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4 Essentials Needed to Grow a Strong & Healthy Garden

10. September 2020 Carrie Spencer Lawn Care Tips, Your Yard and The Earth (0)

Growing a garden can be such a healthy and fun hobby for your family. Aside from all of the nutritious produce you can grow, spending time outside can actually help relieve stress and keep you active. Of course, keeping that garden healthy can also provide a source of pride and satisfaction. So before you get started, make sure you have these gardening essentials:
Healthy Ground
A well-chosen plot is the foundation of any healthy garden.
Smart Watering
Plants need the right amount of water, at the right times of day, in order to start and stay healthy.
  • Watering your garden in the morning is usually the best bet for healthy plants.
  • Watering in the evening can sometimes be best.
  • Avoiding overwatering is also crucial if you want to preserve the quality of your produce.
  • Investing in an irrigation system with flow-control valves can make watering easier
Gardening Tools
An irrigation system can make watering your garden effortless, but the right tools and equipment can make caring for that garden easier.
Seeds & Plants
Selecting the right plants for your region, garden size and level of commitment is one of the best ways to ensure that your new garden is a success.
Keeping a garden healthy may seem complicated but it really doesn't have to be. Just grab this guide, pick up a few essentials and get to work on your new garden!
By Guest Blogger Carrie Spencer

Four Ways to Have an Eco-Friendly Lawn

1. August 2019 Kristin Louis Lawn Care Tips, Your Yard and The Earth (0)
Girl on lawn
A healthy-looking lawn does wonders for your property. Not only does it make your house stand out on your block, but it can also provide flood control, dissipate suburban heat, reduce fire hazards and if you’re trying to sell, definitely gives your home some curb appeal. Lawn care is big business, too. In 2015 alone, U.S. households spent almost $16 billion on lawn care and gardening services, which includes supplies, equipment, and lawn and landscaping services. Clearly, we spend lots of money to have great-looking lawns and landscaping, but could all the pesticides, fertilizer, and growth and greening additives we use be harming the environment, too?

It’s easy to go overboard with all the products when trying to keep a nice-looking lawn. However, you can still have green, thick grass, along with healthy trees, shrubs, and a garden, and fewer or no weeds if you follow these steps to creating an eco-friendly lawn.
1. Keep Your Lawn Green Without Chemicals
Paul Tukey writing for Popular Mechanics suggests some ways to mow your lawn that will keep it green, including keeping the mower’s blades sharp, using a push or electric mower to cut back on pollution, and leaving clippings on the lawn to create a natural fertilizer. He also suggests using compost as a natural, root-level fertilizer for lawns, gardens, shrubbery, and trees.
2. Water Wisely
While an oscillating or spinning sprinkler is a symbol of summer lawn care, both of those can waste a lot of water if you don’t monitor their use. Another option for watering is using low-pressure drip irrigation, where nozzles are placed at the base of plants, trees, or shrubs and water is applied slowly. This method can lower your water use. While a drip irrigation system might initially be expensive, it does reduce water usage and energy costs and improves seed germination. Regardless of whether you use drip irrigation, a sprinkler, or hand-watering, the key to using any type of system to water your lawn or your garden is to soak the ground to the depth of the roots.
3. Use Our Friends, The Bugs
Why spray your garden and foliage with aphid and other control products when nature provides its very own: bugs! Goodhousekeeping.com lists several species that can keep your greenery free of damaging pests, such as aphids, caterpillars, and Japanese beetles. These natural pest killers include ladybugs, ground beetles, soldier beetles, and tachinid flies. Many of these same bugs also help keep lawns free of pests, too.
4. Consider Using Plants As Ground Cover Instead of Grass
Unless your home is on several acres of land and there’s nothing but a wide stretch of lawn between the street and your front porch, consider using plant life as ground cover instead of grass. You can use flower and shrub beds, clover (just don’t step on the bees), or even several varieties of moss. Many of these and others, especially the mosses, grow easily in the shade, are easier to water (which is where the drip irrigation system can work better), and you won’t have to drag out the lawnmower every weekend. However, the ground cover does invite a number of unwanted pests and will have to be weeded frequently before fully grown. But once your insect friends make their home in it and you keep weeds from becoming a problem naturally with compost and organic mulch, ground cover will make your whole front yard look like a garden.

It doesn’t take a lot of chemicals to have a nice-looking lawn, just sensible use of mowing and organic fertilizer, the wise use of water, putting nature’s pest controllers to work, and using alternatives to grass. So, get out your gardening tools, pull on your gloves, and go play in the dirt to create an eco-friendly lawn you’ll be proud to call yours.

Photo Credit: Pixabay.com

What You Can Do Locally to Help Combat Climate Change

25. October 2018 Administrator Your Yard and The Earth (0)
climate change
Climate change is real, and it’s happening at an alarming rate. Man has hastened the amount of carbon dioxide, methane, and other greenhouse gases present in our atmosphere through industrial processes and agricultural proliferation. The global temperature is increasing, polar ice is melting, and the sea levels are on the rise. The effects of climate change are far-reaching and have the potential to impact weather, food production, animal habitat, and much more. Here’s what you can do, locally, to help combat it.
Start At Home
You can’t look outward until you look inward. In other words, figure out how to implement some green changes at home first. Your first step is to invest in energy-efficient appliances (dishwasher, washer/dryer, and fridge) and lighting options. Next, practice water conservation. Take fewer baths and more showers. Save cooking water to help water plants. Install a rain barrel to collect rainwater for your lawn. Remember: If you’re not actively using water, turn it off (this includes while brushing your teeth!).
Change the way you commute
One of the things you probably do every day that contributes the most to climate change is driving your car. While telling you to give up your automobile is not realistic, and recommending that you get a hybrid or electric car may be cost-prohibitive, it’s reasonable to suggest you use your car less. Switching up your commute is a viable solution. Walk more. Ride a bike sometimes. Use public transportation as much as you can. Carpool. All of this helps.
Eat local and sustainable
You can do your part at the local market to reduce the effects of big agriculture on climate change. When shopping for your family’s groceries, try to buy local, organic, and sustainable. Yes, it may cost a little more. But your wallet is a great tool in combating climate change. If you can, buy your dairy and produce at local farmers markets. The less distance your food has to travel before it reaches your plate, the better for the environment. You can even try to grow your own food (or at least some of it).
Recycle, yes, but first reduce and reuse
Remember the three Rs: Reduce, reuse, and recycle. There’s a reason they come in that order. Recycling is good, but it takes energy to recycle stuff. Your ultimate goal should be to mostly eliminate non-recyclable trash and severely limit what you put in your recycling bin. Think reduce and reuse first.

“It turns out that transporting and processing materials for recycling is carbon intensive. Recycling still uses less energy than making new products from scratch, but reducing and reusing are even cleaner,” notes Forbes.
Write Your Local Politicians
You can do all the biking, recycling, and water conservation you can manage, and it won’t be enough to tackle the enormity of our global climate change problem. That’s where local officials come into play. All politics is local they say, but what they really mean is that politics begin at the local level and spread from there. So make sure to write your local government officials about your concerns about climate change.

The vast majority of scientists agree that we are at a tipping point when it comes to climate, and the actions of you, your neighbors, and everyday citizens all around the globe will determine which way we tip.

Photo by Kaur Martin on Unsplash

10 Questions to Ask Yourself When Picking Garden Flowers

22. October 2018 Kelli Gardener Lawn Care Tips, Your Yard and The Earth (0)
Sunflower for picking flowers
Planting flowers in your garden lets you spend time in your yard, while also making it the perfect place to relax. Flowers bring color and beauty while adding texture and height variation throughout the garden. One key to arranging your flower garden is to pick the flower varieties that best suit your gardening needs.
1) What Areas in Your Yard Get the Best Sunshine?
Understanding the sunshine levels or your various garden plots will help you pick the right plants to thrive in your yard. Evaluate your light spots based on whether it receives full light, partial light, or shade. Full light is commonly described as the light that directly hits a spot. Partial light refers to a spot that is bright but doesn't receive direct light, and a shady spot will receive almost no direct or bright light.
2) Is Your Climate Particularly Dry or Humid?
While there are many flower varieties that can be gardened in almost any climate, it can sometimes be difficult to cultivate tropical or temperate flowers in dry climates without a lot of watering and irrigation. Aim for flowers that are drought tolerant, and you may want to expand your idea of flowering plants to include succulents and cacti. Those in more humid climates can use more tropical flowers in their gardens.
3) How Much Time Do You Have to Care for Your Flowers?
Some flowers are considered more high maintenance than others. Many of the most iconic flowers require the highest maintenance, including lilies, roses, dahlias, and tulips. If you don't have the time to nurture these beauties, you might opt for lower maintenance flower varieties such as cone flowers, daylilies, and cosmos.
4) Do You Have Children or Pets Around the Yard?
As a matter of safety, if you often have children or pets around the yard, it's recommended to look into your favorite plant varieties in case they're potentially toxic to eat. If you're worried about toxic flowers in your yard, you'll want to avoid planting hydrangea, azalea, wisteria, as well as a whole list of others. To keep your yard safe, opt for edible garden flowers such as marigolds, alliums, nasturtiums, pansies, honeysuckles, and daylilies.
5) What Plants Are Native to Your Area?
There are many benefits to planting local varieties, as they can create environments for local ecosystems and wildlife. These are also plants that are already adapted to the environmental conditions of your yard and climate, making them quick growing and hardy. This means that they are lower maintenance than other varieties.
6) Do You Have Size Requirements for Your Flowers’ Growth?
Different flowers grow in different shapes and sizes. Some make ground cover, staying low to the earth, while others grow in vines, bushes, or stalks. The size of the flowers that you need will depend on the space where you want to plant the flowers. Be sure to choose a variety that will grow healthily in your chosen garden plots.
7) Should You Plant Annuals or Perennials?
Most gardeners will recommend that perennial flowers form the basis of your gardening. These are flowers that will grow back in the same place year after year. Perennials are preferred because they do not require you to plant your full flower garden every year. Then you can fill in the blank spaces with the annual flowers that you want and even switch it up each year.
8) Do You Have a Color or Theme Preference?
Colors and flower themes can give you garden a different feel for when it comes time to relax and enjoy the outdoors. Cool colors, such as blues, purples, and greens, will give your garden a calming atmosphere. Warmer colors, such as reds and yellows, will add energy to your yard. Similarly, it can add a lot of fun to your garden to use thematic flower choices.
9) Should You Buy Blooms or Buds?
When you go to purchase your transplant flowers, you will see some flowers have more buds on them than flowers. It's often better to purchase the plants with more buds. This is because plants with buds will continue to bloom longer in the season.
10) Should You Plan a Blooming Plant for Every Season?
Many gardeners want their yard to bloom all year round. It's very rare to have a flower variety that doesn't go dormant at some point. However, in your planning stage, you can pick a variety of perennials that will bloom throughout the year, from early spring to late fall, to give your yard flowering plants all year round.

Ultimately, picking flowers is a combination of knowing your personal preference, local climate, sun conditions, and the amount of time available to you for gardening.

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