Home And Garden Improvements Online » Landscaping

How to Eliminate Clover in Your Lawn

Randy — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 22:41:04 +0000

White clover is one of the most common weeds in all the lawns in the United States especially where cool season grass is grown because in the 1940′s and 50′s they put clover seed mixed in with Kentucky bluegrass. I have no idea why they did this, but it caused the weed to spread like wildfire across the country. Clover generally shows up in areas that are nitrogen deficient. If you fail to fertilize your lawn, then you are more likely to get clover in the spring and fall months. Clover is a perennial weed which means that if you don’t address it you could end up with the weed indefinitely or a minimum of several years. It is also known as a broadleaf weed which means that it doesn’t look or act anything like real grass. It loves to live in moist and phosphorous-laden soils as well so make sure to water infrequently and deep. Clover is pretty dad-gum difficult to get rid of because it spreads by an extensive root system that stretches above and below the soils surface. It also spreads through seed as evidenced by the mid-century blunder.

Let’s explore how to kill clover in lawn and landscapes. Your best line of defense against clover is to practice good lawn care methods throughout the year. That means that you will need to make sure that you fertilize at least three times a year, water your lawn correctly (deep and infrequent), and make sure to mow your grass at the correct height to avoid scalping. If you already have these weeds present in your landscape, then you will need to implement some kind of control. You can obviously simply pick the weeds from the grass, but this is the most labor intensive solution. There are also postemergence herbicides that can kill clover. If any clover comes back after treatment, you can always spot treat it.

5 Reasons to Use a Lawn Roller or Soil Roller

Randy — Sat, 22 May 2010 05:24:03 +0000

A lawn roller is a polyethylene, steel or concrete cylindrical barrel weighted with water or sand that is pulled or pushed over the ground, primarily to create an even surface. These are the five main reasons to use one.

1. For a Level Lawn. A lawn roller will create a smooth and level surface to place the sod or grass seeds, which will make the new lawn even and improve its appearance. It also can correct the dips and bulges that develop from rodents or frost-heaving (the result of winter freezing and thawing of the ground).

2. When Laying Sod or Grass Seed. When putting in a new lawn, a lawn roller is also rolled over the sod or seed once they have been put down. It also so helps to use in conjunction with a lawn aerator. This helps sod roots get more deeply into the ground and increases how quickly the lawn will be growing and thriving. Seeds will germinate faster and better if they are well into the soil.

3. For Lawn Repairs. Besides using lawn rollers to even out a lawn after freezing or pest damage, they are used when patches of the lawn need to be redone. Whether laying new sod or reseeding, rolling the area will not only even it out to match the surrounding lawn better, but will improve the connection of the new grass to the existing soil.

4. To Improve Water Drainage. Uneven lawns often have water accumulating in certain spots. This can lead to poor grass health, fungus, pests and a generally unattractive lawn. Use a lawn roller to even the lawn and create proper water flow, so the grass gets what it needs and the rest of the water drains away.

5. For a Professionally Manicured Lawn. An even lawn is easier to mow symmetrically and will look more professional with a clean, even finish. Light, unweighted lawn rollers are also used to create striping. For bands of light and dark green, roll one row in one direction and then turn around and roll the next in the opposite way.

Quick Buyers Guide: Solar Garden Lights

Randy — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 22:29:14 +0000

I finally did it. I bought my first place. Yep, I officially have a mortgage for the next 30 years and I couldn’t be happier. Well, ask me again in 5 years how I feel about that mortgage, and I might be singing a different tune.

After getting settled in and used to everything, I began looking around at things I could fix and began making a list of the home and garden improvements that needed to be tackled. Well, the thing that stands out the most is the landscaping. Why? Because everyone sees it whether you’re actually stopping by or driving by the house.

The first thing was getting the lawn greener. When I originally looked at the house, the lawn was dead and brown. but after putting down some fresh sod and taking care of it for three months, you could’ve played a 3 holes of PGA gold on my lawn. It is that green. I also planted a japanese garden and a very small koi pond.

Now all of it looks beautiful during the day time since everyone can see it, but there’s nothing to see at night. So I started researching what various lighting options for my landscaping.

I just had a few conditions; it couldn’t be too bright, raise my electricity bill by a lot, or have some outlandish design style that took all of the attention away from the landscaping. So that little list really cut down on my options and limited me to solar garden lights.

I’m not going to lie, when I thought of solar lighting of any kind, it’s a turn-off. The lighting is usually really dim, the style of the lighting fixture is usually weird looking, and you had these weird power cells that needed to be directly in the sun in order to charge the lighting fixtures battery.

Well, I was wrong. I found a wide variety of fixture styles and light wattage’s to choose from. So I could get garden lights with a soft glow and subdued fixture styling so that all the hard work I put into my yard would be highlighted. And best of all, the battery and charging components were housed inside the lighting fixture. That meant I could place the solar garden lights wherever I wanted as long as it received direct sunlight.

Synthetic Grass Ensures Your Grass Is Always Green

Luara — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 14:54:35 +0000

A big part of real estate presentation includes landscaping that is pleasing to the eye of the passersby, so that is why it would be such a great idea to see a green luscious lawn that is put in out the front of your property. But, the reality is that it is sometimes particularly difficult to grow and maintain grass that stays in pristine condition.

However, this green sanctuary is not always going to be that possible if we rely on the grass to grow all by itself, because of the water restrictions that have taken part in most parts of the country. Putting in synthetic grass in the places where you need it may be the answer to your problems. The grass can be used as a barbecue area, a nice picnic area or even just for the kids to play on. The synthetic grass can be regularly helpful in an inhabited area such as an area that is commonly used where the community may get together to enjoy themselves or even just as simple as in the backyard.

There are large varieties of synthetic grasses that are available these days that have been catered to different much loved grass lengths to a whole different range of grass types. There are synthetic grasses that are made from monofilaments or dual-filaments, it’s made with a polyethylene finish and the filling inside might consist of a rubbery substance, silica pellets also known as sand or a substance that is known as EPDM rubber granules.

Finding the perfect synthetic grass can be tough to find in your particular circumstances, but can also be easily obtained in a simple matter. Although, you should make sure you know the size of the area that you’ll be covering the grass in and also on how you’ll make use of the ground before thinking about buying the specific synthetic grass product.

Conducting A Symphony of Cooperative Plants

Randy — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 01:15:46 +0000

Some people are simply blessed with the ability cultivate stunning landscapes. With a conductor’s wave of their cordless hedge trimmer, shrubs and hedges dutifully adopt whatever shape and form they desire. Their lawns are always a brilliant green and their flowerbeds seem to be perpetually in bloom. Are these people gifted? Do they have Mother Nature on speed dial? What’s their secret?

Actually, these gifted gardeners don’t have one secret; they have a whole arsenal of them and you can enjoy the same beautiful landscapes they do. You just need to take the time to learn some of their secrets.

For all the effort you put into your garden, you might find your plants don’t often weather the summer well. While there are several variables that can bring about a premature demise or prevent your plants from reaching their full potential, the first thing you should consider is what zone you live in. Knowing your zones means knowing what plants will do best and when best to plant them.

In addition to knowing your zones, get to know your soil. Different plants have different soil preferences. Some prefer fast-draining soils, others prefer different chemical levels in the soil. By familiarizing yourself with the type and chemical composition of your soil you can select the best plants for your property or replace your soil to accommodate the types of plants you want to grow.

After you’ve picked the right plants for your zone and verified the health of your soil it’s time to consider where you want to plant them. One common mistake is similar to painting a floor and finding yourself cornered, surrounded by wet paint. The gardener’s equivalent of this is to plant your plants so that some are blocked and inaccessible by others. This limits your ability to tend and maintain them. That, in turn, will lead to wild growth, hard to reach weeds and leggy, untended plant growth. Leave yourself room to negotiate your garden so you can keep all plants healthy and beautiful.

Finally, invest in a good garden improvements tool that will meet your needs. Don’t buy the most complex tools on the market. Keep it simple and functional. While it’s certainly easier to let nature run its course, doing so will leave you with a wild and messy look. A lawn edger will help you keep crisp definition between the edges of your lawn, walks and driveway. Other tools will help you maintain hedges rather than letting them grow wild and unruly.

Managing a beautiful lawn is a lot like managing a family. It takes love and patience. But it also requires understanding; understanding needs and patiently nurturing those you love. By taking the time to understand your garden from the soil to the plants in it and taking the time to nurture them you will dramatically improve your landscape. It can certainly be labor intensive but if you let it be a labor of love it will never feel like work.

Getting to Know about Paving

Randy — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 06:53:48 +0000

Do you have a collection of flowers? Do you want to know how to put up a small garden in your home? Do you want your garden more attractive than ever? Here’s a tip for you. If you have a small open space at the back of your house put a place to your flowers or even adds up with a vegetable garden. Then, what are you waiting for; garden is very relaxing to our eyes especially when your garden designed with a relaxing arrangements of your flowers, make it sure that you classified the different flowers and put some natural stones to pave your garden and make a design out of it. After you finalize paving a natural stones on the space for your garden then create your own design what you want to put, make sure that the texture you chose is simple but attractive to the eyes, the texture should look good to the flower arrangement and to put a color on your pavement, select the best color that fits to your texture.

The purpose after following the details featured you want you can know see the uniqueness you want and you can invite a friend to see your own paving work. But don’t ever forget the importance of paving, clean it as possible, and check the materials you used, the durability of the selected pavements. But don’t hesitate when you feel to change and come up with a new idea in your garden, you can try it in some parts of your garden and make sure again that the paving place always have to the project planning visual.

Once your garden paving of the outdoor area is in your property then it might be completed, you can enjoy the beautiful surroundings with your family and friends. So get busy on those home and garden improvements around your home and install garden paving today!

Landscape Supplies for the Home

Admin — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 20:25:07 +0000

Trying to find the best company to pick up landscape supplies from can be tricky depending on what you are trying to do. For most home projects that are not complicated or demanding heavy duty equipment, you can pick up all of the supplies you need from a local store. If you are a big landscaping company or homeowner thinking about starting a major project, then you are going to have to go above and beyond the norm.

If you are looking to complete big projects, start a business or if you foresee yourself needing to purchase a lot of these items, then a wholesale landscape supplies company is going to be your best place to start searching for what you need. These companies offer big discounts and can save you a lot of money for your business or big personal projects. Sometimes these types of companies will even allow you to rent out their own machines without having to spend a lot of money on buying all new things.

If you are just looking to purchase some simple landscape supplies for easy jobs around the backyard or garden, then a more established home and garden supply store will be fine for what you need. The tools you can choose from are by no means limited to any degree, you can find everything from big machines to small hand-held tools that will help you complete the jobs you need done at a fast and good pace.

Identifying your needs is a big part of the process before you decide to buy anything for your home and garden improvements projects. If you are just looking to buy smaller tools then staying clear of the wholesale companies is in your best interest. Buying anything in bulk or at all from these stores often requires minimum purchase amounts that can run into the high thousands and exist mainly for contractors and other big landscaping companies to help them make the most of their businesses.

Time saving gardening equipment

Admin — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 11:33:22 +0000

A large garden takes a lot of time and hard work to look after, any equipment that you can buy to automate a task will save you not only time but also aches and pains. Here are three of the best time saving pieces of kit you can get for you garden:

A Lawn Sweeper
In the autumn fallen leaves can be a real pain, a lawn sweeper will save you hours of time and a handful of blisters. You can get gas powered, electric powered or just hand powered lawn sweepers. Even the hand powered option will save you a lot of time – compared to using a rake – and will be far better for the environment than the gas and electric powered variety.

Hedge trimmer with collection bag
Trimming hedges really is pain, but if you keep on top of your hedges so that you do only need to ‘trim’ them, a hedger trimmer with a collection bag will save you hours of tidying up. The collected hedge shredding will be suitable for going straight on to you compost heap and will break down a lot quicker than un-shredded offerings.

General Purpose Garden Shredder
If you do have a big garden that is hedged in all the way round, you probably will be fighting a loosing battle by using a hedge trimmer with a collector. A better solution would be a general purpose garden shredder. Most domestic shredders will handle branched up to 1.5” thick so you can easily shred all of your garden waste making it easier to transport if you wanted to take it to the tip. If you’ve collected your leaves using a hand powered leaf sweeper you can put your leaves through the shredded and then create a leaf mould pile. The shredded leaves will break down a lot quicker than whole leaves.

Bridges as Garden Water Features

Admin — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 23:47:44 +0000

If you have a natural stream running through your garden then a bridge can be a wonderful garden water feature as they make a lovely focal point. It can also work across artificial streams or cascades that use a high-powered pump to transfer the water to the top of the slope.

There are many different styles of simple bridges that can be used in the garden and two of those styles are plank bridges and bridges with hand rails.

Plank bridges are a very simple design feature and easily created with standard timber planks that create a rudimentary bridge. They are very natural looking and so fit brilliantly into informal garden spaces and architectural gardens alike because of their simple shape and form and straight edges. If you have a bog garden then they are a wonderfully cheap way to form walkways and with the help of chicken wire or carving grooves into planks, can give good grip on the planks when they are wet and slippery. The major downfall with this type of bridge is that they require very regular maintenance in order to ensure safety and prolong the lifetime of the planks.

Bridges with handrails can come in many different designs and forms so a detailed search is needed to find one that will fit perfectly into your garden as a water feature. These types of bridges normally come with either a gentle arch or in a level format but they need a very solid footing on either side of the stream that they straddle across. They can be built from many different materials such as simple timber construction, masonry, brick or stone for that picture book feel. Although some timber construction comes in a do it yourself format it is likely that you should employ a professional builder to construct it unless you have the necessary experience as it can be quite difficult to build. Unfortunately this means that it can turn out to be quite an expensive feature of your garden design but in the end will surely be worth it. If you opt for the timber do it yourself kits then you may save money initially on purchasing your garden water feature but that will soon be spent on maintaining the bridge on a regular basis.

Plastic Brick Edging

Admin — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 17:00:32 +0000

Unlike the rest of your yard, your garden is a delicate place where seedlings mature and grow. Keeping it contained from outside threats is necessary to produce healthy plants. An unwieldy gate, however, just doesn’t do this job in the most elegant of way. To rope off your garden area, you need something that looks great, is easy to install, and gets the job done. Normally this could be done with a series of bricks which may require a handyman to install. The messy mortar and the heavy hauling may not seem like an appealing endeavor. There is a solution out there that can do away with this nonsense, and it’s called the plastic brick.

Decorative plastic brick edging is a revolutionary edging tool that can sanction off your garden in an appealing way. Each brick looks just like the real thing; including textured surfaces and red rust color (other colors are available). Once lined up in the ground, these durable artificial bricks offer a customized solution in your garden. They also look great lining walkways and pathways. Anyone can install them with ease. You simply need to dig a shallow trench along the path you want the bricks to be lined in. This can be done with a simple hand tool like a shovel. A trough is also ideal for this job.

After the trench is dug, just take the bricks and snap them together into the depression. They can be snapped together in a straight or curved orientation. Nobody will be able to tell the difference, and they’ll think you spent lots of money and time to achieve such professional results. In a garden environment, gardeners often separate vegetables, fruits, flowers and herbs into different groups. This provides organization and aids in self pollination. To keep your stock organized, these bricks can be used. For soft dirt and soil, they can actually be pressed into the ground with ease, with no trench digging required.

Brick lining can be used to mark a walkway path and make it look distinguished. When combined with path lights, your new brick walkway will be the talk of the town. Regular bricks are heavy and require a wheelbarrow to move around. As each brick is placed, you must place a mixture of mortar on each end using a special hand tool. This messy substance requires skill to put on smoothly without smudging. Professional results aren’t always possible for people with no prior experience.

Bricks also work well in sanctioning off your grassy areas. Learn how to keep your grass looking good at this guide about green grass.