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People will do anything to rid their precious gardens of gophers. These pesky creatures will sneak into your garden at night and eat everything in sight, but before you attempt to shoot your resident gopher with a rifle, or try to blow him up with some dynamite (I have heard stories of people attempting to do this!), there is a way to remove your gopher while still keeping your dignity in tact. Before you learn how to get rid of a gopher, you should know a few fast facts about the creatures themselves. Gophers are usually active during all hours of the day and night, so they will attack your garden at any chance they get – but why? When a gopher tries to eat all of your vegetables, he isn’t trying to make you angry, he’s simply trying to collect enough food to feed his family. You see, gophers don’t hibernate during the winter months, which means that they must store away enough food for the whole winter. Your garden, being an easy target, is full of easily accessible food that a gopher can quickly grab and bring back to its young. Just don’t try to follow your food into its den – gophers can be fierce when it comes to protecting their lot. Now, to get rid of them. There is no need to kill your gopher, after all it’s just trying to survive. Instead, use a product called “Shake-Away.” In the wild, animals are attracted and repelled through the smell of another animal’s markings (this is why your dog finds those fire hydrants so attractive). Shake away is, essentially, a powerful granular form of repellent that gophers are naturally afraid of. What, exactly, inside of this powder? The worst thing that a gopher could possibly imagine – the smell of a fox. Instinctively, gophers will not venture towards an area that smells like trouble, so naturally they will just stay away from your garden. Keeping a gopher away from your hard labor is as easy as shaking a box, so don’t resort to rash tactics. Go the natural way, and use Shake Away to keep all the little critters at bay.
If you have ever glanced at a Monet painting, you will have noticed lots of purple flowers gracing the canvas. That’s because the southern part of France, Provence, consists of rows upon rows of sweet smelling lavender fields. Emulating a dreamy French garden in your backyard can transport you back in time to a place where slowly growing roses intertwine with purple lavender flowers, all set against an exquisitely French background. In order to begin constructing this look, you will want to gather some older looking structures to fill in your backyard scene. Lightly painted fences, faded pieces of wood, and white washed furniture are all aspects of a French garden that are essential to tying the whole look together. Next, you will want to purchase an abundance of lavenders, you can never have too many. If you happen to be allergic to this highly potent flower, you can always opt for a plant that produces the same purple color without the strong scent. Other flowers you will want to consider are the “royal sunset” variety of roses, and some yellow or gold daisies. No French garden would be complete without the addition of water, since water is such a vital part of life in France. Inserting a few lily ponds or trickling waterfalls inside of your garden walls will set off your colorful bouquets with a serene song. Other things to consider are fruit trees, vibrant colors, and green shrubbery. A large part of a French garden is its aesthetic appeal, so make sure you combine fruits with flowers and let the water flow freely in and around some great garden antiques. Creating a French garden is easy if you keep the paintings of famous French artists in mind while you are shopping for garden flowers and wares. Once you have complete your retreat, sit back and relax with a tall glass of freshly squeezed lemonade and a fresh pastry – c’est la vie!
Lawn – meet the future. If you are used to spending many dollars a month on landscapers or a local boy hired to mow the lawn, why not invest in a LawnBott? This innovative machine was created by KA Home Electronics and retails for around $2,500. But the hefty price tag just might be worth it when you find out what this grass grazing robot can do. The LawnBott was designed to know its way around a lawn no matter how big or small your front yard may be. This may be the perfect tool for the homeowner who simply doesn’t have the time to spend mowing the lawn, but still wants the yard to appear cared for. If you will be at work all day long, simply program your LawnBott to cut your grass one daily for up to three hours per day. There is no need to manually unplug this handy machine, just keep the LawnBott in its convenient docking station and when it is ready to head out and cut the grass, it will dislodge itself from its sturdy home. If you are going away on vacation, you can program your LawnBott to activate itself every day or just once per week. Additionally, this machine is intelligent – it knows when the lawn is too wet to cut. When the rain stops coming down and your lawn is wet, LawnBott will simply return to its docking station until its ready to try out the lawn again in a few hours. If you leave the docking station at a nearby location, LawnBott will put itself away every time, so you never really have to check up on it. This is, perhaps, the most innovative lawn tool to reach the market in a long time. Not only will the LawnBott take care of your yard, your dog is likely to get plenty of exercise while chasing it around as well. If you simply don’t have the time to take care of your property, purchase the LawnBott and make your neighbors green with envy.
Cedar or wood chips just have the ability to make any landscaping job look a hundred times better, but how do you know which chips to pick? Contrary to popular belief, wood chips actually serve a purpose, and different types of chips will treat your soil differently. If you want to spruce up your yard a bit, here are a just a few recommendations for picking that perfect chip. First, let’s set the record straight – those fancy little pieces of wood aren’t called “chips” at all, so unless you are in the grocery store, a home improvement clerk might look at you a bit funny when you ask for the “chip aisle.” The proper name for these wonderful additions is “mulch,” and it can be found at virtually any gardening store or nursery. Garden mulch helps with eliminating weeds from your soil as well as helping to aid in erosion control. An additional benefit to garden mulch is its ability to keep soil moist and dark, which helps when you are trying to grow plants. Mulch also happens to help protect plant roots from sever heat and rot. There are four basic types of mulch usually found in any garden store. They are Pine Straw Mulch, Bark Mulch (wood chips, sawdust), and Black Plastic Mulch. Pine Straw Mulch is a good choice if you want a subtle red color that has excellent summer and winter insulating properties. However, you will need to remove the mulch in the springtime in order to allow new sprouts to grow. Wood, Sawdust, and Bark mulch are the most popular sorts, and they also act as great insulators in the summer and winter. Perhaps these types of mulch are the most widely used kind due to their ability to let oxygen move around freely while your plants are trying to grow – this is very important to plant life. Again, you will need to remove the mulch once spring arrives. Black Plastic Mulch is, well, it’s plastic. Unless you want a yard filled with small plastic bits, this type of mulch isn’t recommended. Black plastic mulch doesn’t allow the soil to breathe all that well and it is a rather poor insulator. Although you don’t have to remove this mulch in the spring, it does absolutely nothing for your soil either, so there is really no good reason why you should purchase this sort of mulch. There you have it, the basic principles of mulch. Adding the right sort of mulch to your yard or garden can help keep your plants insulated during hot and cold months, and they can also keep your soil nice and nourished. Just make sure you are aware of the type of mulch you are buying and check to make sure that your plants will be able to grow underneath.
Gardening has come a long way from the crap shoot that it once was. Gardening used to mean occasional watering and a lot of crossed fingers. Today, new gardening instruments can easily predict soil conditions and proper nutrients needed in order to keep your garden going strong. Perhaps one of the most innovative products on the gardening market is the new sunlight calculator – this calculator is so accurate, you may just want to use it to find the perfect tanning spot. The SunCaic Corporation has just released the “sunlight calculator” onto the gardening market. This handy tool is affordable (retailing at only $29.95) and highly precise. In order to use this tool, simply place the stake in the ground between the morning hours of 7-9 am (in order to ensure a complete reading). Leave the calculator in the ground for the entire day. When you return home at the end of the day, check the meter. The calculator will tell you whether or not you have enough sunlight to feed your plants. If you use this tool before you start planting your summer garden, you will be able to decide upon proper plants for your sunlight level. You garden will never wilt or fade away if you know how much sunlight your plants need in order to thrive. Imagine being able to predict the sun! Many ancient civilizations would have been astonished by this new invention, but you can use the sun’s legendary powers just to grow pretty flowers. If you, or someone you know, are an avid gardener, this handy tool will be your best friend. |
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