Posts tagged concrete
9 Myths of Gardening
Oct 2nd
Don’t let these classic superstitions waste your time or harm your plants You shouldn’t believe every bit of gardening advice you hear in graduate school. We have all followed someone’s gardening advice without knowing if it was based on sound information. As you maintain your garden, consider if your techniques are simply ideas passed down through the ages or smart practices based on solid science. Here are a few of my favorite myths and the truths we should all embrace. Myth: If a plant is under stress, it should be fed Truth: Fertilizing plants that are not nutrient deficient can lead to additional stress. Fertilizer is added to plants growing in poor soils and to plants that show symptoms of lacking a particular nutrient. Generally, when a plant is stressed, it’s not from lack of food. Compacted soil, heat, salt spray, faulty planting, and improper placement are usually the culprits that stress plants. It is important to rule out other environmental conditions before deciding a plant is underfertilized. When fed, stressed plants use up energy that is better spent on growing roots, walling off decay organisms, or defending against insects. Myth: Cover newly pruned areas with varnish, tar, or paint Truth: There really isn’t a way to keep fungal organisms out of a new cut. In about half of the situations where these wound dressings are used, the tree’s heartwood decays faster than it would have without the topical application. The paint or tar holds moisture near the new wound, which, unfortunately, helps the various fungal decay organisms grow. Instead, simply make a clean cut just outside the branch collar and leave it alone. If pruned properly, trees can take advantage of natural defense mechanisms to ward off most decay problems. Myth: Organic pesticides are less toxic than synthetic ones Truth: Misused pesticides can be harmful, regardless of whether they are considered natural or synthetic. Pyrethrum, for example, is made from chrysanthemums but is still toxic to people and pets when handled improperly. Whenever possible, it’s best to select the least toxic control option available because, even if not lethal, many of these pesticides can cause serious health complications. Safe storage of these products can help prevent any harmful accidents. Read and follow all label directions, and remember that these products are tools, not miracle workers or silver bullets. Pesticides cannot correct mistakes made in plant selection, installation, or maintenance. Myth: Newly planted trees need to be staked and guy-wired Truth: Staking a tree can hinder its proper development. This practice was once a landscape industry standard, driven by a gardener’s inner desire to do something good for the plant to help it grow. It’s best to avoid staking unless the new tree is located in a windy or on a sloped site. Allowing the tree to sway in the wind encourages the development of stronger stabilizing roots. If staked, the tree may become dependent on this support, preventing the root system from becoming strong and healthy. If it is truly necessary, tie the trunk loosely to the stake using fabrics such as T-shirts or bicycle inner tubes to avoid damaging the bark, and remove the support after one growing season. Myth: Sunshine focused through water droplets will burn leaves Truth:> The diffused rays of the sun are not power¬ful enough to cause burning. If it were the case that water droplets burned leaves, farmers would encounter huge losses after each daytime rainstorm. In fact, lawn care professionals often cool turf by spritzing water over the foliage during the hottest part of the day. In general, the best time to water most garden plants is early in the morning because of higher municipal water pressure, a lower evaporation rate, and the potential to reduce foliar diseases that often occur in overly moist situations. But if you are left with no other choice, watering midday will not harm your plants. Myth: Add sand to loosen heavy, clay soil Truth: The worst remedy for a clay soil is to add sand. This practice turns the clay soil into a rock-hard, mortarlike substance. Instead, use organic matter, like compost, to loosen heavy soils because it is light in composition and also improves nutrient quality. Sand can improve a clay soil, but it must be added until it constitutes most of the mineral composition of the soil. At that point, it’s not really clay soil any longer; it is sandy soil. Myth: When it comes to fertilizers and pesticides, if a little is good, twice is better Truth: A precise measurement of these materials is crucial to the health of your garden. If you like to watch the Food Network, you’ve probably seen Emeril Lagasse “kick it up a notch” by adding a little more of a certain spice. This approach may be fine for cooking but not for gardening. Fertilizers can raise salt levels in the soil to toxic levels, burning the roots and stunting growth of your plants. Pesticides, when overused, can also have similar detrimental effects on plants by burning the leaves or raising toxicity levels in the soil. Garden products, both organic and synthetic, are extensively tested during research and development to provide safe and reliable results, so using the exact recommended dosage is the best practice. I recently witnessed an impatient gardener spray some cucumber beetles with a very concentrated solution of an insecticide; the bugs died but so did some of the cucumber vines. Myth: When planting a tree or shrub, dig the hole twice as wide and twice as deep as the root-ball Truth: A planting hole should be twice as wide as the root-ball but no deeper. By applying this planting principle, you will encourage the roots of a plant to grow out, which creates stability and allows the plant to readily find water and nutrients. A good way to make sure that the root-ball is at the right depth is to place the top roots so that they are parallel with the soil surface and then apply 2 inches of mulch over them. Think of it as a “planting area,” instead of a “planting hole.” Don’t add compost or potting soil when backfilling the planting area. Most roots prefer to grow in these amended soils instead of spreading out through the landscape. Myth: Drought-tolerant plants don’t need to be watered Truth: All plants need to be watered to become established. Most “drought-tolerant” plants such as Russian sages (Perov¬skia spp. and cvs., USDA Hardiness Zones 6–9) and black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia spp. and cvs., Zones 3–11) are those that can survive through an average summer without supplemental watering. These plants, however, are usually not drought tolerant in the first year, and regular watering and an application of mulch are good ideas. After that, you can pretty much allow them to fend for themselves, but even the toughest of plants will benefit from a monthly soaking
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Cool Summer with an Inground Swimming Pool
Sep 27th
Driving back home after a splash at the local pool is not a very good idea. It takes all the freshness away. Beat the heat this summer by setting up an inground pool in your own backyard. Enjoy with your near and dear ones and let your worries wash away. Whether you want an inground pool or above ground is a matter of personal choice. Inground pools are permanent structures so you have to decide carefully where exactly you want your pool before you start digging that hole. Inground pools are more expensive than above ground pools but surely are a value addition to your property and are more appealing. You have three primary options with an inground pool fiberglass, vinyl or concrete. A fiberglass pool comes in one piece and once the hole is dug out in your backyard, the pool-shell is installed. These are generally more expensive than concrete inground pools but have a better lifespan because fiberglass pools are easier to maintain, requiring fewer chemicals. Fiberglass pools also eliminate the need for future re-plastering and liner replacements thus reducing your expenses in the long run. Construction time is roughly about two weeks. A vinyl inground pool is furnished to the installer in kit form. Panel walls are joined together and a concrete footing is placed at the bottom for support. A vinyl liner is then spread over the excavated floor and the sides and connected to the top of the panel walls by a vinyl rib. Panel walls maybe of wood, steel or polymer. Vinyl pools are smooth but require replacement every 10 years. Construction time is about one to three weeks. Concrete inground pools are the most common types as these are more durable and can be custom-built to your needs and specifications. Concrete pools have the advantage of flexibility in design, shape and depth at the initial stages of construction. The construction process of concrete pools includes a number of phases forming, applying concrete, tile, coping and plastering. The construction time is between three and nine weeks. As the concrete pools are of high quality they are also among the costliest.
Landscape gardeing for your reptile pets.
Sep 25th
There are many people who often love the idea of keeping exotic pets, like reptiles in their homes. Lizards snakes and alligators are always in demand at the pet stores. It is very important to have proper reptile tanks, reptile caves and other reptile accessories to put these reptiles into a set up that they deserve to be kept as a pet.
The problem is that often when people get tired of the up-keep of such pets they allow them to escape into the wild. Once the get away, sometimes they do not come back and if you have a male and female or a pregnant reptile which gets away, you can cause some real problems for the local eco-system. Thus it very essential to go through the various reptile books and understand the exact type of reptile foods and reptile products available in the market to keep your reptile friends in the most suited environments.
Facts about reptiles:
1. Reptiles are among the longest-lived species on the planet. For example, large tortoises such as the Aldabra tortoise can live for more than 150 years. Alligators can live nearly 70 years. Ball pythons, a popular type of pet snake, can live up to 40 years (consider that before getting one as a pet).
2. Snakes and lizards flick their tongues in the air to capture scent particles. They don’t smell through their noses like you and I. Instead, the use their tongues to collect scent particles and then pass the particles over something called a Jacobson’s organ to decipher the air around them. This is partly how reptiles hunt for food.
3. Certain types of snakes can go months without eating. This is especially true of the big constrictors, such as the Anaconda and the reticulated python. Snakes eat large meals (relative to their body size), and they have much slower metabolisms than we humans have. This partly explains how they can go so long between meals.
4. Most of the world’s snakes (nearly two-thirds) are non-venomous. Only about 500 snake species are venomous, and of those only 30 – 40 are considered harmful to humans. In other words, less than 2 percent of all snakes are considered harmful to humans.
5. Cold-blooded is not the best way to describe reptiles. Their blood is not necessarily cold by itself. But they are ectothermic, which means they get their body heat from external sources. Reptiles cannot regulate their body temperature internally as humans do.
