When it comes to gardening, a lot of questions come up, including the best way to keep pets away from plants, maintaining your lawn and keeping the dandelions at bay.

Here are some gardening questuions and answers:

What is the best way to keep out cats and chicken form playing on your plants?

Aside from using physical barriers, such as physical wires or fencing, you can plant some deterrent plants, including rosemary, lavender and citronella, Colin Matassa from Robert Plante Greenhouse told CTV Morning Live’s Stefan Keyes.

“Plants that have a bit of a stronger odor, stronger scent, they don’t like it as much,” Matassa said.

He adds that not only those plants do the job, but also they look nice in the backyard.

You can also use something called “Blood Meal,”  which is a gray powder you spread on top of the soil, recommends Matassa.

“They don’t like the smell of that either,” he added.

He also recommends putting a layer of mulch in your garden, noting that this would make the soil less attractive for cats and chickens.

“They can’t dig through it much easily,” he said.

Is it too early to overseed an established lawn?

Now is the perfect time to start overseeding your lawn, he says.

“No, it’s not. It’s the perfect time to do it. The temperatures are nice. The ground is warming up,” he said.

Matassa notes that it’s also important to make sure you use a high quality grass seed.

And when it comes to watering your lawn, he wants you to water everyday for two weeks until the seeds germinate and the grass starts to grow.

“After that, you can cut back. If it’s raining, you don’t need to water at all,” he added.

Overseeding is the process of adding grass seed to the lawn without turning the soil.

How do I get rid of dandelions on my yard?

If dandelions keep coming back, you have to manually remove them, Matassa says.

“So, get rid of them. You can use little gardening tools to pull them out manually,” he said.

Another thing you can do, is to use a specific spray to hinder their growth, he recommends.

“You can also use the weed be gone spray to help you get them out,” he added. “(It) targets the dandelions. It won’t  kill the grass that’s around it.”

Maintaining a healthy lawn, keeps the dandelion away, he says. And to do so, you can use a lawn fertilizer.

“Because if your lawn is healthy and lush, it’ll out compete the dandelion,” Matassa said.

Copenhagen, Denmark –

Ever since humans have journeyed to space, their meals there have proved to be, well, nothing to write home about.

But that could change after a Michelin-starred chef teamed up with the Florida-based startup Space Perspective to take fine-dining to our upper atmosphere in late 2025.

Six guests are set to ascend aboard Spaceship Neptune to the stratosphere, where they will enjoy an immersive dining experience served up by Danish Michelin-starred chef Rasmus Munk.

Munk, 33, will travel with the guests and serve the meal himself, from a small kitchen. He says his menu will be inspired by the impact of space innovation

“We want to tell stories through the food,” Munk says. “We … want to talk and highlight some of the research that’s been done through the last 60 years.”

“I think that will make an even stronger impact when you’re up there and looking down,” added Munk, who will fly with the six ticket buyers.

Spaceship Neptune is more of a balloon than a rocket. The company says its pressurized capsule, attached to a balloon, will lift to an altitude of around 100,000 feet (30,480 metres) above sea level where guests will dine while watching the sun rise over the curvature of the Earth.

Organizers are promising an out-of-this-world experience for those with an appetite for adventure. But such an astronomic menu comes with a fittingly astronomic price tag — US$495,000 per ticket.

Organizers say the trip will last six hours and that they are they are still in discussion with potential participants.

It’s one of the latest offerings by private firms that include Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, and SpaceX

The flight won’t technically reach “space” — Spaceship Neptune will ascend to around 19 miles (30 kilometres), well below the Karman line, the boundary separating Earth’s atmosphere and outer space, which is some 62 miles (100 kilometres) from Earth.

Munk’s menu is expected to be a far cry from meals eaten by past and present astronauts.

The first man in space, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, squeezed beef and liver paste into his mouth from an aluminum tube.

To save on weight, astronauts aboard the International Space Station usually dine on dishes packaged in rehydratable containers, including soups and casseroles.

There have been some exceptions. In 2006, French master chef Alain Ducasse created special gourmet food that could be used for celebratory meals aboard the ISS. The tinned dishes included typical Mediterranean ingredients, such as olives, tomatoes, quails and swordfish.

Though Munk is mysterious about his menu, he says he’s planning to incorporate glow-in-dark stars made from aerogel and jellyfish protein.

“We are also working on an edible piece of space junk from a satellite,” he said.

“And then, we want to talk about some of the things going on on the planet … from deforestation to temperatures rising and the garbage in our seas,” he added.

Munk’s Alchemist restaurant in Copenhagen, the Danish capital, has held two Michelin stars since 2020, and last year was ranked fifth best restaurant in the world.

Guests dine on a menu of 50 edible “impressions,” and the experience is accompanied by performers and installations, all set in the restaurant’s own architecture — a former theater set building workshop in Copenhagen.

At the restaurant’s center is a large planetarium dome, where guests eat surrounded by projections of Earth seen from space, oceans, forests, even a beating heart.

“I think fine dining, in general, is changing a lot,” Munk says. “And I think you, as a guest, require more an experience in the future.”

Danish food and wine writer Rasmus Palsgaard says gastronomy is becoming more about the experience, and less about what’s on the plate.

“More wealthy people or big companies have a desire to really create something special that is more than a meal,” he says. “It’s about much more than just the food being served in front of you.”

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Even when you are lucky enough to start with an empty room, it can be overwhelming to design an interior that you can enjoy for years to come. Following some basic interior design principles, you can transform your space into a relaxing room you will be comfortable and happy with. Decide what your focal point will be and build out from there.  For best results, keep proportion and scale in mind as you decorate as well as these tips!

 Deciding on Your Focal Point
Do you have a magnificent bay window with an incredible view?  Is there an ornate mantle that is the reason you fell in love with your home? Or is there something you absolutely MUST HAVE in the room? Situate your furniture around your chosen focal point to create balance and equilibrium. If your room does not already have an existing focal point, create one with oversized art or add an accent point like a free-standing fireplace, they come in a variety of sizes and styles. Symmetrically balance the room evenly so that both sides mirror one another.  This will help your chosen focal point stand out all the more! Use matching accent tables to flank your sofa or use different pieces of furniture to create a copacetic visual impact, like two similar armchairs to balance a sofa.
Repetition for Rhythm
Rhythm creates a flow and helps direct the eye to the differing visual elements in your room. Just as the notes of a favorite song repeat to create the rhythm, repetition in decor will create a rhythm throughout a home. Establish visual interests with a rhythm throughout your space by placing similar colours or patterns at intervals and repeat in artwork, cushions or area rugs.

Perfect Proportion and Suitable Scaling
Who doesn’t love a large, overstuffed chair? But if your room is on the smaller size it may look out of place and make your room seem even smaller than it is. Keep proportion in perspective. Proportion is the ratio between a piece of furniture and the size of a room. Scale is the size of a piece of furniture in relation to the other pieces of furniture in the room. A super large chair will overpower an apartment of loft size sofa or loveseat and create a sense of unbalance in the room.

Have your room humming harmoniously
Creating harmony will enhance how much you will continue to love your finished. Pull the room with a subdued colour palette for a pleasing, harmonious vibe.   together for a pleasing, harmonious look with a subdued color palette. You can also use a single colour for elements that vary in size and shape. Check out our blog on Doing White on White Right! for more tips!

What is the focal point in your room?  What is your best tip to find harmony and balance through your home?