Photo By: Unsplash

Most plants require regular attention, including water and fertilizer to ensure they grow and thrive—particularly when they’re seasonal. While the idea of gardening can be intimidating for those lacking experience, this gets easier when you know which tools to use. Rather than paying a professional to look after your garden, consider investing in tools you can use to maintain it yourself. Buying these tools is a cost-effective investment as you’ll get to use them for years, and save money from hiring a professional. However, it’s always a great idea to thoroughly research on the most essential and cost-effective ones before making any purchases.

To help you choose, here are some of the tools you need to maintain your home garden:

1. Garden Vacuum

Vacuums are essential when cleaning indoors, but do you know that this cleaning tool is also very useful in your home garden? A garden vacuum or leaf blower vacuum is a must for every home garden because it allows you to easily clean large and dry leaves, maintain your gutters, and protect your flower beds. Garden vacuums will also make it very easy for you to clean other tools such as mowers and tractors. Garden vacuums come in different varieties, which is why it’s best if you read more about this tool before choosing and buying any. Ideally, the garden vacuum you’ll buy should fit your needs and budget.

2. Digging Shovel

You’ll have to do a lot of digging when you have a home garden. Often, you’ll have to dig holes for plants and shrubs to maximize the space. What good is a home garden if it doesn’t have any greenery? And while you can always dig with your hands, doing this regularly can be tiresome and time-consuming. This is especially true if you have a very spacious home garden. To make things easier, opt to invest in a digging shovel. This tool is very important because its angled blade design allows you to dig deep and break up the soil with ease. With a digging shovel, you won’t have to worry about experiencing aching hands because of too much digging.

3. Wheelbarrow

You’ll have to accomplish several tasks to ensure that you’ll have a perfect lawn all year long. You’ll have to regularly clean the space from debris, remove weeds, and look after the health of your plants. For you to easily accomplish all of these tasks, buy a wheelbarrow for your home garden. A wheelbarrow is a very versatile tool because this can help you move things around. When you have a wheelbarrow, you can move large shrubs, and trees from one location to another, and collect garden debris. A wheelbarrow can also be used in hauling bricks, as well as mixing fertilizers and concrete.

4. Hand Pruners

Seeing plants in your home garden will surely make your property stand out in the neighborhood. They add color to your exteriors, and can leave a positive impression among passers-by. However, letting plants grow on their own can also become dangerous. Hanging and weak branches, for example, can fall on nearby structures and cause property damage and injuries. If you have several plants in your home garden, or are planning to add these in the future, buy hand pruners as soon as possible. This scissor-like tool comes with two blades—one dull and one sharp—that help in clipping small branches. Hand pruners can also be used in creating a bonsai area for your home garden, and cutting trimmings into smaller sizes for vermiculture and easier disposal.

5. Garden Rake

When you have a home garden, expect that you’ll have to clean up leaves from the ground regularly. The more spacious your home garden is, the more frequent you’ll have to clean these leaves. This task can even become grueling during the autumn months. You can easily clean your home garden from leaves by using a garden rake. This tool works as a broom for outdoor use, and can help you collect leaves, grass, and hay. A garden rake can also help you accomplish other tasks in your garden, namely clipping grass and mulching.

Consistency Is Key

A home garden can provide many benefits, but only if you exert time and effort in taking care of it. A poorly maintained home garden can adversely affect the value of your home and the curb appeal of your property. This kind of garden can even cause accidents and injuries. Fortunately, you can prevent all of these from happening by using the tools in this article to maintain your home garden. As long as you’re consistent with your efforts, it won’t be long before your home garden offers your desired benefits!

Photos By: Unsplash

The secret to a perfect lawn isn’t really a secret. It’s a combination of choosing the right grass species for the property and knowing the right way to water, fertilize and mow your lawn to protect it from diseases and feasting pests. Striving for a perfectly-manicured lawn? Hoping your front yard will stand as a symbol of pristine lawn care and the envy of all neighbors? Here’s how you can achieve that vibrant green, patch-free lawn.

Choosing the Right Grass

A lawn owner has the choice of plugs, sod, and seed for their lawn. Some grasses are hybrids and can’t be grown from seed. However, there are many other types of grass that can be grown from seed, which is a less-expensive option when compared to sod or plugs and is much easier to install. When you’re shopping for grass seed, avoid the cheap options that are stuffed into displays and sold out of big box stores or even hardware stores. When it comes to grass seed, a yard owner should consult a lawn care professional. Even before it’s time to buy seed, a homeowner should conduct their own research. Anyone hoping to achieve the perfect lawn will need to find a type of grass that thrives in their regional climate and evaluate whether or not it’s a cold season or warm-season grass. A homeowner should also understand how much care a given type of grass will require. Some grass demands routine watering and fertilizing to stay lush and green, while other types of grass don’t need intensive care once they’re established. Other factors you, as the homeowner, should consider when choosing the right grass for their lawn include how much traffic does your lawn experience? Do you have pets and young kids who will play on the grass? You should also verify that the grass is drought, cold, and heat tolerant. If you want the grass to grow beneath the trees on the property, you’ll also need to know if the grass is shade tolerant. Most turfgrass isn’t, but there are varieties that can tolerate shade better than most. You might want to install artificial grass as an alternative since it’s durable and needs little maintenance.

Having the Right Soil

A lawn owner can purchase the highest quality seed they can afford, but if the soil is of poor quality, the lawn won’t be what it should be. The soil for a new lawn should be revived with nutrients found in humus and compost, and its pH will need to be checked. Grass, like many plants, prefers soil on the acidic side, which would translate to a pH just below 7.0. Though sowing seed is easier than rolling out sod and planting one plug at a time in the yard, it’s still work. For successful execution, the trick is to overseed or sow more seed than is recommended on the bag, as not every grass seed will sprout. Be sure to sow cool-season grasses in the spring or early autumn, while warm-season grasses should be sown early in the summer. Different spreaders are best suited for different types of grass seed, so the owner should confirm that they have the right spreader. When sowing seeds, it’s best to start at the perimeter of the property, then maneuver the spreader around like you’re mowing the lawn. After that, the seeds and fertilizer should be covered with a layer of soil, no more than 1/4 inch thick. Some homeowners will add straw to mulch the new lawn. After the seed has been sown, water the lawn until the soil is moist to the depth of one inch. This may mean turning on the sprinkler for 1-2 hours per day until the seeds start to sprout. Once the seed has sprouted, the top 3 inches of the soil should stay moist until the grass is tall enough to mow. This is about 3 inches. When the grass reaches that height, make sure that the soil is watered to 4 to 8 inches deep once or twice a week, depending on the weather. Whatever you do, don’t water a lawn after the sun sets.

Mowing Frequently

Though the lawn may be ready to mow when the grass blades are about 3 inches high, it’s best to hold off on mowing until it extends beyond that three-inch mark, since the roots of taller grass penetrate the soil to a greater depth. When it’s finally time to mow, the mower’s blade must be sharp to avoid crushing the grass. The lawnmower should take no more than 1/3 off the top of the grass blade.

Applying the Right Fertilizer

After the grass is established, it should be fertilized every month during the growing season. Though, there are some exceptions. Your lawn shouldn’t be fed when it’s dormant or during a drought.

Keeping Weeds at Bay

Weeds like to grow around the same time as the grass, so it’s wise to address weeds before they even emerge. This is the job of a pre-emergent herbicide, which is applied in very late winter or very early spring. There are herbicides target broad-leafed and fine leafed weeds, keeping your turfgrass in top condition. If you’re hoping to avoid herbicides, another method to control weeds is to simply uproot them when they first sprout.

Evicting Pests From Your Lawn

Pests tend to make an appearance around the same time as weeds. A healthy lawn is its own ecosystem, so there will be beneficial bugs that exist to prey on undesirable bug species. You can support beneficial insects by introducing more beneficial organisms such as grub-killing milky spore and nematodes to your yard or garden. With the right pest-control strategies, your perfect lawn is just within reach.

You need to mow your lawn religiously, so the blades don’t become long and fragile. And, a task many homeowners fail to fully understand, aeration should be performed at least once a year.

If you are wondering what aeration means and why your lawn needs it, you have come to the right place. Aeration consists of poking holes into your lawn, to loosen the soil and roots. This helps nutrients like fertilizer and water seep deeper into the soil and gives your lawn space to grow. All lawns need aeration eventually, but if your lawn is subject to heavy winter snows or foot traffic (i.e. if you have kids or pets who like to play outside), you definitely need to aerate ASAP.

If you’ve never aerated your lawn — and you are starting to see brown patches and poor growth — it is best to hire a lawn aeration service to assess the damage and take appropriate action the first time around. Still, you should know the ins and outs of aeration, so here’s how to do it properly to prevent additional damage to your lawn.

DO: Prepare Your Lawn for Aeration

As you might expect, driving holes into your lawn can be risky for your lawn’s health, so it’s important that you only aerate when your lawn is ready. Generally, the periods of highest stress to your lawn are the fall and winter; this is when your lawn is preparing to go dormant, so it slows its growth and isn’t prepared to reap the benefits of aeration. You also should avoid aerating during periods of high heat and drought, which also cause your lawn stress.

Instead, you should aerate before or during periods of high growth, which is to say springtime. It is best to aerate after you’ve mowed a handful of times, to give your grass time to wake up and warm up after winter.

Your lawn should be well-watered before you aerate; it’s wise to give your grass at least 1 inch of water two days prior to punching holes. This makes it easier to push your aeration tool of choice into the soil and extract soil cores.

DON’T: Use a Spike Aerator

This is one of the most important no-nos when it comes to lawn aeration, but to understand it you might need some background. There are two types of aeration tools: spike aerators and core aerators.

Spike aerators are exactly like they sound — spikes that punch holes into the soil. They take the form of pitchforks, and you can also buy shoe spikes to walk around your lawn to aerate. Unfortunately, spike aerators typically compound the problem that aeration is supposed to solve. In punching a hole, they compact the soil further around the hole, making it more difficult for grass to grow roots in those areas.

Conversely, core aerators cut a circle in the soil and remove a plug. By making a hole this way, they do not exacerbate compaction problems. Thus, you should only consider investing in a core aerating device.

DO: Consider the Size of Your Lawn

Enormous lawns, like those that make up golf courses, are aerated frequently by a professional service that puts an aerating attachment on a motorized tractor. This is because there is a vast quantity of soil to punch holes in, and the larger, powered machine makes the job more manageable.

If you have a larger lawn, you might also consider investing in a power aerator of some type — perhaps not a full-sized tractor but at least a push machine about the size of your lawn mower. For smaller lawns, manual aeration tools will typically suffice, but you do need to acquire a core aerator; it can’t be said enough that spike aerators are no-go.

DON’T: Rake up the Soil Plugs

After you finish running the aerating tool around your lawn, you might be tempted to rake up all the unsightly little plugs laying around — but don’t. Those plugs will break apart and assimilate back into the soil, and in doing so, they will bring with them nutrients gathered from above-ground. You can sprinkle a layer of compost over your entire lawn to help with this process and give your lawn a growth boost.

Aerating helps your lawn grow, and unfortunately, it can also benefit weeds. To prevent weeds from sprouting up through your aeration holes, you might spread a layer of sand across your lawn when you seed. If you don’t plan to overseed after aerating, you can instead spray your lawn with a pre-emergent weed killer to prevent dormant weed seeds from germinating.

DON’T: Expect Results Right Away

It will take a few days for the plugs to disintegrate, but even then, you shouldn’t expect to see results in your lawn for a few weeks at least. So, after you aerate, you can kick back and relax — or better yet, continue mowing, watering and weeding religiously, so your lawn will have the best shot at looking beautiful all year long.

Keeping your lawn or yard clean and tidy is easy with the right lawn tools. These tools can help keep your grass well cut, and manicured and your flower bushes trimmed to perfection. To help you get the right tools, and take good care of your lawn, here is a list of lawn care tools you should have.

Lawn Tractors and Mowers

Lawn mowers are essential tools especially if you have a large garden or even a raised garden bed. They assist you cut grass in your lawn to size efficiently. They are much easier to use than slashers and other hand tools, and leave your lawn looking tidy and beautiful. Lawn mowers can be powered by electricity or gas and can either be pushed or self-propelled. You can use lawn tractors to cut grass and also attach trailers to carry stuff around. Mowers can also be used for bagging and mulching.

Utility Trailer

A utility trailer is a must have equipment in your yard, especially if you do a lot of gardening. It can help you carry various tools around with ease. All you have to do is keep them in your utility trailer and push it around with you. You simply pick the tool you need to use and return it in the trailer once you are through. Trailers prevent you from leaving tools lying all over your garden or yard.

Garden Hoses and Sprinklers

If you want to keep your grass and flower bushes looking green throughout the summer, then you will have to water them regularly and use basic lawn maintenance techniques. Using watering cans can be tiresome especially if you have a large yard.  Garden hoses and sprinklers can also help you keep you water your lawn when feeling tired. That’s because once you set the system, you only need to open the tap and let the sprinklers do the work for you. This way, you are sure that your lawn will always be watered all the time.

Leaf and Lawn Rakes

If you love a good looking lawn, then you need a good leaf and lawn rake. That’s because during the fall, you will have a lot of leaves strewn all over your lawn. Your lawn can get messy if you don’t collect the leaves regularly. This can ruin your yard, so it is important that you get rid of them with the right tools. Lawn rakes can help you to spruce up grass matted down after months of snow. This helps aerate the grass and allow water, sunlight and nutrients to rich grass roots enabling it to grow vibrantly and get stronger.

Hedge Trimmer and Edgers

Lawn mowers cannot reach grass growing around trees and posts. You also need to clear your driveway and trim your hedges. A hedge trimmer will come in handy in keeping those bushes neat and tidy, while edgers assist your clear grass around any trees in your home.  You can acquire these tools from your local stores or order them online.

Photo: D&D Yard Service

It seems everywhere you look today, people are talking about green solutions for the things we do every day. Green solutions are being sought for the cars we drive, for our homes by implementing solutions like solar energy, and for the lawn care we have done to keep our lawns green and beautiful. Switching to natural, organic methods of lawn care is not only good for the grass, it creates a healthier yard environment for our children, loved ones and pets.

Hallmarks of Organic Lawn Care

The first step to getting a perfect lawn that is cared for organically is to thicken the existing grass. This is usually done by planting more lawn seed in an already established lawn to thicken any thin areas and to increase base areas. When a lawn features thick grass, there are fewer chances for opportunistic weeds to grow and for insects to damage the lawn.

Photo: Your Green Team

You’ll also want to use only natural fertilizers. This means using only fertilizers that have at least 30 percent of their nutrients coming from sources that are completely natural. You can do this by searching for fertilizer yourself and reading packages, or you can trust your organic lawn care to an established Calgary lawn care company or any company that you decide to hire in your local area. Many professionals today offer the organic lawn care that so many people want for greener, healthier lawns.

What Benefits Are There with Organic Lawn Care?

One improvement many people see once they switch to organic lawn care is that the lawn seems to be more drought resistant. This means you may notice fewer brown and yellow patches, and fewer areas that are thinning. The defense systems of plants, flowers and lawns that receive organic care are often stronger. Every lawn has a natural defense system. Once it’s strengthened, the lawn becomes more resistant to weeds and pests.

Other benefits of organic lawn care include longer and healthier soil life, improved root growth and lush grass. One of the best benefits touted by people who have switched to a natural way of caring for their grass is knowing that the lawn is safe for pets and kids. Chances are that your children and pets will spend the most time in contact with the lawn, so most people want the lawn to be a safe place for them to be. Reducing your household’s carbon footprint is another terrific benefit of going natural.

Photo: Fertilize With Halm

Money Savings from Switching to Natural Lawn Care Methods

Over time, you may notice that you don’t need to spend as much money on organic lawn care. No more expensive fertilizers with six-syllable ingredients that make you realize you don’t have any idea what you’re actually putting onto your grass. You may also find that your need for pesticides and weed control solutions are reduced as well.

There is a peace of mind that comes from knowing that you’re taking care of your lawn in a more natural way that will benefit the environment instead of harming it. If you follow other rules for organic lawn care like having the grass cut high and leaving clippings in place when you’re done, you’ll feel better knowing that you’re having a positive impact.