environmental

Powerful Weed Killer – War on Dandelions?

Getting rid of those pesky weeds in your front yard can be a real headache, there’s a huge temptation to buying a really powerful weed killer. You pull them over and over again but they just keep coming back. My young son makes some handy cash by clearing my lawn of dandelions by pulling them up, of course the next day they’re back all over my lawn again again! It can also be very frustrating to buy a product that is supposed to obliterate the weeds but the little devils just seem to be invincible. There are a few tips that homeowners should know before they spend a fortune on weed killers that just do not do the job.

One mistake that some people make is that they believe granular weed killers will work better than liquid products. In fact, liquid weed killers can cover an area more thoroughly than the granular forms. You can also more effectively do spot treatments of lawn weeds with liquid products. It is important to note that putting a heavier dose of the weed killer on your weeds is not going to be more effective at killing the weeds. It is just going to be effective at killing your pocketbook.

Another mistake some homeowners make is that they do not read the labels of the weed killers they buy. Some products may start to work in a few hours and some may not work for a few days. Many weed killers need to stay on the weed for 24 hours without rain or irrigation. The label should also clarify what exactly the product will kill. You don’t want to spray your lawn with weed killer and then wake up the next morning to find you have no lawn at all. If you have pets, then you also need to especially look out for weed killers that may be harmful to them.

Many homeowners do not realize that weed killers that can be classified as “pre-emergence herbicides” and “post-emergent herbicides.” Pre-emergence herbicides work well on crabgrass and can be applied a few weeks before weeds are expected. Post-emergence herbicides are used for perennial broadleaf weeds and are used after the weeds have emerged.

Timing is very important when it comes to the application of pre-emergence herbicides. If these weed killers are applied too early, then weather will dilute them and weeds will go ahead and grow anyway. Timing is also important when it comes to using post-emergence herbicides. If you procrastinate with your weeds, then they will just become more of a problem and spread throughout your lawn.

In addition to buying chemicals and powerful weed killers that can wipe out weeds, homeowners should also look into products that will help their lawns flourish. A thick lawn can actually shade out weeds. It is recommended that you keep your lawn mowed at about three inches to shade the weeds. Weak spots in a lawn can be places where weeds will thrive. Nourishing your lawn with a good fertilizer can help your beautiful grass battle back the weeds.

Homeowners should not let weeds frustrate them. They are just a part of landscaping and gardening. With a little research, and perhaps a little patience, homeowners can get to the root of their weed problems and find the right solution.

Some Environmental Tips for Gardeners

If you’re a gardener, there are lots of ways you can reduce our impact on the environment. The great thing is that most of these tips actually can save you money as well, so heres a few environmental tips for gardeners – thanks to the National Trust for many of these.

Saving Water – add between 5-10cm of much to beds and containers. This cuts down evaporation significantly and means you can water much lees often. Obviously it also helps keep out those pesky weeds. When we’re talking about watering your plants please try and collect rainwater, it’s actually much better for your plants and it doesn’t cost anything.

You can even now get water butts or bigger tanks with integrated pumps although it’s usually cheaper to buy a water butt and then purchase a cheap pump seperately. The water butts don’t have to cost much, here’s a nice slimline one from Amazon for about £20 – 100 Litre Slimline Water Butt Stand & Tap Kit

Environmental Tips Gardeners - Water Butt

If you line, porous wooden and terracotta containers with a lining such as plastic sheeting this will also cut down water loss. It’s surprising how moist the containers will keep with a little bit of sheeting to keep the water from draining away – but remember you do need some drainage holes at the bottom somewhere !

Always water in the evening if you possibly can, the evaporation loss can be quite substantial if you water in the hotter parts of the day. You can find you only need to water half as much if you do, also using a watering can is much more efficient than a hose, you’ll waste lots more water with a hose than you will using a watering can.

Any More Environmental Tips for Gardeners ?

There’s actually many more, mostly common sense ways to minimise your environmental impact with gardening. Reducing waste is obviously important, and the simplest way is to make your own compost, most organic matter is suitable so gather grass clippings, weeds, kitchen waste and shredded cardboard together to create your own compost.

Normally the best compost will be 50% green material and 50% woody material, use paper shredded up or sawdust even dried leaves to balance out the mixture if you need to. Also make sure that the compost remains moist.

But even if you are not able to create enough composts for your needs, make sure that you never but peat composts always buy peat free ones. Peat is extremely valuable to the environment actually locking away carbon and preventing it creating CO2 in the atmosphere, it shoudln’t be used in gardens as it takes hundred of years to replace each meter that is used for gardening.

REMEMBER DON’T BUY PEAT BASED COMPOSTS !!!!

I hope these environmental tips for gardeners are useful to you, I’ll publish some more on this blogs very soon.