5 Vital Yard Care Tips for Better Health
December 28, 2011 by blog · Leave a Comment
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Maintaining a beautiful yard is a great way to not only add value to your home, but enjoyment for your entire family. Having a lush, green yard, healthy shade trees and beautiful flowers gives your family a place of natural beauty in which to spend time outdoors. However, ensuring that your yard is healthy and well maintained is not always easy. Here are five important tips to help ensure that you are able to keep your yard beautiful all year long.
Aerate Properly
Aeration is a vital consideration for any lawn, and offers significant benefits. It allows water, air and fertilizer to penetrate deeply into the soil, fostering better growth and healthier grass. Make sure that you aerate your lawn in autumn or early winter before the soil freezes. You can also aerate in spring.
Leaves and Pine Needles
Leaves and pine needles will accumulate throughout the year. It’s essential that these are raked up as soon as possible. Moreover, do not leave them piled in your yard or flowerbeds, as they will compact the soil and kill the grass or other plants beneath them. It’s best to remove leaves and pine needles from your yard on a regular basis (once every two weeks or more frequently if necessary). You also need to make sure that they are fully removed before the onset of winter.
Treat Moss
Moss will grow in your yard if conditions are favorable. For instance, if your soil is compacted, moss can easily begin growing. Other conditions that help moss get a foothold in your yard include poor drainage and high acid levels in the soil. You can prevent moss from growing by ensuring that your lawn drains properly, that you aerate it each year and that you put down lime to help combat acidic winter rains. If moss does begin growing, there are several options to help you get rid of it. However, it’s better to take care of the problem before it starts.
Fertilize
Fertilizer is an essential ingredient for a healthy lawn, beautiful flowerbeds and an overall healthy yard. Make sure that you fertilize in the spring, as well as in the autumn or early winter. Do not over fertilize your lawn, though, as this can lead to disease and can also help foster the growth of weeds. Make sure that you are using a fertilizer with the right balance, though, or you will not see the results you expect.
Cleanup
Just as you have to remove leaves and pine needles from your yard, you’ll need to clean up other debris. Summer and winter storms can strew branches and limbs around your yard, and it’s important that these are removed promptly. Leaving them in place for just a short time can compact the soil and kill the grass beneath them. Remove dead limbs and other debris from your yard as soon as possible – the day after the storm is ideal.
Vancouver Snow, Snow Shovels and your Garden 4 Tips
November 4, 2011 by admin · Leave a Comment
Now is the time to be buying your snow shovel, if you don’t have one. Vancouver has unpredictable snow patterns and as a result most retailers do not stock a large number of shovels. There are two basic kinds of shovels one that is actually for shoveling and one that is for pushing. Home Depot and Rona will have both shovels and they will cost around 20 dollars, they will be made of plastic and will last a few seasons. If you want to buy a once a lifetime shovel buy an aluminum push or snow shovel, they are some times sold in the larger stores but are most often sold at stores that landscapers frequent. They will cost $50 to $60. You will have to make the choice on the value that a more expensive shovel will make to you and for most homeowners it is not the investment they where thinking of. Having both shovels is a benefit, the pusher shovel is great for small snow falls one to two inches high or dry snow, not something we usually get. If you are going to have move large amounts of snow the shovel design is more useful. Something new to stores is a sleigh style shovel; this is a new shovel that is easier on your back. If you are a homeowner that does not have anyone to help you and you hate heavy lifting this could be your snow shovel. The design is a bit like a pusher and shovel mixed except that you can slide over the snow once you have pushed some onto the blade, a lot easier in all conditions. So now you want to use your shovel and you are thinking about getting out there and getting it done, well here are 4 tips that will make your work go better and help your garden in the spring.
1) Listen to the weather forecast and plan where you are going to leave your snow pile. Even though our weather is mild a snow pile can last along time. Many people will clear a driveway side to side rather than length wise.
2) Avoid placing your pile on the grass, if you can avoid it. While a lawn can survive snow, salt and debris in the snow can damage your lawn. Snow piles also tend to be more compact than a regular snow fall and the result can be lawn damage.
3) When choosing an ice melter we recommend ones that are lawn safe. Salt is good at melting the snow but can cause soil to become infertile so if you have a pathway by a garden or lawn, choose wisely.
4) Snow build up on trees should especially hedges should be removed to prevent damage. It is recommended to sweep the snow off rather than shaking. Shaking trees can result in breakage and damage.
Mulching leafs in Vancouver your 4 options
October 31, 2011 by admin · Leave a Comment
Leafs are changing colour and starting to fall in Vancouver. The colours are beautiful and there are a couple of things to look at while you enjoy this fall season. Many people will choose perennial plants over annuals in their gardens because of some of the labor savings. Trees and shrubs at this time of year that are sheading their leafs are starting to change colour and it is a great time to get out and walk your neighborhood or a neighborhood you like and start picking colours and plants from the varieties that you area seeing. Take pictures of the shrubs and plants and bring them to your local garden centre, there they will be able to tell you what varieties you have seen and make the appropriate suggestions. Building year round colour through the choice of trees and shrubs is a great way to add some brightness into a grey day.
When it comes to the leafs that are dropping from the trees in your garden you have 3 choices of what to do with them.
1) Collect the leafs and remove them entirely from your yard
This is the long-standing practice of most homeowners and is usually the practice in urban environments. This may also be the case even if you will mulch some of the leafs if you have an extremely large tree or trees in your yard and mulch will produce more product than you need.
2) Collect the mulched leafs and compost them
When composting leafs you want to make sure that the leafs will actually compost. Composting leafs takes along time as a result of their low nitrogen content. Leafs are what is termed as the “browns” in composting. It is best to use your mower to collect the leafs as this will shred the leafs and will save space and decrease the composting time. When composting the leafs you will need to add “greens” which are the nitrogen rich components of compost. The greens can be grass clipping, plant clippings, coffee grounds or other nitrogen sources that are allowed in a composter. You can also get compost starter at nursery’s and hardware stores. If you are using natural greens, soil or composted soil you will want to produce layers of browns and greens. Place a layer of mulched leafs down somewhere between 4 to 6 inches deep and then cover them with a layer of dirt, composted soil or plant trimmings about 1 to 2 inches deep and then repeating the process over and over. Follow the instructions for commercially purchased compost starter. When you are finished your layering you will need to keep your pile moist and turned every three to four weeks.
3) Mulch the leafs in place on your lawn
You can mulch the leafs in place on your lawn but there are some precautions with doing this. The biggest concern is that mulch can in no way cover or smother the grass. You should be starting to mulch when the leafs are less than one inch thick on the lawn you will have to go over the lawn 2 or three times to reduce the leafs to a fine enough consistency that they can be of a benefit and not a detriment. The advantages to mulching in place can be timesaving’s and nutrients for your lawn.
4) Collect the mulched leafs from your lawn and spread them in your garden.
A final option for your leafs is to mulch them with your lawn mower and collect them in the grass bag to be spread in your garden. Spread them in your garden being careful not to cover the crowns of perennial plants or laying the mulch up against the bases of trees and shrubs. This will add nutrients to your garden and provide a protective layer for roots. It is important that you apply a slow release fertilizer to your garden in the spring to help boost the nitrogen content of the soil which maybe lower as a result of the composting leafs.
Fall in Vancouver
October 19, 2011 by admin · Leave a Comment
It is fall in Vancouver and we are still holding onto thoughts of summer but for your gardens it is time to be doing some spring thinking. Right now is the time to planting bulbs in your garden. Nursery’s still having a good selection of bulbs to choose from and some easy ones are tulips and daffodils. Anyone can have a beautiful spring display of flowers! Daffodils like full sun or light shade and reasonably fertile soil. Most gardens are suitable for growing Daffodils. There are many species and you can mix them or plant all the same. In general Daffodils are planted about 8 inches from the surface. If you are planting a lot of bulbs it may be quicker to dig out the whole area and place your bulbs in the space leaving about two finger widths between each bulb. If you are only planting a few a “ bulb tool” may be your best bet. The short of it is don’t get to complicated, use what you have bulbs are cheap and provide years of recurring pleasure. Tulips can follow the same rules but plant them only 5 inches down.We have just planted several large displays in North Vancouver and Richmond and are looking forward those sunny spring days. . Have fun and don’t be afraid to garden!
Ten June Tips for Novice Vancouver Gardeners
June 17, 2010 by admin · Leave a Comment
It’s not too late to get a jump start on getting your garden in shape for the summer. It has been a wet spring in Vancouver, but hot summer weather is just around the corner.
If you are new to gardening, here are ten tips specifically for Vancouver’s unique climate:
- You can add splashes of summer colour by planting seeds of perennials as well as planting annuals. If you are buying plants, choose those that have visible buds, are lush and show no signs of disease or decay.
- Given the cool and rainy weather, you can plant veggies in time for a summer harvest.
- When it comes to keeping your shrubs and hedges tidy, June is the ideal time to prune and trim.
- Perennials that have already blossomed also need to be trimmed.
- To keep your roses flourishing in the summer, remove the dead heads.
- If you are planning to fertilize, don’t wait until July.
- When it comes to planting herbs, shrubs and trees, add manure, peat moss or your own manure. Water newly-planted shrubs twice a week in dry stretches.
- Tall plants and shrubs should be staked before they start bending.
- Keep an eye out for damage caused by insects, slugs and disease. Trim off diseased leaves and petals right away.
- If you have an older lawn or your lawn has thin zones, inject new life by over-seeding it.
You might also want to take advantage of free lectures and hands-on workshops offered by garden centers and gardening clubs in the Vancouver area.
