Front door: A weekly look at adding beauty and utility to your spaces

On Saturday, outsiders can get an inside look at the Arts and Crafts detailing, rich oak woodwork and vintage light fixtures of several bungalows as part of the Twin Cities Bungalow Club Tour. This year's tour, which includes five houses, highlights an updated kitchen, bedroom retreats and a remodeled bathroom that meets American With Disabilities Act requirements while retaining its vintage charm. The event is from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. Pick up a tour map anytime after 10 a.m. at the first home, 2204 Dayton Av., St. Paul. Cost is $5. 612-724-5816; mail@bungalowclub.net.

If your mom has a green thumb, you might want to treat her to a trip to Como Park. She may not be interested in the recently returned polar bears, but two new flower shows will catch her eye. The summer flower show in the Sunken Garden includes roses, geraniums, Asiatic lilies, impatiens, and petunias in a kaleidoscope of colors. There also will be a special bonsai show by the Minnesota Bonsai Society. www.como zooconservatory.org.

We're impressed with all the eco-friendly features of HGTV's Green Home, a newly built New England cottage near Cape Cod in Plymouth, Mass., that will be awarded to a lucky sweepstakes winner. But what we really love is the bold red and white living room, charming wraparound porch and the well equipped outdoor kitchen. Best of all, the winner gets all the furnishings, plus $10,000 and a new GMC Terrain. For a TV tour of the home, tune into "HGTV Green Home 2010" with host Jamie Durie, which is scheduled on various days until the end of May. To enter the sweepstakes to win the home -- the deadline is June 4 -- go to www.HGTV.com.

From now until Labor Day, don't prune ash trees. Emerald ash borer, the voracious beetle that attacks and kills ash trees, is coming out of dormancy and will be active until late summer. Several counties (including Hennepin and Ramsey) also have instituted quarantines on firewood, ash trees and ash tree products to slow the spread of emerald ash borer. For more on the borer, go to www.saveourash.net.

Eating the landscape? More Minnesotans are doing exactly that these days, mixing food plants in with their ornamentals, in both beds and containers. It's called edible landscaping, and it's one of the hottest trends in gardening.