Before you can fully harness the power of your own organic garden, you need to understand what it takes to make the soil rich and nourishing. Making your soil ideal for growing vegetables, plants, flowers and the like requires a blend of elements all working together to maintain the essential environment. Instead of relying on the basic soil in your yard, infuse your garden with one or more of these soil amendments to truly bring your organic setting to life.
A sign of a lovely, well-cared for home is a bright colorful lawn shining like a beacon, inviting people right to your front door. However, the ability to keep your lush green lawn looking spectacular becomes far more difficult when you have dogs. Here are a few tips for stepping up your grass maintenance and keeping Fido and friends from creating a pattern of lawn brown spots around your living space.
Spring and summer bring with them warm temperatures that draw you outside into your yard as you entertain, barbecue, or just relax on your patio as you watch the kid run around in the grass. One thing all of these activities have in common is your yard. That is why you want to create a yard that can stand up to all your summer celebrations. Lawn care experts offer the following tips to help you keep your yard party ready:
Garden soils become depleted of nutrients as the naturally occurring vitamins, and minerals are drained from the dirt by weeds, plants, and trees. Soil erosion can further deplete the natural ability of the earth to hold onto water or to drain water away. When the soil becomes compacted or nutrient depleted, it is time to add soil amendments.
There has been increasing concern among homeowners and businesses about the type of materials used to cultivate desirable green spaces. However, there is also a lack of true understanding of just how much current practices are out of sync with natural practices that could truly provide the lush, fertile, well-maintained lawns that are sought. This is being recognized by many lawn care companies, which are moving toward organic and sustainable practices, as well as educating their customers on how to implement them.
It may be difficult to know how to act around landscaping contractors since they work fully outside of your home. What will they be expecting and what would you prefer they not do? Setting ground rules early is the best way to keep a job running smoothly with no altercations. These tips will help you get a feel for what the typical client to professional relationship is like.
Hiring landscaping contractors can be a daunting project. How do you know you’re getting the best service for your money? You want a yard that will turn heads and make you happy for years to come. Try these tips for choosing the best design firm for your needs.
Think Things Through
Common organic mulch includes shredded bark, bark chips, wood chips, pine needles, hay, leaves, compost and grass clippings. Common inorganic mulch includes stones or gravel, black plastic which are typically used in vegetable gardens and rubber chips which are better used as a safety surface in playgrounds than plants or in the landscape. [Read more…]
Getting ready for outside activities, whether it be hiking through a state park or playing in the backyard, means being prepared for ticks. Before you venture into the great outdoors, take some time consider pest control, specifically, tick control. In most states, the peak tick season runs from April to September, and it is during this time that humans and pets are at the highest risk for contracting tick-borne illnesses.
For most of the year, your lawn’s health is easy to ascertain. In winter, however, once snow has fallen, you simply have to hope that all your tender care in the previous months will be enough to get your landscaping through to spring. Despite your best efforts, though, your grass doesn’t sit dormant under the snow and sometimes you have to treat your lawn for snow mold disease.
