The Benefits of “Sustainable Gardening”

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As gardeners we always think of having a beautiful garden which can provide bountiful produce. Today, many families have their own backyard and gardens. There are different types and methods of gardening, and we always strive to find the easiest, safest and fastest way of growing our vegetables, flowers and other plants available in our garden. How can we achieve a sustainable garden and why is it very important in the environment and nature.

Having a sustainable garden is the effective way of keeping our ecosystem in its normal state and condition. Our economic and global condition is in crises, farmers and gardeners are now using the sustainable methods of gardening to solve the problem. The implementation of organic gardening and natural landscaping are some of the basic steps.

What is sustainable gardening?

Sustainable gardening is the conservation of energy, water and nature. The recycling of waste materials, responsible gardening, and sustaining the ecological balance of the area.

What is organic gardening?

Organic gardening does not use fertilizer, pesticides, and machines to cultivate. It only uses compost fertilizer and manual labor to maintain the plant and soil.

What is natural landscaping?

Natural landscaping is also called native gardening, using native plants found locally in the area. The benefits of using native plants in gardening, is it can easily adapt to the condition of the area and less in maintenance.

Gardening Benefits and Advantages

  • It provides daily fresh fruits and vegetables
  • Regulates waste, pollution, and garbage
  • Provide fresh air
  • Can help in relaxing the mind, and create a stress free environment.
  • It is a healthy hobby to partake in and good for children to get involved in.
  • Helps you exercise your body while working in the garden
  • Fresh fruits and vegetables gives more nutrients and very healthy to eat
  • Makes us believe that gardening is fun and relaxing
  • Having quality time with the family when doing gardening together.
  • Don’t have to go to the market or grocery store to buy fruits and vegetables.
  • Can help through donating extra harvest to the needy
  • Can help make the surrounding clean and beautiful to look at.
  • Plants clean the air from any toxic chemicals in the environment

In My Garden:

In my garden we planted many different varieties of flowers and vegetables. These are native common plants, vegetables and flowers which grow naturally in our area and garden. It is not difficult to plant fruits and vegetables because we have two climates, the rainy season and the sunny season. Two tools I use commonly when working my garden are a bolo and shovel, I use these to plow and till the soil when preparing to plant the flowers and vegetables. I heard about sustainable gardening and decided to educate myself and learn what it is all about. I have spent many hours researching and learning about sustainable gardening and horticulture, finally I am starting to understand what sustainable gardening is about. Sustainable gardening for me is protecting the garden from any destruction and saving it for the future generations gardening.

Maintaining the garden is not an easy task, as gardeners we aim to have a productive garden that can provide natural fresh food to our families. Our aim is to protect our environment and provide sustainable gardens for us to keep thriving, alive and nourished.

© 2011, Mower Mart. All rights reserved.

General Garden Maintenance Tips for the Autumn Months

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During the autumn months, there are some basic garden care tips that you need to keep in mind. These tips are designed to help you have the most beautiful garden and lawn possible. So grab your garden blower and let’s begin the process. Just keep in mind to never walk on your grass if there is a frost on it.

The first thing you will want to do is remove dead plants from the garden. These are the plants that thrived in the warmer summer months and are now withered on the ground. By removing these plants the overall appearance of your yard will greatly improve. During the removal process, you may also choose to plant new flowers and vegetables in your garden. You should ensure these new additions are freeze resistant and plan on having a covering for them at night.

When you have the garden free from dead plants, you will then need to grab the garden blower and remove all the leaves. This will be something you should do on a weekly basis, as the trees will continue to lose their leaves for a few months. When they are done, you can then put the garden blower away for a few months.

Next, move your grass to remove the buildup that is beneath it. Carefully go in a straight pattern and don’t worry about getting the lawn too short, right now you are preparing to do some seeding and fertilizing that will prove to be important down the road.

When this is done, take a few moments to use a lawn rake to clean up the area. Take your garden blower to it one more time just to ensure there was nothing left behind as well. Then starting from the edge of your lawn, then working backwards fertilize your lawn. As you do this process, be sure you have an even coating across the entire area. When you are done, make sure you do a full watering to ensure that the area remains moist. In about a week, you will want to reseed your entire lawn paying close attention to any bare or yellow patches that might turn up after you have done the fertilizing process.

After you have setup your entire yard and have prepared it for the cooler months, be sure that you follow the next piece of garden care advice. You will need to take your sprinkler system and wrap it well. Any watering that you might need to do in the winter months should be done by hand with a detachable hose. This will help you to prevent freezing and having a sprinkler system that can cause your problems next year.

Something to keep in mind during this entire process is some plants can’t tolerate the cold well. If you are expecting a freeze at anytime, be sure that you cover weaker plants with a warm blanket or plant cover. This way, you keep them looking great for the next season.

Mower Mart

© 2011, Mower Mart. All rights reserved.

Top Tips for Garden and Lawn care for the month of August

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As the warm summer sun starts its decent into fall, we begin to look at what lawn care is essential for this time of year. Since most of us simply do not have the time to spend hours on end to keep up the garden, we will explore the available options for superior yard care.

What gardening tools you will need:
To begin the process, some very important tools should be in your possession. The first is a petrol lawnmower and this will be the most important item to use for the lawn care process. In addition to this very important tool, you should also have:

  • Hose/Irrigation System
  • Rake
  • Edger
  • Clippers
  • Gloves

Rake the lawn before and after you cut:

For those that would think it is brilliant to mow their yard and avoid raking it, they will sadly be disappointed. Raking your lawn free of leaves and debris is an important step in helping to keep your lawn looking amazing. It will also help keep the lawn’s clover runners properly maintained and free from being problematic.

Now you can get down the lawn care and ‘using that lawn mower’:

Keep in mind that your lawn should be mowed only during the early morning or late hours just past sunset. Trimming during the intense midday heat can be problematic for not only you, but the lawn as well. When mowed during the cooler portions there is less shock on your grass.

Once you have finished with your petrol lawnmower, you can then move on to the next step of lawn care. From here, we essentially need to trim the outer portion of our lawn. When you are trimming the edges of your lawn keep in mind you do not want to take it too close to the ground. Work the edges down to match the length of the fresh cut lawn. When possible, blend the section around it for a brilliant look.

Hedges are ready to be trimmed back toward the end of August. During the summer rains, you might find that they have become quite overgrown and unruly. Take note of the traditional form of the hedge you are cutting and begin to cut back the new growth until you have a more rounded or square shape hedge. Be careful not to cut too deep or leave bare patches on them.

As you walk around your flowerbeds and garden, weed out the new growth that has occurred from the summer rains. During this time, you may pull out anything that has died since the time you have planted it. Many plants will die in different seasons, and this is not a direct reflection of your gardening skills.

Once you have completed the maintenance on your lawn and garden put away your petrol lawnmower and tools. When you have put them away, begin to water your lawn, pay special attention to areas of the lawn that appear to be grayish and perhaps thirsty. If they remain ill looking, ammonia can be added in a light concentration to perk it up.

Lawn care can be a rewarding experience for individual who does it. Keep in mind that in August there are some special needs to tend to like extra weeding and raking leaves. When it is done and in good condition, you will have a lawn to be proud of.

Mower Mart

© 2011, Mower Mart. All rights reserved.

Simple Lawnmower Maintenance Tips

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Let’s all be honest here, who does not want to have a lawn that will make passersby stop and breathe out the words “beautiful” and “enviable”?; your front lawn speaks a lot about how you keep your home and people respond to it, which is why a reliable lawn mower is a must have among your gardening tools and equipment and invest in it you must, since these babies don’t come very cheap.

With that being said, you need to take into consideration some tips on how you can do proper lawnmower maintenance or the occasional repair yourself, after all, you need to learn how to take care of that investment of yours.

The first rule in garden machinery cares is to make sure that you provide a space either inside your garage or tool shed to put your lawn mower in; leaving it exposed to the changing weather and seasons can cause damage and rust to the blades, as well as on the other parts, so keep your mower inside a dry and clean area when you are not using it.

To keep your lawn mower in perfect working condition for the rest of the year though, the first thing you should do is to check the battery regularly; just because it is not “lawn mowing season” does not mean you will leave your mower’s engine to gather dust, make sure that you keep the batteries and the engine in good condition by starting it from time to time or make sure that the batteries are charged. You should also check if you’ve got old fuel in the tank since old or deteriorated fuel can damage your lawn mower’s engine. Get rid of old fuel that can clog up the carburetor in your lawn mower’s small engine and simply add a fuel stabilizer every time you fill the tanks with fuel, this way you can avoid spending a lot of time and energy trying to start a clogged up engine as well as save a lot of money on costly lawn mower servicing. And you also need to do an oil change on your lawn mower every three to six months or change the oil before you start using the lawn mower once again in the spring especially if the oil inside its’ engine has not been changed since winter started. Keep in mind that your lawn mower is powered by an engine (unless you own one of those manually powered lawn mowers) and all automotive engines need regular oil engines for it to work properly and avoid premature damages.

Another cost effective and actually very simple way to make sure your lawn mower will work properly when you need it is to replace spark plugs as well as the filters before you use it again during spring or summer, doing so every year extends the life of your mower. Make sure that you wash thoroughly and then air dry the foam filters and replace all paper filters, and change the fuel filter, too so you won’t have trouble starting your lawn mower.

Mower Mart

© 2011, Mower Mart. All rights reserved.

How to Protect Both Your Lawnmower and Your Lawn

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You will soon find out that there are a lot of reasons why your lawn can easily lose its vivid green colour during summer time; with the lack of nitrogen being a strong possible reason. If you are picky about grass care, and notice that your lawn doesn’t look its best, take a look at the fertilizer you are using; quick release fertilizers often are the cause of such condition in the grass. When fertilizing your lawn or garden, it might be a good idea to work with a slow release nitrogen fertilizer instead; applying it during the first few days of the growing season and watering the area properly. This assures you that you are keeping your lawn and your garden very healthy. Make sure though, that there are no chances of sudden rains before you apply the fertilizer since excessive rainfall will wash away the fertilizers you spent a lot of time putting on the grass, otherwise your fertilizers will be washed away without having any effect on your lawn.

For those who use a Lawn mower, always adhere to the one third rule in lawn mowing, most especially during the hot summer months. Keep in mind that when you cut the grass on your lawn, you need to cut only one third of the blade of the grass since you need to keep it a little longer to provide shade to the crown of the grass, as well as the soil, preventing the grass from getting burned. You also need to make sure that the blades on your petrol lawnmower or push lawnmower – whichever one you are using – are kept sharp just before you cut the grass, this way, you can keep your grass in wholesome condition because it will be cut correctly and not torn away from its crown, which is a big NO in proper lawn care. Because of this you ought to make sure that your lawnmower is kept within your garage or shed, or anywhere it will not be drenched by rain and cause the blades to rust.

By keeping the grass a little longer, it traps moisture on the crown as well as on the soil, making it soft and safe for children to play around in. In case you encounter an infestation of insects in your garden or your lawn, there are several highly effective chemicals available in stores and online gardening stores that you can acquire and use. But do not just buy the first product that you see online or in the stores, take your time to read product reviews and consult with a skilled gardener and ask for recommendations, making the wrong choices may cause your garden or lawn more trouble than good, choose carefully and soon enough, you will have a healthy, vibrant and very beautiful lawn.

Mower Mart

© 2011, Mower Mart. All rights reserved.