Vibrant foliage isn’t enough to cheer gardeners this time of year as they watch their labors of love shrivel and suffer a crunchy brown death. But don’t hang up your trowel and become melancholy about your landscape just yet—there’s still plenty to do. It’s a good time to plant bulbs, trees and shrubs for spring and rejuvenate your lawn with seed, fertilizer and aeration.

The simple, nostalgic act of hanging clothes outside to dry, regaining popularity as an eco-friendly act, has become a full-blown political flap. On one side of the line, proponents of the right-to-dry movement say clotheslines are a green alternative to dryers, which are second only to refrigerators and air conditioners as the top energy consumers in most homes.