Earth smart

Think spring: The Burpee flower and garden folks hope to make lawn mowing a thing of the past as they introduce a technique for turning a grass lawn into a weed-free garden. The Lawnbuster is a three-step process started at least three months before planting time. The environmentally friendly process uses wet newspapers covered with 2 to 3 inches of composted wood chips to cause grass roots to decompose. The process leaves the soil soft for planting weed-resistant plants. The instruction kit contains step-by-step directions and plans for a 6-by-12-foot perennial garden or a native meadow garden using about 40 plants each. Of course, they hope you will order your plants from them, promising shipment according to your climate zone on a Thursday or Friday in time for weekend work. $4.50 at www.burpee.com or (800) 888-1447.

On the web

Duck, duck, decoy: Fans of a well-turned decoy will want to log on to www.christies.com, the famed auction house's Web site, to take a gander at the collection of the late outdoorsman, photographer, writer and collector Russell B. Aitken. The collection will be auctioned Jan. 18 in the Rockefeller Center salesroom in New York. More than 350 carved decoys by renowned artists include a rare pintail drake (pictured) by Elmer Crowell and a red-breasted merganser hen and drake (both estimated at $300,000- $500,000) by Lothrop Holmes. But faint of wallet, take heart. The sale also promises a "wide" selection of contemporary and antique decoys under $1,000. More information at www.guyetteandschmidt.com, site of the world's largest decoy auction firm.

By design

Silver rules: The color silver spreads its reign from America's kitchens and living rooms into the garage, thanks to its correlation with high-tech equipment. The color, which has displaced brass and the gold-tone metals in kitchen hardware, appliances, lighting and plumbing fixtures, has reached a three-year peak in popularity for vehicle color trends, according to the 50th anniversary edition of the DuPont Automotive Color Popularity Report. Its desirability is almost twice as high as in the late '70s, when it last led color ranking trends.

In North America, silver topped color selections for luxury, full-size, intermediate and sports/compact vehicles, followed by white, then black. White topped the charts in light trucks, vans and SUVs.

Post-holidays: Is your carpeting looking sad after all the holiday eating and partying? Here are tips from the experts who make Wear-Dated carpet fiber:

• Vacuum non-traffic areas at least once a week.

• Vacuum light-traffic areas twice a week, and make three passes over each area.

• Vacuum moderate-to-heavy traffic areas two to five times a week, making five passes over each area.

• Vacuum more slowly over heavily soiled areas. This allows the vacuum cleaner to suck up particles embedded deep into the carpet.

Contact Joy Kraft by phone: 768-8467; fax: 768-8330; e-mail: jkraft@enquirer.com.