Gardening can be a great way of keeping active. Staying fit by gardening means that you keep at it, doing it quite often. The first step in creating a garden is, you must determine what size you wish your garden to be.
In our case, we used to make more than one garden. In the back yard was a garden that was 15 feet long x 15 feet wide. On the East side of the property we had a squash/pumpkin garden that was about 20 feet long by ten feet wide; and in the front of the house, beneath the windows, were flower gardens.
Realize, though, that the bigger your gardens are, the more upkeep you’ll have to do on them. That’s where ‘Staying Fit by Gardening’ comes in. Don’t think that, just because a garden looks simple that it’s an easy thing to accomplish.
Mulch is a good start. Begin by dumping all your organic material in one place. Composting is a great way of creating good fertilizer. The main thing with composting is to know what you should compost, what you should never compost, and how to compost. First, buy a composting bin. They will make things really easy for you, as they’ll keep it from spreading, make it look nice, and give you a neat way of storing it. Black compost bins will radiate the heat to the compost, keep the heat inside and intensify the action. You can also build your own bin by looking on the internet for plans, or even have a bin-less compost ‘heap’. Bin-less systems oftentimes don’t work because you start throwing things on the pile which have a depth to them. Things won’t compost properly if they’re getting lots of air throughout them because someone put branches on there. Staying fit by gardening means that you do many different things, not just stand there and wait for crops to grow. First, unless you put some effort into it, your crops will wither and die, instead of grow.
Grass and lawn clippings make good compost, hay, kitchen wastes such as peels/rinds, coffee grounds, eggshells etc. They should be soft and moist. You can also bury your compost about 8” deep. This will keep the neighborhood pets out of it. Don’t put things like scraps of meat in it or fatty foods. Leaves are good and straw or grass that has gone to seed; wood sawdust and chips are good.
If you put your hand into the compost, it should be extremely hot. If they’re not getting hot, they need more moisture.
My father used to ask the farmer across the street if he could have a wheelbarrow of manure to put on his gardens. Each of these things will keep you fit. Buy a wheelbarrow, and use it to transport mulch, compost or manure (if handy). Nothing beats manure as fertilizer.
Next, you should determine the pH of your soil. If it’s too acidic or too alkaline it would behoove you to purchase topsoil from your local store. You should have, at least, four inches of good topsoil that isn’t either too acidic or too alkaline. Tomatoes will grow well in acidic soil, but carrots will be thin and spindly. So, you might determine the plants that do well in acidic soil, and plant those there. Then, put the topsoil in the areas which are more temperamental. Staying fit by gardening is a good way to have fun, as well. Enjoy your garden.
When choosing a lawn mower, the first thing you should determine is what the square footage of your lawn is. Some things you should consider are whether it has any steep slopes. In our case, there was a slope which had been created when the river used to be higher than it is right now. How many obstacles are there? When you plant a tree, realize that tree will grow very quickly. You’re going to have to accommodate every tree that you plant, so consider that when you’re deciding upon a lawnmower. It’s easier to hand-mow around trees than it is to use a ride-on lawnmower.
Determining just how dense your grass is will help determine what blade size and rotation you’ll need when you get to the store. If you’re way out in the country, you won’t have to worry as much about the amount of noise you make, and air pollution might also be a consideration of yours. Are there strict neighborhood zoning rules and regulations or noise restrictions that you’ll have to worry about? There might be particular kinds of motors which are restricted.
Cost is of course a main concern. Having around an acre of land, we decided that a hand-pushed lawnmower was good enough. After you’ve considered these things, it’s best to write them down and bring them with you so you don’t forget any once you’re there.
Whether you wish to bag or mulch is important. Bagging means that the clippings are stored and thrown away in plastic bags. Mulching means that the organic material will need to be chopped up finer. Mulching shreds the grass and clippings, redistributing the fragments over the lawn as you mow. You might consider it to be free fertilizer.
Walk-behind mowers tend to be six to ten horsepower, whereas riding mowers range from twelve to eighteen. The ‘deck’ is the housing that houses the blade. Since neither aluminum nor plastic rusts, you might consider those if you live in an area which has high humidity, such as Florida. If the deck is long, so will the blade be long.
Since mowing speed is determined by how much horsepower the mower has, combined with the rate of blade rotation and deck width; you shouldn’t purchase a mower that’s way too big for the size of your lawn.
How fast the mower can turn might come into play if you have lots of gardens or trees on your land. Turning radius is just how much you can maneuver the mower to pass around shrubs and obstacles.
Self-propelled mowers help you with the job. Part of the energy of action is sent to the wheels with such a mower. This means that it’ll be easier for you to push the mower. What you gain in convenience, you lose in money. They tend to range between $500 to $900 dollars. So, as you can see, there are many things to consider when you’re choosing a Lawn Mower.
If your yard is fairly level, it’s small, and you have less than an acre, then a regular push mower will work. They’re self-propelled, and go for as little as $150 – $200. I started out with one of those. They have a blade which turns as you push it. It makes a little whirring noise, but the neighbors will love you. So, when you’re choosing a Lawn Mower, you can pay as much as $5000, or as little as $150.
Everybody knows that a lawn can make or break a house. That large expanse of pure beautiful grass is what you had in mind when you bought the place. Wow, did it look good. Now, however, it’s turning brown, it has some bare spots where the kids put their pool over the summer and it died, it’s peppered with dandelion weeds, poison ivy vines have started growing in the back yard, and the neighbor’s dog is doing it all over the back yard.
What can you do, if your lawn isn’t what you had imagined it should be when you look out the picture window? Well, remember that tending the lawn can be a Zen-like art. You might use that time to enjoy the smell of fresh-cut grass, hear the kids playing next door in the pool and enjoy the rays of sun as they hit your face in the cool breeze. The secret to life is, you have to enjoy it. Instead of thinking that it’s a miserable chore that you have to do, make it enjoyable. Since looking after your lawn is important to you, have it be an enjoyable experience for you.
First is cutting your lawn. One of the main things which will make your lawn look shabby is if you let it grow too long. Are your neighbors eying your lawn as they drive by? Well, most likely it’s because they’re thinking, “If they don’t mow their lawn, soon, all those weeds are going to germinate and those seeds will be peppering my own lawn with yellow dots, too.”
Unfortunately, the freedom of America isn’t truly complete freedom; because freedom for one person might mean extra work for another; and that’s not fair. And, you know that. You are a caring person, and although you might even like a lawn that’s gone to seed because it feels more natural and wild, it is being brought back to its more natural wonderful form. Yeah, that’s what you’ll tell yourself so you won’t have to go out and mow it. You like upholding a neat front. So, when looking after your lawn, enjoy that feeling of satisfaction after the lawn has been mowed.
Some of the problems you’ll run into are… leaves. If you live in the North, in particular, you will have to rake leaves in the fall. Raking leaves can get to be a pain. After it has rained, oak leaves start to rot and get heavy. If you mow the lawn and there are oak leaves on the lawn, they’ll get chopped up, but they’ll also stick to the inside of your mower. Rake the leaves, and you’ll have those nice big homey stacks of leaves. However, have you ever raked a lawn before? Yes, a rake is cheap to buy; however a lawn mower leaf attachment can greatly speed things up. If you have a ride-on lawnmower and you have two acres of land, and you’d like mulch for your garden… a leaf attachment is the way to go.
Leaf blowers are a good way of looking after your lawn. With a leaf blower, you can have the kids blow your leaves into the other guy’s yard (heh heh). “No, really… they were there before they used the leaf blower” you can say.
Sponsored by Best Electric Lanwmower
I have a Black and Decker Rotary Lawnmower – GR3420. While reajusting the handle bars I accidentally severed the wire connecting the hand controls to the body. Is there any way to reconnect this severed wire?
What type of lawn mower will he have? Electric or petrol? Rotary or blades?
Need to buy a lawn mower for my garden – medium size, but don’t know which one. What is the difference between a rotary and a hover, and which one is better? What is the minimum power I should go for? Which are the best brands.? Many thanks.
mower is 6.75 hp,21″multi cut Power propelled rotary mower
I have a Craftsman rotary push-type mower with a 4.5 HP Briggs & Stratton engine. I tried to start it today after about 6 months of disuse. I had left a little fuel in the tank over the winter. The engine fires up for a couple of seconds after I push the primer a few times and then immediately cuts off. I have replaced the fuel (though did not completely drain it). What could be the problem?
A person exerts a force of 120 N at an angle of 40 degrees on a lawn mower handle as they push the mower. If the mower moves at 1.75 m/s, how much power is used by the person to move the mower?