If you have a big yard, your yard trimmings will probably be too much for your regular compost bin. You see, grass, trees and shrubs tends to grow a lot during the spring and summer months so you end up with plenty of yard trimmings every now and then. Fortunately, you need not worry about how to compost such amount of yard trimmings. In fact, you need not even use a composting bin to recycle your grass clippings. After cutting your grass, just leave the grass cuttings on your lawn and let them dry out under the sun.

Basically leaving your grass clippings on your garden has become rather fashionable these days. Grasscycling, as specialists call this, is considered as an environmentally sound practice. You don’t will need to use a recycling bin when you recycle your grass clippings. To practice grasscycling at home, you basically spread the grass clippings on your lawn evenly. It won’t far more than a few days before the grass clippings dry out and decompose so your yard is not going to required look topsy-turvy for long.

Will leaving your grass clippings on your lawn smother the grass below it? According to authorities, a thin pile of grass clippings will not have any unfavorable impact about the grass beneath it. We have to realize that grass clippings commonly contain 80% water and 20% solid waste so it is not going to definitely have very much damaging effect for the fresh grass underneath it. The truth is, the clippings can offer mulching to your grass so your grass will growth healthier.

While a thin pile of grass clippings will not have negative impact on the grass underneath it, most literatures on how to compost agree that huge piles of grass clippings will kill the grass underneath it. You see, a thick pile of clippings can be quite heavy and it can smother the grass underneath it.

While grass clippings could be left lying around on your lawn for a couple of days, bigger garden trimmings like leaves, twigs and plant debris ought to be removed and composted somewhere else. If you could have an abundance of leaves, twigs and plant debris to compost, dig a pit at the corner of your backyard and use this pit to compost the leaves and twigs. To facilitate faster composting, put the coarse brown materials at the bottom of the pit and put the lighter materials on top. With the use of a composting stick, turn the pile everyday to facilitate drying and to prevent the bottom with the bit from becoming wet, soggy and smelly.

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The Way To Compost Your Backyard Trimmings Without Getting A Big Recycling Bin is a post from: The Grow Garden

If you want to start getting involved with natural lawn and garden care the first step you are going to need to take is to find a natural lawn care product and even if one is advertised as being natural you are still going to want to read through the list of ingredients to make sure that it is all natural because some are listed as being so but are really not.

Basically the rule is that if you cannot pronounce an ingredient, it is not natural. You can also read reviews on a natural lawn and garden care product to learn more about it and decide whether or not it is going to be right for you.

Ideas

If you really want to offer natural lawn and garden care for the long term, there are a few ideas in particular that you are going to want to keep in mind. For one, you are going to want to mulch your grass clippings. This is completely natural and a great way to keep your grass and garden healthy.

You can make sure that you don’t end up with a heavy layer of grass clippings on your lawn by using a mulching mower to chop up the grass clippings finely as you go along. This is very important because if there is a heavy layer of grass clippings left on the lawn it is going to basically smother the grass underneath and possibly end up killing it.

For proper natural lawn and garden care, you are going to want to make sure that you use all natural fertilizer as well. Compost also works very well, and not only will help your garden to strive but as well allows you to recycle. You can make your own compost simply by adding compostable materials.

This is a great natural lawn and garden care tip, and to make compost you want to use the right materials. This includes anything that was once living but remember that some items are best to be avoided such as meat, dairy and cooked food as it can attract vermin and so you do not want to home-compost these sorts of materials.

For best results, you want to use a mixture of types of ingredient. This way your compost will be the most effective, and bear in mind that the right balance is something that can really only be learnt by experience so as you continue to make compost you will get the hang of it.

Anyone who wants to have a good knowledge of lawn care and you can find the top information on lawn mowing Auckland.

Tips for Natural Lawn and Garden Care is a post from: The Grow Garden

One of the most essential features in horticulture is pruning. Pruning means trimming and cutting of trees and plants at regular intervals to allow the plant for its prolific growth and at the same time make it look more aesthetic. Pruning is both an art a well as a skill which needs to be mastered well. Pruning is an art, because it cannot be done just any way you like. The plant may suffer in pruning instead, and hence it should be done at the right places only. Pruning is a skill because it has to be done precisely as well as correctly so that after cutting the tissues should heal properly too.

Regular pruning to remove damaged or diseased parts:

Removing any branches damaged due to weather or disease can be done by pruning. Crowns of trees need to be pruned at regular intervals to allow enough sunlight to circulate around all the parts of the tree. Some trees need not grow to very great heights and they have to be pruned to reduce unwanted height. Size of the tree should not be reduced greatly and pruning should be done just to remove the unwanted parts. Branches themselves sometimes obstruct other branches and hence such branches should be pruned.

Formative years of the plant best for pruning:

It is during the formative years of the plant that pruning should begin. If this is done then there are lesser chances of the plant getting diseased. It is always a better idea to seek services of an expert especially you have a huge collection of trees and plants in your garden. Experts provide guidance on which branches have to be cut and which ones have to be left where they are. The stem or the trunk of the tree should be protected and not cut as it is the main structural strength of the tree.

Regular pruning helps in increasing the quality of fruits and flowers, besides enhancing the structural strength of the plants. To remove diseased and dead branches, shrubs also need pruning. To maintain the shape of shrubs, they too have to be pruned regularly. Knowing when to prune is very important. Flowering shrubs also should be pruned once their blooming is over.

Some of the tools used for pruning are a sharp pair of secateurs which should be disinfected after use. Nowadays there are some innovative and new tools like lopper, portable buck saws, pole pruner, folding pruner, and rope saw which enable better pruning.

Did you like the article on lawn care??, Phil Caxton is the editor of some online magazines like lawnmania.com. A focused website that offers the articles on weigela pruning.

Pruning The Garden is a post from: The Grow Garden

Start the spring off right with good lawn care and your lawn will thanks by growing green and pretty in the spring and summer seasons. Spring lawn care is important in that it is the time when you can catch, diagnose, and fix any grass issues like crabgrass. The good news is that spring lawn care can be finished in 5 simple steps. Make sure you follow these steps yearly when spring rolls out and your lawn will start looking better each year!

1. Clean up the Lawn Cleaning the lawn of any debris is the 1st in spring lawn care. This step includes raking any leftover leaves, branches, twigs, and so on. This will really help to guarantee an issue free first cutting.

2. Distribute Remaining Snow If any piles of snow have accumulated and not softened then you’ll need to get the spade out and break he snow pile apart. Simply spread the snow around the lawn in areas where there’s lots of sun. This is a critical step as the snow pile could cause the grass beneath to develop and grow slower than the rest of the grass.

3. First Fertilizing Find a good manure for early spring application. It will have the right mix of fertilizer compounds for your lawn. Keep in mind to fertilize light as over fertilizing in spring can harm the roots of the grass and cause you more issues than you need.

4. Crabgrass- Remove it before it grows! Early spring is the best time for crabgrass treatment. If your grass had crabgrass growth last spring or summer than you will need to treat it this spring. The way to treat for crabgrass is with herbicide and it has to be applied 2 weeks before crabgrass germinates in your neighborhood. If you are uncertain about when this happens then you may need to consider asking a professional landscaper for some helpful advice.

5. Over Seeding Over seeding is the process of placing a significant amount of grass seeds on patchy or worn down areas or grass. This process helps to buttress and quicken the grass growth and to help it look better. If you used an herbicide for crabgrass then you may wait at least a month before over seeding.

Lawn care – What To Do When Spring Is Coming? is a post from: The Grow Garden

An easy way to be certain that your lawn is hearty and healthy every spring is to give it the right lawn care in the cold months of late fall and winter. Although most lawns seem completely dormant during these months, the way the grass is cared for during this time can make a change to the final health and beauty of it in the summertime. Below are some ideas that may make sure that the grass is as fit as it can be when warm weather returns.

If you do live in an area where you have regular snowfalls, then you’ll need to be certain that your methodology includes ensuring that all areas of the grass are free of waste and clutter before the 1st big snowfall of the year comes along. Proper lawn maintenance in preparation for winter snow would include raking the leaves, removing sticks, and disposing of any other type of waste that just does not belong on your lawns.

Even if you aren’t expecting much in the way of snowfall, it remains necessary to be sure the grass isn’t left under piles of leaves or other rubbish that can interfere with the grass receiving proper moisture, nutrients and air. While the growth of grass often comes to a halt in latter fall, it can still die if it is buried under any kind of yard debris.

Many have the mistaken concept that summer is the most vital season for controlling weed growth. But the opposite is really true and it is critical to grasp this in order to plan good lawn care for the lawns that surround your house and garden.

Weeds essentially grow much faster than your grass does in the winter, as compared to the summer. If the weeds are able to simply grow out of control during the “off season,” then there may not be much lawn left to enjoy when spring arrives.

Luckily , because your grass will be growing so slowly during the fall and winter months, it is rather easy to spot the progress of the weeds in this time. Just make sure that you give a bit of attention to your grass during these months and get those weeds pulled, or apply weed killer, in order that they don’t overrun the lawns and ruin the look of your landscape design.

If you like the look of a think, full lawn even through the wintertime, then it is a brilliant idea to plant rye grass, bluegrass or other sorts of northerly grasses which all tend to be heartier and will endure through the chillier months of winter. One of the turf care benefits of using rye grass in your grasslands is that it grows well mixed with your current grass and will make your grass look fuller and lusher. However, the rye grass will actually die off and your ordinary grass will take over as it comes to life in the spring.

If you intend to plant any winter grasses, like rye, then they’re going to stand the best chance of extending roots and growing well if you plant in October. And, even with cold weather you must be sure the just planted grass seeds get sufficient water.

Between natural rain and your own watering efforts, you should be certain that the rye-type grass receives one to two inches of moisture each week. Utilizing these easy lawn care tips will give you the best looking grass in the area, come summer.

How To Manage Your Lawn During Winter? is a post from: The Grow Garden

What fish and parts of the fish are used for making fish fertilizer? By-products or waste materials from various types of fish are used. And although technically several varieties of fish can be used, mostly Menhaden fish that contain few amounts of meat and used for making animal feed are used.

The first step is to cook the fish and to squeeze its juice and oils by pressing. The oil is removed while the leftover solids can be ground and baked into protein meals and fed to animals. The juice of the fish is brought to a boil until it becomes more concentrated and results in a fish emulsion.

A small amount of phosphoric acid is added to the fish emulsion to lower the pH. Lowering the pH makes the liquid fertilizer more acidic, which prevents it from decaying and fermenting into gas. Before phosphoric acid was added in the manufacturing process, containers of fish emulsion were known to burst from fermentation. Because the amount of added phosphoric acid is so small (less than one percent by weight), the product is still considered organic.

Standard composition of organic fish emulsion fertilizers is about 5% Nitrogen, 2% Phosphorous, and 2% Potassium. It also contains micronutrients that are vital for promoting plant growth.

Depending on their proximity to the sea or fish waste sources, many organic growers are daring enough to make their own fish fertilizer emulsions to cut down costs.

Many organic fertilizers are slow acting. Not fish emulsion. The nutrients in fish emulsion are released almost immediately. That’s why it is particularly good for seedlings and transplants–it gives them a jumpstart. Gardeners either water the diluted liquid fertilizer into the soil or spray their plants for a foliar feed.

Fish emulsion is a fairly mild liquid fertilizer, but it can burn if applied too strong, so it’s important to follow mixing directions. It has a definite fishy odor, but the odor goes away in a day or two after application. Some manufacturers add a deodorizer to their products. Fish emulsion must be used when it’s mixed; it can’t be stored after it is diluted. By the way, the undiluted liquid must be stored at room temperature because it degrades if it gets too hot.

Once again, we need to repeat that organic growers need not worry that fish emulsion fertilizer is depleting our oceans of the important Menhaden fish or other fish that people need for food. Fish emulsion if primarily made from fish waste of the established animal feed and fish oil industries, which would have been dumped in landfills if not used. The organic label in fish emulsion fertilizers not only means natural, it also means environmentally safe.

Fish Liquid Fertilizers: How are they Made? is a post from: The Grow Garden

When it comes to managing a lawn care business, like any other business venture you will be facing a lot of paperwork. Instead of having to create an original document for every situation that you come across in the day-to-day running of your company it is useful if you have prepared business forms, agreements and standard letter templates beforehand that you can have available to quickly adapt when they are required.

Luckily, you don’t even have to put these business forms together by yourself as a few experienced lawn care professionals are now making their ‘tried and tested’ standard forms and standard letters available to you to adapt to your own company’s needs.

Here we have listed some of the business forms and documents that you will need to run a lawn care business.

1) Financial – When it comes to putting together, invoices, receipts, bills of sale and other important financial documents it is extremely helpful if you have access to some lawn industry samples that you can change and customize for your business. Keeping up to date with your day to day finances can be tough while you are out on the road so having appropriate forms for keeping daily income and expense information is important in this business. Letters to follow up on overdue accounts are also required.

2) Customer Services – Relationships with customers are crucial to the success of your business so you should have letters that are professionally written for welcoming new clients, politely dropping them if necessary, pricing jobs, sending end of season greetings, solving customer queries or updating customers on any news or changes related to your services. You don’t want to pass on the wrong message to clients, so having ‘tried and tested’ standard letters prepared by professionals that you can basically reuse with just a few changes to suit each situation is a great way to go.

3) Lawn Service Contracts – It is important that you have a standard contact for all of your clients that you can change quickly to suit the requirements of each case that comes along. You can get good ideas from looking at agreements that other lawn mowing business operators have used but you should always remember to consult with a lawyer before putting your own agreement together.

4) Other Documents – other lawn business forms documents and templates that you will likely need include flyer templates and forms for organizing workers and lawn care equipment.

By having access to a good set of business forms, standard letter templates and a lawn care contract you will be making sure that ensure that you maximize your productivity and professionalism so that you can get your lawn business off to a winning start.

Where can one get access to lawn care business forms and other documents? Fortunately there are many experienced lawn business professionals who have put together startup ebooks designed to guide beginners into the industry. These ebooks can be found on the Internet and downloaded. Often they include business forms, standard letter templates and a variety of other resources that new lawn care entrepreneurs would find useful.

Useful Forms, Contracts, Standard Letters and Templates for a Lawn Care Service is a post from: The Grow Garden

The best way to gain experience in home gardening and lawn care is to begin at the grass root level and make your way up the ladder. That sounds a bit complicated, but all you have to do is to grasp the basics correctly, especially if you are a novice in this field. As you gain familiarity with the various concepts, home gardening and lawn care will not seem a daunting task anymore.

Let me enumerate some of the important ingredients of lawn care and home gardening. Mowing comes first on the list as correct mowing can result in a stunning looking lawn. What you need to remember with mowing is that it is always better to mow high. The reason behind this is that if you mow short, the root system will lose its strength and you will then have a profusion of weeds in your garden.

Another method of avoiding weeds is to mow in a manner that does not follow routine but goes in different directions, like counter-clockwise, diagonal, clock wise etc. By mowing in a range of directions, the weeds are more likely to be clipped effectively and so the grass will have a proper chance to grow well.

Maintenance of your lawnmower is also a must-do thing. If the blades of the lawnmower are not sharp enough, then the whole purpose is defeated. Ideally the blades should be sharpened once during a year. It is vital that the blades are not fixed onto the lawnmower while you sharpen them. The reason why sharpened blades are a necessity is that bland mower blades do not cut the grass but only shred it and this imparts a white tinge to your lawn. Such a lawn is easily afflicted by various diseases.

Apart from mowing, watering is an integral part of caring for your garden or lawn. Watering has to be just sufficient and neither too much or too less. Similarly, you should never let too much time elapse between watering or water your lawn too regularly, as this could damage your lawn irreparably. Keep aside some time for watering your garden everyday. It is difficult to prescribe the exact amount of water needed for your lawn as this can vary depending on things like mowing height, species of grass, soil type, temperature etc.

The right kind of fertilization is also a crucial factor in home gardening and lawn care. Organic fertilizers like steer manure and activated sludge from sewage are some types of fertilizers even though compost is the fertilizer which is very effective as compared to the others. The advantage with compost is that it gives the right kind of nutrients for your lawn and it also provides the much needed organic matter for your lawn or any front yard landscape design assignment.

How to care for your lawn and home garden is a post from: The Grow Garden

I don’t know about you, but it seems like this winter is never going to end. I have lived in the Midwest for almost 12 years now and this has been the longest, coldest winter I can remember. The good news is, however, that it will soon end just like it does every year. But will you be ready to tackle the lawn care and landscape?

It’s important to think about lawn care and landscape services now before the problems take hold on your green spaces. And believe me, there are plenty of issues that can crop up in a hurry if you arent paying attention.

You can also save money by getting signed up and locked up for the season with your local lawn and landscape pro.

With that in mind, here are some of the basics to consider for the 2009 lawn and landscape season.

Lawn Mowing

If you are like me, then you will cut your own grass just for the shear joy of being outside. Chances are, however, that the fun will wear off after a few cuts, and you will want to hire a lawn care pro. If that is the case, it is always best to get in line sooner rather than later. Many lawn maintenance contractors book up early and wont have the room to take you on later. Just let them know you’d like to start service with them a little later in the season, but that you want to sign up now.

Lawn Spraying Treatments

Once again, I think that about half of you guys will apply your own fertilizer and weed control products, and the other half will hire this service out. Either way, you need a plan of action. Its fairly certain that dandelions and crab grass will be a problem in 2009, but other issues like lawn disease and insects can also invade, especially if we have a super wet spring. You may need a lawn care pro to help thwart these issues, so be ready to make the call should things get out of your control.

Ornamental Trees And Shrubs

It’s a given that you will need to have your trees, shrub and bushes trimmed at some point during the year, but have you thought about fertilizing them? It’s a great idea to give your landscape ornamentals a dose of nitrogen in the spring to set them off for the year. You also may want to consider having them sprayed and treated for damaging insects and fungus that can stunt their growth and cause them to decline. Believe it or not, you have a lot of money tied up in those plants out front, so take care of them now!

These three tips may seem simple, but they are very important in the grand scheme of your outdoor paradise. Get started now so you can get the jump on the weeds, and be ready for summer picnics on the lawn!

Preparing For Spring Lawn And Landscape Maintenance is a post from: The Grow Garden

Do you have pests or gophers invading your lawn? Chances are, if you have a lawn you will run into a pest problem at some point. Some of the most common pests are the gopher and a close relative the mole. Perhaps, its because those pesky creatures, ants and other insects are finding your lawn attractive. What can you do to get them to stop them from burrowing and nesting in your yard. We will provide you with the answers and more within this article.

Most household lawns are not big enough to attract so many invaders that will cause a serious problem as a result, but, while they can be a nuisance and cause some serious damage to your lawn. Insects are not easily spotted, some are small and unnoticed by the human eye, however they can be seen in the patches of dead, brown grass they leave behind. Some signs of moles and gophers are a bit more obvious, such as dirt mounds on top of and beneath the lawn, tunnels and holes as well. Once the problem is identified, you can then choose how you are going to alleviate the issue.

The first choice is to call a professional, using your local phone directory or a referral from a friend or relative is a good place to start. If you are like most people, you may attempt to do it yourself. If you are one of these, the first thing you need to realize is you have to size up your competition and what you are facing. We begin by taking a look at insects firstly.

When dealing with bugs, the first rule you must go by is that not all bugs are bad. We need to realize in reality that some bugs are actually natures exterminators against one another. Other insects will help control the thatch level and the two types of insects that invade your lawn are; underground and above ground insects. Above ground bugs eat your grass and the damage can be easily seen, the below ground insects do just that, they feed on your lawn though its root system, and are much more destructive of the two. They are also the most hardest to recognize since they cannot be easily spotted. Examples of these bugs will include grubs, beetle larvae and billbugs. There are thousands of species of bugs, way to many to list here. You can get a book or search around online to view the various bugs out there and what they do and function they have. You want to be careful not to kill off ally bugs.

There are 5 basic ways to treat anthills and other bugs; chemical insecticides, biological insecticides, botanical insecticides, insecticide soaps, neem insecticide and predatory bugs. There are also some designed for certain types of bugs and you need to weigh each option carefully and find the one that best suits your needs.

While moles and gophers are two very common animal pests, they are similar and often confused. Both build a complex of tunnels the lawn, however this is where the similarities end. There is a number of ways to tell them apart, moles are smaller, have a pointy snout and long front claws. They do not eat your lawn, but rather the insects they find there. The tunnels they make leave mounds of dirt on your lawn that cause it to be uneven. Gophers, also leave mounds of dirt but they do more extensive underground damage and cause sinkholes in the lawn. While they can cause just as much recurring damage and getting rid of gophers and moles leaves only one solution, you have to kill them. There are conventional methods available such as traps.

The best approach in dealing with these pests is to not have them in the first place. This can be best achieved by taking preventative care in the first place. Of course we all know that mother nature has a mind all its own.

Protect Yourself Against Lawn Pests is a post from: The Grow Garden