Category: Gardening

Gardening is often described as an activity people enjoy. While it can be relaxing for some, this does not mean that it does not involve hard labor! Thus, efficiency is one of the most crucial qualities people desire when choosing equipment or machinery that is required for laborious tasks such as garden preparation.  If you have never used a small garden tiller before, you may be feeling unsure about what specifications to look for, which can make the task of choosing a machine a bit daunting. The following should assist you in choosing the best machine for your needs.Many people tend to use the terms cultivator and tiller interchangeably; however, these are two different machines that do not serve the same purpose. A small garden tiller is primarily used for breaking up particularly hard soil in an existing garden bed, digging an existing garden bed deeper, or creating a space for a garden bed somewhere there had not previously been one. Tillers are generally more powerful than cultivators; and, therefore able to break up more solid soil. Alternatively, cultivators are better used for mixing soil in existing gardens, preparing soil by blending and aerating prior to planting, and helping to control the growth of unwanted weeds. I [...]

Should I Mulch Leaves or Should I Rake Leaves?

Fall can be an invigorating and colorful time of the year.

The crisp sting to the air and the sizzling red and orange leaves can give us a burst of energy that summer may have sapped.  The problem with those colorful leaves is that soon they will be on the ground, covering our lawns in a layer of red and gold.

That layer can make trouble for your lawn and garden, too. If left unattended, autumn leaves can turn into a thick cover over your precious grasses and plants, and it’s a cover that does a great job of keeping out the air and the sunshine that plants and grasses need to thrive. Lack of proper air and light circulation can lead to turf disease or, even worse, death to grasses and plants. What’s more, rain and snow can dampen that layer of leaves, making it [...]

Should You or Should You Not Be Weed Clearing?

Weeds certainly get a bad rap and, believe it or not, some of that bad rap can be undeserved. Many weeds out there, for example, are edible and/or have medicinal properties (and no, not just that weed!). Weeds can also act as a great indicator of the health of your soil, since many weeds will flourish in distressed or diseased soil. Just as a rash or other skin blemish can be a sign of poor health or illness for our bodies, so too can the abundance of weeds be an indicator of our garden’s distress. So, weeds aren’t all bad.

Even so, you probably don’t want them going bat-guano crazy and spreading all over your lawn or garden and in doing so take over your walkways and smothering the flowers and plants that you want in your garden. You definitely want to do some weed clearing, [...]

A Natural Meadow or Prairie Brings Us Back to Our Roots 

A little over a hundred years ago, hundreds of thousands of miles of grasslands covered just over a quarter of the continental United States. These native grasslands supplied habitat to an estimated 60 million Bison, not to mention a variety of species of grassland birds and other animals that made up the grasslands ecosystem. With the spread of agriculture across North America, along with the spread of the suburban lifestyle and the lawns that came with it, much of this native grassland gave way to farmland and lawns. Today, an estimated 24 million acres of lawn surrounds homes in America.

Recently many homeowners have begun to replace their lawns with a natural meadow and prairie that is made up of native grasses and flowers. Although the change to a native meadow can take some time and some elbow grease, there are quite a few [...]

English Ivy can be a sneaky little bugger. When I think about those leafy, dark-green vines, it is often with a sense of nostalgia mingled with wonder. I can just see that brick wall through the brown vines at Wrigley Field, giving way to the dark green vines day by day as spring turns into summer. Those brown walls in my mind’s eye soon become the walls and buildings of my old college campus, where the ivy that faded with autumn was just as exciting as the ivy that blossomed with the coming of spring. Ivy can be an inspirational, spiritually calming plant when it is kept within the confines of a college campus or a pro baseball field; however, when it is brought to your garden, it can become an out-and-out menace. In this article we’re going to look at some of the reasons why English Ivy can be so harmful to your yard [...]