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Clover lawns stand up better against dog and cat urine than traditional turfgrass. If your pets love to hang out on the lawn on a sunny day—or if you find yourself with a lot of visiting neighborhood dogs—you could save yourself from yellow and brown patches by making the switch to a clover lawn.

The best way to keep voles from tunneling in your yard is to keep grass trimmed and bushes cut back from the ground at least 5 inches. Cleaning up yard debris, wood chip piles, and brush piles can also help keep voles at bay. If you notice vole activity, you can also remove bird feeders since these are a ready source of food for the tunneling rodents.

Landscaping fabric can only help to prevent weed growth in the short term. It's not an ideal long-term solution because dirt will eventually make its way on top of it, causing weeds to sprout. These fabrics can also leave microplastics in the environment for many, many years, so pulling weeds using one of the methods in this guide as soon as you see them is a better long-term prevention strategy.

You should add 1 to 4 inches of mulch, depending on your garden type and needs. Keep in mind that no amount of mulch can completely prevent weeds, but a heavier coverage (closer to 4 inches) can suppress weeds enough that you are only seeing them sprout every few weeks. Finer mulch prevents weeds more effectively than large mulch, so if you’re using mulched leaves or shredded bark, 1 to 2 inches will likely suffice, while 3 to 4 inches is best for larger mulch, like bark chips or straw.