Amanda Blum

6 days ago | au.lifehacker.com | Amanda Blum

As the prices on groceries continue to rise, many people might be thinking of growing a vegetable garden for the first time. It can be a great idea, not just because groceries are expensive, but because getting to the store includes soft costs like gas, grocery bags, and time—to say nothing of how wildly empowering it can be to simply walk into your backyard and collect the food you grew yourself. The key to your success here is maximizing the space you have, because gardening has soft costs, too.

1 week ago | lifehacker.com | Amanda Blum

While the mop may still be a smidge off from perfection, that shouldn’t be a deterrent to getting the S10. Even if you have a truly great robovac, you still need a regular vacuum too, or a broom. There are just areas your robot won’t reach under. You also need a mop, because to get ground in grime and dirt gone, you need manual power to scrub. However, expecting your robot to be a complete cleaning solution is a recipe for disappointment.

1 week ago | au.lifehacker.com | Amanda Blum

If you grow vegetables in the summer, you probably grow tomatoes, and they’re often the first vegetable a budding gardener tries to grow. It's not a bad call—there’s nothing like eating a vine-ripened tomato you grew yourself. But not all tomatoes are created equally, and it can be confusing to decide which tomatoes to grow.

2 weeks ago | lifehacker.com | Amanda Blum

I’m frequently asked for recommendations on what robot vacuum to get. While I’ve got favorites, I usually respond with a list of features I’d look for. Each year, robots get so much more advanced that these features change. But if I were buying a robot vacuum tomorrow (or in the next big sale), here’s what I’d look for. Unless you’ve got wall-to-wall carpet, get a vacuum/mop comboGenerally, people shy away from combo products because each new functionality is an additional feature that can break.

2 weeks ago | yahoo.com | Amanda Blum

April is when gardeners need to start being mathematicians and professional organizers, trying to find space for all the seedlings that need to get into trays on time. It’s also the first time this year you’ll start succession seeding, both indoors and out. Succession seeding is one of the real benefits of growing your own seeds: It means you can grow one or two of a variety instead of needing the space for a whole six pack you’d pick up at the nursery.