack. But lawn mowers, wheelbarrows, snowblowers, bicycles, etc., can take up vast amounts of floor space. https://www.askthebuilder.com/how-to-plan-a-shed/

Once you have all the items placed on the ground, stretch a string around them, creating a rectangle or square. This is the minimum size your shed needs to be to hold all you have now. You’ll need a bigger shed if you add more to your clutter collection.

You can also de-clutter. I’m in the midst of doing that now. I take clutter to my town dump each time I go there with my garbage. My town has a wonderful “free room” in the recycling building. You can take just about any item there and place it on the shelves. Clothes, appliances, books, trinkets, games, you name it, can all be found in the free room.

Some residents retrieve items from the free room and sell them online. You can do that too if you have the time and energy. It’s easy to sell online, and you can turn your clutter into cash with minimal effort.

Subscribe to Tim’s FREE newsletter at AsktheBuilder.com. Tim offers phone coaching calls if you get stuck during a DIY job. Go here: go.askthebuilder.com/coaching

©2025 Tim Carter. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

With so many more people using cooking equipment on holidays such as Thanksgiving and Christmas, the risk of fire and related injury is significantly higher than on other days of the year.

“Cooking is the leading cause of home fires and home fire injuries year-round, and the second-leading cause of home fire deaths,” says Susan McKelvey, a communications manager for the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). McKelvey and Sharon Cooksey, a fire safety educator with Kidde (a manufacturer of smoke alarms and fire extinguishers), share their best tips to keep calm and cook on — flame-free.

1. Stay focused

“Never leave the kitchen while cooking on the stovetop. Some types of cooking, especially those that involve frying or sautéing with oil, need continuous attention,” McKelvey says. “When cooking a turkey, stay in your home and check on it regularly.”

2. Dress wisely

Form-fitting apparel is probably the last thing you want to wear while eating the feast, but during your shift of cooking, avoid donning any billowy or loose clothing. Fabric that’s far from the body could catch fire from an oven burner or other heat source, Cooksey says, and if you do happen to have long sleeves, push them up.

3. Say farewell to the fryer

The NFPA strongly discourages the use of turkey fryers, as these can lead to severe burns, injuries, and property damage. Instead, if you’re planning to serve a deep-fried turkey, look for grocery stores, food retailers, and restaurants that sell them pre-fried, McKelvey says.

4. Don’t overwhelm your outlets

“Overloading wall outlets or power strips may cause an electrical fire. Also, ensure that your cords aren’t frayed or have bare wires, which could present a fire hazard as well,” Cooksey says.

The NFPA recommends using one cord per receptacle outlet, McKelvey says, so aim to space things out if you’re managing several appliances.

5. Keep the kitchen a pet- and kid-free zone as much as possible

Keep your kitchen clutter-free and move any decorations, papers, food packaging, or cleaning supplies at least three feet from any cooking area, McKelvey says.

This “safe zone” also holds true for your little ones and furry friends. “Curious kids and pets can accidentally turn on stove knobs or other appliances, or knock over pots and pans. Nearly 1,000 home fires are started by family pets each year,” Cooksey says.

6. Keep cool if a fire does break out

If you spy a fire inside the oven, do not open the door. Turn off the oven and allow the contents to cool off before cleaning it.

“If flames do escape the oven, evacuate your home and call 911 immediately,” Cooksey says. “In the event you have a grease fire on the stove, don’t move the pot or pan. Extinguish it in place. Ideally, use a kitchen fire extinguisher to extinguish the flames, but if you don’t have one, use a lid or cookie sheet to safely smother the flames and don’t remove it.”

At that point, turn off the burner and let the pan completely cool. Never throw water on a grease fire, as it can make the fire grow. And, despite what grandma may have told you, don’t use flour, sugar, or salt, either. If you can’t contain the fire, evacuate your home and call 911 immediately.

(Better Homes and Gardens is a magazine and website devoted to ideas and improvement projects for your home and garden, plus recipes and entertaining ideas. Online at www.bhg.com.)

©2025 Dotdash Meredith. All rights reserved. Used with permission. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

You’ll probably need to wait until next year at this point. If you have the luxury of time, prepare in advance to have ample softwood by giving mature plants a light trim during the growing season. If the plant is already producing ample new growth on its own, this won’t be necessary. Mid- to late-summer is suggested as the ideal time to take cuttings so the stems have semi-hardened by then.

The late Dr. William Ackerman, plant scientist and camellia breeder, notes in his book “Beyond the Camellia Belt: Breeding, Propagating, and Growing Cold-Hardy Camellias” that the base of the cutting should be “beginning to harden and turn woody,” which occurs around mid-July and runs into early autumn in Maryland. I have read that the October-November timeframe is sometimes cooperative for taking cuttings, although in that case, expect rooting to commence only in spring.

Ackerman suggests an ideal cutting length of five nodes. Nodes are the points on the stem where leaves attach.

Rooting hormone can help speed up rooting, and some formulations contain a fungicide to prevent stem rot. Products come with different concentrations of hormone, and the later in the season cuttings are taken, the stronger the concentration will need to be. Keep cuttings out of direct sunlight. If they are being rooted indoors, try using bottom heat from a seedling heat mat or another mild source of warmth, as this will also encourage rooting. Even with all of those measures, it can take 6 to 8 weeks or longer for cuttings to root, depending on the time of year and the maturity of the wood used.

Propagation by grafting, air-layering, and seed collection and germination are also covered in Ackerman’s book, but taking cuttings is the most widely-used method. The genetics of any given seed may be potluck, so if you are trying to preserve the exact variety when you propagate, you’ll need to use cuttings or air-layering, since they produce copies of the same plant. The American Camellia Society has propagation tips on its Rooting Camellias web page.

Q: Twigs from my oak trees were falling a while ago, and both the trees and those pieces appear to be healthy. I thought they might have broken off along scars from old cicada damage, but it doesn’t appear so. Squirrels?

It could be squirrels, since they snip off twigs to repair or build their nests. If this began in summer, it could also be the work of twig pruner or twig girdler beetles, both of which chew off twigs. More than one of these culprits is contributing to the situation if it’s continued for several weeks.

Twig girdler females drop twigs with eggs laid in them in late summer or early autumn. The larvae overwinter and feed on the twigs until summer, when they mature. The cut ends look like a tiny beaver chiseled the twig, pointed in the center and sloped outwards to the bark perimeter. Adults can be attracted to light and sometimes congregate on a single tree, so think of this as one good reason to reconsider decoratively up-lighting trees at night.

Twig Pruner females lay eggs in twigs that are still attached, and it’s the larvae that sever the connection in late summer, dropping to the ground inside the twig. They overwinter in the twigs as pupae. These beetle adults are also attracted to light, so you may see some around a lit porch or deck door next spring. Their twig cut ends are concave, so the inverse of the above.

Both beetles are minor pests and don’t warrant control. If you want to try to suppress the next generation, rake up and compost the fallen twigs. Squirrels, you can’t do much about them, at least not using any tactic that works for very long, but fortunately, this twig tip loss won’t hurt a mature tree and can be ignored.

University of Maryland Extension’s Home and Garden Information Center offers free gardening and pest information at extension.umd.edu/hgic. Click “Ask Extension” to send questions and photos.

If you’re like most well-intentioned gardeners, you might give a lot of thought to planting the “right” plants to nourish pollinators and other wildlife, with nectar, pollen, seeds and fruit. But have you given much thought to those animals’ habitat?

In addition to sustenance, beneficial insects and critters need a safe home in which to rest, hide, breed and pupate.

One area crucial to their lifecycles is around the base of trees.

“We talk about the importance of (native) trees in creating the caterpillars that drive the food web,” Doug Tallamy, entomologist and bestselling author of “Nature’s Best Hope” and “Bringing Nature Home,” told me the last time we spoke.

“But those caterpillars drop from the tree and they pupate in the ground. And how we landscape under those trees determines whether or not those caterpillars will survive,” he said.

Giving caterpillars a ‘soft landing’

So, how are we landscaping under our trees? Raise your hand if your grass goes right up to their trunks.

Instead, Tallamy says, “we want uncompacted areas where we’re not walking, which means (planting) beds around our trees. If you’re mowing or walking under them, you’re squishing all those caterpillars.”

Caterpillars feed birds, which provide pest-control services in our gardens by feeding thousands of insects each to their young every year. Caterpillars are also a crucial food source for reptiles and spiders. And they themselves eat up garden pests like aphids.

Later in life, they morph into moths and butterflies, becoming important pollinators for flowers, fruits and vegetables. Creating a so-called “soft landing” for them, while at the same providing habitat for native bees, fireflies, beetles and other beneficial insects, is essential for a healthy ecosystem. And it’s easy to do in two simple steps.

How to do it

For starters, allow leaves to rest directly under trees, where they fall. Those pupating caterpillars will get cozy in their natural blanket, and you’ll get a break from raking.

Next, plant groundcovers and other plants under the tree’s canopy, which is the overhead area that extends along the width of the tree from branch tip to branch tip. “Choose plants that are going to support the food web, the ones that will share the most energy with other living things,” Tallamy advises.

That means opting for ferns, woodland phlox, sedges and other native groundcovers, shrubs and perennials.

Plug your ZIP code into the National Wildlife Federation’s native plant finder to learn which plants are best suited for your region, according to Tallamy’s research.

It can be as simple as leaving any fallen tree leaves where they’ve landed, except for sidewalks and driveways. If too many leaves smother areas of lawn, rake or blow them off the grass and onto garden beds or fallow vegetable beds – any areas with exposed soil or which need to be mulched to prevent erosion or discourage weeds.

Mowing leaves on a lawn chops them into small pieces that will fall between the grass blades and disappear. However, keeping the leaves whole provides more ecosystem benefits.

Studies by Dr. Max Ferlauto, a former UMD researcher and current state entomologist with the DNR, found that, over the long term, the soil retains more carbon when leaves are left on the ground to decompose. Releases of stored carbon contribute to climate change. Intact leaves also help insulate overwintering insects and provide shelter from weather and predators.

Shredding leaves hastens decomposition and settling. The leaves take up less space in the landscape, but at the cost of destroying hidden arthropods and making the end material less useful for other organisms. It isn’t always desirable to accelerate the decomposition of material covering the soil surface, as exemplified by the soil degradation caused by high populations of invasive jumping worms, which break down the natural mulch of the forest floor too quickly for some native plants to tolerate.

Not every gardener will have the room (or neighbor tolerance) to leave several large trees’ worth of fallen leaves in the yard. That’s OK – start small and keep leaves where you can, and rake extras into a pile in an out-of-the-way spot, where they will still provide some ecosystem benefits. If necessary, composting extra leaves to return their nutrients to the soil is still better than having them hauled away. You can share a leaf surplus with other gardeners, though I wouldn’t transport them too far, lest they accidentally spread invasive species with the debris.

How thick a leaf layer is too much for perennials being buried? I don’t think anyone knows on a species-by-species basis, but rest assured that plants adapted to forest conditions probably won’t get smothered. Tree roots are definitely adapted to dealing with a covering of the tree’s own leaves. Limit how much you cover species that grow naturally on more exposed ground further from the canopies of deciduous trees, such as moss phlox (Phlox subulata) or little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium). Eastern columbine (Aquilegia canadensis) and alumroot (Heuchera americana) grow in some shade in the wild, but primarily in rocky outcropping crevices that don’t accumulate many leaves. Otherwise, I would not be too concerned.

Q: I used straw to cover grass seed a few weeks ago. Do I leave it in place or remove it?

It’s fine to leave it, because it will decompose over the winter. This adds organic matter and nutrients to the soil, to the benefit of turfgrass roots. Besides, trying to remove the straw by raking it out runs the risk of tearing up the young grass, which might not have enough roots yet to withstand that.

We occasionally hear from gardeners who have weedy grasses growing in lawn areas that were covered in straw. If you find undesirable grasses sprouting in the lawn next spring, they are probably cereal grains whose seed contaminated the straw. In that case, don’t worry, since those grasses are not very tolerant of mowing, and after a few trims as the turfgrass starts growing again, those cereal grasses will die out on their own. Harder-to-control perennial weeds, like goosegrass, quackgrass, or nutsedge, could also be straw contaminants, and in that situation, try to identify them early so they can be removed before they establish and reproduce.