I am by no means an avid gardener. Though my parents had green thumbs and met while working at a seed company, I must not have spent too much time with them in the garden. Still, everyone who owns a home has a garden and taking care of it is essential to how well your home looks.
I just wish I could say some nice things about my gardens.
One area that I’ve been exploring lately is mulch particularly after having trimmed back the plants in my side garden and then realized that I’d soon have to do a lot of weeding to keep it looking nice. Besides, we just came out of a drought and I want to find ways to retain water every time that it rains.
Organic v. Inorganic
Many homeowners make the weekend trek their local hardware store or home center to buy their mulch, coming away with bags of stuff that is either organic or inorganic. Never mind the various colored stones you can also buy: there are dozens of choices when it comes to picking the right mulch.
Before you run off to the store, you may have a ready supply of mulch in your yard. Though my yard is full of hard wood trees, one neighbor’s yard is filled with pine trees and I get my share of pine needles on a regular basis. Though I hadn’t thought about it, friends have convinced me that pine needles are the way to go, therefore I saved a trip and a whole lot of money.
Natural v. Unnatural
Some of the other “natural” choices you may already have on hand include: manure, compost, straw, paper, and grass clippings. Unnatural or manmade mulch can include: newspapers, fiberglass, wood chips, asphalt, and aluminum foil.
I don’t know about you, but putting anything in my garden that isn’t natural seems a bit odd especially if you’re growing vegetables. I haven’t seen any evidence of creating a toxic mixture by using aluminum foil in my tomato garden, but that isn’t one experiment I’m willing to try. Ultimately, I want something that releases nutrients as it decomposes.
How To Order Mulch
If you do need to buy mulch, you can also order it and have it delivered to your home. Certainly not the cheapest option, but it could be the most efficient. Unless you have the right kind of vehicle to haul bag after bag, you could end up wasting gas and expending more time than you needed going back and forth between your home and store.
Should you decide to order mulch, you will order by the cubic feet. To get the right amount of mulch, multiply the length and width of your garden by the depth of mulch. For example, if your garden is 12×10 (120) and you want three inches of mulch, then your number would be 360. Divide that number by 3 and you’ll need to order 120 cubic feet of mulch.
Once your mulch is in place, you’ll have a garden that is healthier, distributes water more evenly, and is essentially weed free. Not a bad mulch primer from a brown thumb, eh?
Further Reading
Guide to Selecting a Garden Mulch
Ideas For the Exterior Home
My region of the country is finally seeing the end of a drought which lasted for more than one year. At its peak, all outside watering was canceled except for whatever you could water by hand. Needless to say, just about every lawn turned brown and quite a few people lost valuable shrubbery.
One thing many people learned through this experience were some ways to conserve water. Besides the obvious — repairing leaky toilets and faucets — other methods soon came to the forefront.
By conserving water you can also save money. The following are key tips to help you with your outside conservation effort:
- Water your lawn less often. In the summer, when your lawn has slowed down its growth, you only need to water 1-2 times each week. After a steady rainfall, you may not need to water again for 1-2 weeks.
- Set lawn sprinklers to cover grassy areas only. Avoid soaking paved areas as the run off will simply go down the drain.
- Water your lawn during the early morning when temperatures are lowest which helps limit loss due to evaporation.
- Use water-efficient sprinklers and soaker hoses.
- Shut off your sprinkler system when a storm is approaching. Check the timer to make sure that your sprinkler is working properly.
- For your garden, use mulch as that will help retain water (as well as kill weeds).
- Plant native plants including drought resistant shrubs and grasses.
- Do not over fertilize your lawn as it will require more water to maintain your lawn.
- If you have a pool, consider keeping it covered when not in use. A cover will prevent evaporation loss while keeping the pool water warm. Also, a single back flushing with a traditional filter uses from 180 to 250 gallons or more of water — consider finding a more efficient filter that doesn’t waste water.
- When washing your car, use only as much water as you need. Turn the hose off when not in use and use biodegradable soap so that the run off will not damage plants and grass. Recycle unused bucket water by soaking nearby bushes or plants.
Most homeowners can save water by implementing these and other conservation steps. You’ll reduce your consumption, save money, and do your part to help your local environment.
Stock photo courtesy sxc.hu
It happens as soon as warm weather arrives — bugs, tons of them reappear after a long winter’s hiatus. As temperatures warm up the insect population 
increases bringing out the ants, flies, fleas, bees, and other bugs we’d much rather not have hanging around us.
Besides a variety of sprays and other potions which can be applied to the skin, ground, or released into the air, bug zappers have an amazing ability to get rid of insects too. Their attractive purple lights beckons insects who fly in and are immediately electrocuted. One less bug, one less nuisance having to swat!
But do bug zappers work? Well, if you haven’t seen one in action you may wonder if they do. However, this 75 year old product continues to fly off of hardware store shelves as homeowners, apartment dwellers, and tenants seek real relief.
According to Howstuffworks, the basic parts of a bug zapper include:
- Housing - Exterior casing that holds the parts; the housing is usually made of plastic or electrically grounded metal and may be shaped liked a lantern, a cylinder or a big rectangular cube. The housing also may have a grid design to prevent children and animals from touching the electrified grids inside the device.
- Light bulb(s) - Fluorescent light that attracts insects, usually mercury, neon or ultraviolet (black light)
- Wire grids or screens - Wire meshes (usually two) that surround the light bulb and are electrified to kill insects
- Transformer - Device that electrifies the wire mesh, changing the 120-volt (V) electrical-line voltage to 2,000 V or more
Bugs attracted by the bug zapper (unfortunately does not include mosquitoes), enter the unit through tiny gaps in an electrical grid. Attracted by the ultra-violet light the 120 volt line is transformed into a 2000 volt killing machine, zapping and frying everything that can get in.
Naturally, if you are wanting to zap mosquitoes only than a bug zapper isn’t worth the investment, but if only flying insects, including gnats, meet their death, then a bug zapper could be a welcome addition to your patio, porch, or other nearby outdoor public area.
Resources
Home Improvement
Home Moving Center
Home Planning Center
Home Remodeling Center
