Transforming a Tarp into a Toss Game for Kids

For DIY fun for the kids, create a toss game with a tarp, duct tape, a felt-tip marker, rope and scissors. Invent a football toss game, or size your carnival midway-style game to fit sponge balls or spare tennis balls. Here’s how it work. Spread your tarp on the ground and use a pencil to mark squares through which the ball you choose will easily fit. Draw other squares with smaller openings for challenge tosses.  Cut out the squares, and line the openings with ordinary or colored duct tape. With your large felt-tip pen, write down...

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Protect Those Plant Seedlings With Tarps

Gardeners around the country turn to tarps when frost threatens their plants and delicate seedlings. Before a cold front moves in, build a simple frame and drape the tarp over the frame to prevent damage. The grommets on the borders of the tarp will allow you to secure the tarp with rope. If you don’t have time, you can gently lay a lightweight tarp directly on top of your plants. Using a tarp stops the loss of heat rising from the plants and...

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Create a Backyard Pond with Tarps

You don’t have to hire a professional to create a backyard pond. A tarp lining can help you create a shallow pool to fill with water and add water-ready plants. Those beautiful plants will also attract birds, butterflies and other colorful wildlife. If you’re on a very limited budget and don’t mind a temporary pond, water resistant tarps have been used as liners. However, water resistant tarps are not waterproof, so expect leakage. For a sturdier...

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Our Spring Cleaning Secret? Ordinary Tarps

Our family used to stock up on empty boxes and bags to fill with clutter before our annual spring-cleaning roundup. Old boxes and bags would be pulled from closets and garage shelves to be sorted into each new marked bag or box. The plan was to condense our piles then set upon the place with mops, vacuum cleaners and scrubbing brushes. By the time we had sorted and packed the new boxes, exhaustion inevitably set in. We’d declare defeat and shove everything back into the closets and onto the shelves. It wasn’t spring cleaning; it was...

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