Landscaping
How to Care for Your Outdoor Water Fountains
Garden lovers around the world love putting fountains among their flowers, plants, bushes and shrubs. And with the
Christmas season upon us in the U.S., many garden lovers may get their very first fountain as a gift this year.
Fountains make wonderful gifts year round. They're beautiful to look at, and fit well with almost any landscape. They're
also quite serene and have a wonderful calming effect. So if you're getting or giving an outdoor water fountain for a
gift this year, here are a few caretaking tips you'll want to have on hand...
Many outdoor fountains are made of concrete, and concrete expands and contracts in cold weather. If at all possible,
you should move your concrete fountain indoors for the winter.
If you're not able to move it indoors, check it frequently to see if there's water collecting in it. You should keep
it completely dry during the winter months.
If your fountain will stay outdoors throughout the winter, you also need to remove the pump and store it indoors. Fill,
wrap, or cover the fountain with blankets, burlap bags, tarp or other protective materials to help shield it from severe
cold. Be sure you have the fountain covered entirely for maximum protection.
During warmer months, you'll want to clean debrise - leaves and twigs for example - from your fountain at least once each
week. Take particular care to clear any debris from around the pump as well, so it doesn't clog.
Add a small touch of bleach or special algae removing solution to your fountain regularly, to keep the water clear and
prevent residue or algae buildup around the sides. If your fountain is accessible to pets and animals: do not use
bleach. Instead, be sure to use an animal friendly cleaner such as Microbe-Lift Fountain Clear.
Following these simple maintenance tips will help keep your outdoor fountains in tip top, beautiful condition for many
years to come.
© 2004, Kathy Burns-Millyard.
This article is provided courtesy of
http://www.Buy-Outdoor-Fountains.com
Lawns, Gophers & Moles
A few gophers can tear up a nice lawn in short order. Even if you're a complete animal lover, you won't want the gophers
in your yard. After they destroy your lawn they'll start eating the roots and killing your roses, fruit trees, any attempt
at a vegetable garden, the bulbs you plant and so forth. Gophers and gardening don't go together at all! The gophers got
to go. I have had many run ins with gophers in my years of gardening and I've always been successful in getting them out of
the lawn and garden. I don't like killing them or any animals for that matter, but with gophers, they usually don't give
you much choice.
Poisons: Resist the urge to use gopher or mole poisons. The poisons only
work so-so, and the poisoned rodents may easily be eaten by an owl, snake, cat, or fox, and then they'll die too.
If the predators are killed off the rodent population, unchecked, will quickly explode in number.
Barn Owls: If you're out in the country one of the best ways to get rid of both gophers
and moles is to put up nesting
boxes for barn owls. These big nesting boxes are generally perched on the top of 11 to 20-foot tall poles. The boxes and
their poles are placed away from the house but not too far from the lawns and yards. A nesting family of barn owls will
eat thousands of rodents each season, and they are very good at catching gophers and moles. If you live in an area where
palm trees grow, and you do not trim off the dead branches that accumulate below the crown, sooner or later a barn owl
will move in and set up home. Take advantage of this and leave a palm tree unsheared. The incredible number of rats,
mice, moles, ground squirrels, and gophers they'll kill and eat is quite incredible. I now see in many orchards and
vineyards, where they have put up these owl boxes. The owls are saving the farmers a lot of money.
Nesting boxes for barn owls are usually made from plywood and the roofs are slanted so water will run off. Sometimes the
roofs are shingled too. A nesting box for barn owls should be a minimum of 12 x 12 inches for the floor and at least 16
inches deep. The box should have small drain holes placed in the floor, in the corners. Small holes should be drilled
around the top of the box on each side for air circulation. It is best to build the box so that it can be cleaned out
easily once a year when the owls are gone. The box should have only one opening and this must be at least 3 ½ inches
in diameter but not more than 5 inches wide. Too large an entrance hole will let great horned owls in and they'll eat up
the barn owls. Horned owls eat rodents too, but are not nearly as tough on rodents as the smaller barn owls.
*For a place to buy good owl boxes already made (they'll ship them to you) see the
Owl Nestbox Resource Page. At this site you can also
find more detailed instructions on building your own owl boxes.
The bottom line with barn owls is they are
the most effective rodent killers in existence.
The right family cat can also be a pretty good rodent catcher. Gopher snakes! I also know of quite a few people who have
caught gopher snakes and then released them on their own property. The best way to catch a gopher snake or two is to drive
very slowly in the country on a paved road that gets very little traffic. Pin the snake's head down with a stick, pick it
up firmly from behind the head, and stick him in an old pillow sack. They're not poisonous but will often bite and the
bites don't feel good either. The best time to go looking for gopher snakes is in spring and early summer, just before and
just after dark. Evenings that are cold and windy will produce no snakes and nights will full moons are likewise
not productive. Gopher snakes are, like barn owls, designed by nature to catch and eat gophers and moles.
Gopher traps: There are a number of gopher traps on the market but
by far the best is the old Maccabee gopher trap made of heavy wire. These are tricky to set if you've never done it before,
so buy them at a farm supply store and ask someone there to show you exactly how to set one before you leave the
store.
Trapping gophers is very effective if done right.
- Tie a wire about two feet long on the end of the gopher trap and secure it to a sturdy metal or wooden stake.
- Find the newest, freshest gopher mound.
- Dig out the opening of the mound with a shovel, open up the tunnel and place the trap as far into the hole
as possible.
- Pound the stake down near the hole but not into the tunnel itself. The stake and wire will insure that you don't lose
the trap. A trapped gopher may easily draw the attention of a cat, dog, hawk, owl, skunk or fox, and they'll run off with
your gopher and your trap. The wire and stake keep that from happening.
- Leave the opening of the hole open. The light coming into the hole will serve as bait, since the gophers intended for
that hole to be closed.
- Set several traps in different holes if possible.
- Check the traps at least once a day and re-set them if you've killed a gopher or if the gopher has set off the trap
and gotten away.
Water, smoke bombs, and road flares: Sometimes you can get the gophers, and moles too,
to move out of your territory just by flooding their holes. By all means go ahead and stick the garden hose down a few
holes and give this a try. Usually though, flooding them doesn't work very well, if at all. Smoking them out works much
better than flooding them. There are special gopher smoker bombs made and sold in all good nurseries and these work
pretty well. What works even better than the gopher bombs are regular red road flares. You can buy road flares
very cheaply too, at an auto parts store. They will usually come in several lengths and the longer ones burn longer and
are more effective. At any rate road flares of any length work pretty well. Dig out the gopher mound and open up the
tunnel. Light the road flare by twisting off the cap and then striking the tip of the flare with the end of the cap.
Point it away from yourself so you don't get burned. Shove the lit end of the road flare into the gopher tunnel and then
shovel some dirt back over the top of the opening. Stamp it all shut tight with the sole of your shoe. You'll see some of
the smoke escaping up through the dirt. If you spot smoke coming up from another hole in the lawn, quickly go over there
and plug up that hole. The smoke from road flares is sulfur smoke and it will stink out the entire tunnel. On occasion
the gophers will be asphyxiated from the smoke and will die in the tunnels. More often though, they will take
off for an area not anywhere near that stinky sulfur smoke. The smoke and its smell will persist in the tunnel for some
time and the gophers will often simply abandon the tunnel. The gophers may well make several more attacks on your lawn
and flower beds and you may need to smoke them several times and in several different tunnels to get rid of them. If
the smoking doesn't work for you, buy some gopher traps.... or get a gopher snake.
Moles: Gophers are much larger than moles and they dig much larger holes and tunnels
too. Gopher tunnels are often fairly deep into the ground but mole tunnels often run just under the surface of the lawn.
Often you can just look at the lawn and see exactly where these mole tunnels are because they are pushed up just under
the surface of the lawn. Gophers come into an area to eat the plants but moles are insect eaters and they
don't actually eat any of your lawn at all. Moles seem to be much more common in high rainfall areas and are uncommon in
drier, irrigated lawn areas.
Moles and grubs: There are many different traps made for killing moles but resist the
urge to buy and use these. Poison baits for moles are not a good idea either. The moles are tunneling through your lawn for
a reason. If you have moles in the lawn, you can be assured that you also have a lot of grubs in the lawn too. The moles
are eating these grubs. The grubs can be up to about an inch long and they are usually white or gray and often have
brown heads. Areas where grub infestations are especially thick will often show patches of lawn dying from the grubs.
Grubs or Dogs?: If you have a dead patch of lawn where the center of the patch is
totally dead but the edges of the patch are extra green, this damage isn't from grubs, it's from dog urine. The nitrogen in
the urine fertilizes the lawn that it doesn't outright overdose and kill. This is why the edges of the patch will be
greener than the rest of the lawn.
Skunks?: Sometimes a grub-infested lawn will attract nighttime raids by skunks. The
skunks (and occasionally raccoons too) will tear up pieces of your lawn as they dig up the grubs to eat. The solution here
is much the same as it is for getting rid of the moles. If the moles eat up all the grubs in your lawn they'll move on to a
new grub-filled area. Of course, in the process they'll tear up your lawn. So, what to do? The most obvious answer is to
kill off the grubs in the lawn. These grubs are larvae from any number of insect pests, and in the lawn they are also
important pests of the lawn. Left unchecked, the grubs may well destroy most of your lawn by themselves. There are a
number of organic or inorganic methods of killing off lawn grubs.
Flooding the lawn seems to help to bring the grubs up closer to the surface, where they'll be easier to kill. Look for
sources of these bio-controls in the Links section of this book, under IPM. IPM is short for integrated pest management and
it is often very effective and safe. Most of the soil grubs are larvae of some kind or other of beetle. If the grubs are
larvae of Japanese Beetles they can be attacked with Milky spore, which is an organic product that only attacks
Japanese Beetles. There are bio-controls, safe biological agents that kill soil grubs. Heterorhabditis bacteriophora
nematodes have shown good results for white grub control. Nematodes are tiny soil wireworms. This particular species will
find the white grubs and kill them. These beneficial nematodes are available in mail order catalogs, often sold as
Hb nematodes. They should be applied to already thoroughly watered lawns late in the day and then watered in immediately.
These nematodes will not damage the lawn or other garden plants. Nematodes work fastest in sandy soils and slower in
heavy, clay soils. Organic insecticides can also be used as a drench on your lawns and sometimes they're quite effective.
A mix of water, soap, pyrethrum and rotenone will often kill most of the grubs. Even organic insecticides though will also
kill off earthworms and other beneficial soil organisms.
Chemical control: For a chemical approach, a single treatment can be made between
mid-July to mid-August. Commonly used chemical insecticides are chlorphyrifos (Dursban), carbaryl (Sevin),
and soil diazinon. The pesticide must be watered into the soil well after use, or it won't be effective. Keep in mind that
none of these chemical insecticides are healthful for the family dog, cat, the kids, or for the songbirds that might well
eat some of the chemically poisoned earthworms or grubs. Some lawn experts will recommend use of the chemicals
trichlorfon (Dylox), imidacloprid (Merit), or halofenozide (GrubEx) in mid-summer as a preventative measure against lawn
grubs.
Other preventative measures:
- Keeping a lawn healthy won't keep grubs and moles out of it, but a healthy lawn can recuperate much faster
after attack.
- Mowing the lawn too short will weaken a lawn and make it more easily damaged by grubs. Mowing higher promotes
a stronger root system. There is evidence too that grubs, as with most insect pests, will attack an unhealthy lawn before
they do a healthy one.
- Keeping the nitrogen levels up and maintaining a good amount of humus in the soil sometimes helps to lessen
the chance of grub damage. Grubs will attack any species of lawn, although the worst damage is usually seen on bluegrass
lawns.
- Aerating the lawn makes for stronger roots and it also gives birds a better shot at picking out these grubs. Many
birds that are attracted to our birdfeeders and suet feeders also will eat both the grubs and the beetles that the grubs
come from. Encourage wild birds in your yard.
- When you water, water deeply. This will also help develop a stronger root system.
- Over-seed bluegrass lawns each spring with a mix of fescue or perennial ryegrass seed. If the grubs ruin the
bluegrass, you'll still have a lawn.
- In heavily grub-damaged lawns, take a rake and rake the exposed soil up; this will expose the grubs to
the birds.
- Soak grub infected areas with soapy water. Use a quart of liquid dish soap to several gallons of water and soak
the lawn with this mix. It will kill grubs.
- Sometimes grubs can be held in check by dusting the lawn several times with diatomaceous earth. This safe product
kills grubs that come to the surface and eat the grass leaves.
- Lastly, some people put on those spiked strap on sandals and walk around on their lawn, spearing grubs as they walk.
Of course they're also aerating the lawn at the same time. I have no idea how effective this
method is, but hey, it can't hurt.
About the author:
Thomas Ogren is the author of Allergy-Free Gardening, Ten Speed
Press. Tom does consulting work on for the USDA, county asthma
coalitions, and the American Lung Associations. He has appeared
on CBS, HGTV and The Discovery Channel. His book, Safe Sex in
the Garden, was published 2003. In 2004 Time Warner Books
published his latest: What the Experts May NOT Tell You About:
Growing the Perfect Lawn. His website:
www.allergyfree-gardening.com
Straight Talk On Decorating Around the Garden
Do you live near a park? Most people do - there are so many around now. All levels of government recognize the value of
a green environment. And, of course, if people know that government has provided them with lots of parks and trees,
they'll get lots of votes. But the bottom line is - we have, in North America, some absolutely beautiful parks.
Some of the most beautiful parks are natural areas, untouched by man, with lots of trees and plants flourishing in
their natural environment. For example, New York's Central Park is a welcome escape from the hustle and bustle of the
city, even though it's right in the middle of the city. In California, there's Redwood Park, with its statuesque
redwood trees. In Vancouver, Canada, there's Stanley Park, another beautiful acreage of natural habitat, set right next to
the city.
And then there are the world-famous gardens, like Butchart Gardens in Victoria, British Columbia, the Royal Botanic
Gardens in Kew, England, and the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens in Cape Town. These displays of flowers literally take
your breath away, their beauty is so stunning.
But you don't have to go around the world to find a garden that takes your breath away. You can create your own park -
your own place to go on sunny Saturday afternoons, complete with shady trees and cool summer breezes. You can create the
best of parks right in your own backyard (or front yard, too, for that matter).
Imagine your garden as a beautiful park
Why do people go to parks? Most would probably say that they go to parks to relax. Think of the soothing feeling you
get when you walk into a quiet forest, with their pine needle beds and their sweet scent of mature wood. Or perhaps the
park you most like to visit is a garden of floral delights - roses, chrysanthemums, magnolias, and perhaps even orchids.
These gardens are definitely places that whisk us away from the rush of your daily lives into what almost seems like
another world. These are the gardens that are decked out in flowers, with colorful garden decorations, statues, bridges,
fountains - all the things that just call
out to you saying, Come. Sit down. Relax. Breathe in the wonder of nature.Who could resist that call?
But you don't need to go out to parks or gardens to find an environment so sweet. You only need to go as far as your
own back yard. There's no reason why you can't create a garden of your own, just as good as any you'll find in
your neighborhood, or in your tourist area. You can create your own garden.
If you don't think you're creative enough, then there are lots of landscapers who can give you expert advice.
They'll come and survey your yard, and present you with a number of plans that'll give you a wonderfully unique garden
that'll make you the envy of the entire neighborhood - or maybe even the city. Landscapers are trained professionals.
They can design and create a whole environment of beauty from your plain old yard. But whether you hire somebody, or do
it yourself, the possibilities are endless. There are literally hundreds of ways you can beautify your garden. One unique
way is with a decorative mailbox and post in front of
your home.
You can create a garden as good as any park
To come up with a wonderfully-landscaped garden, just sit back, close your eyes, and let your imagination run
wild. Picture yourself sitting in your gazebo, the soft water of a gently-running fountain soothing your senses. You
rise from your garden bench, and slowly wander over your little wooden bridge that crosses the babbling brook flowing
through your garden. You stop here and there to admire the roses climbing the trellis, or smell the carnations crawling up
the gazebo walls, perhaps picking one to take inside and put in a glass on your living-room table.
What a wonderful feeling that is, isn't it? And this is something totally within your range of possibility. Think of
all the things you could do to turn your yard into a park. You could put little statues at the entrance, beckoning
everyone that passes by to stop and commune with nature a while. If you'd like to educate your friends as they enjoy
your garden, you could put up garden signs, naming the more exotic plants and flowers you've brought in. Great
conversation pieces!
One of the more popular items in a creative garden these days is a pond. There are dozens of
types of fish you can keep, depending on the size of the pond. You can fill it with lily pads, and
floating plants. You can even put a fountain right in the pond. There's nothing like sitting in your yard with your
eyes closed, listening to the soothing sound of gently-splashing water. It just seems to take you away from it all,
doesn't it?
Gardens can be functional, too
The functional aspects of your garden can be esthetically-pleasing, too. You can now get decorative
water sprinklers with a dragonfly or butterfly on top. And garden structures don't have to be big and ugly. You can
get garden sheds that look more like
little guest houses, colorfully decorated with ivy and vines. Outside the shed, you could put a garden bench, inviting
someone to sit and take a deep breath of fresh air, fueled by the fragrance of blooming flowers.
You can do the same thing with your shade structures, too. You can strategically place canopies around your garden,
creating little rest areas. Or you can get very creative with awnings, like attaching them to your gazebo, or a trellis,
where they can be rolled out as the sun passes. Again, these are available in many attractive designs, fulfilling
their function, while still providing a pleasantview.
And how about a deck, to connect all that garden beauty to your house. A deck can also be very functional,
while still remaining charming and stylish. And you can outfit your deck with some great-looking teak patio furniture,
and protect yourself from the sun with a colorful awning that'll match your house. Again, it can look good and provide
a purpose at the same time.
What a picture you've painted
That's quite a picture you've painted in your mind, isn't it? Well, it doesn't have to remain just
a picture. You can turn it into reality any time you want. There are some wonderful
Garden Centers out there. There's sure to
be one in your neighborhood. The people there are usually very knowledgeable and very helpful. They can guide you through
all the phases of creating your own park in your own yard. They'll help you find the best garden decorations. They'll show
you the best garden furniture. They'll help you choose the best garden structures.
When you're developing your garden, take the time to let your creative juices flow. Come up with unique
ideas that identify your garden with you. Duplicate your personality in your garden.
About the author:
Melissa Cameron is a successful author providing moneysaving tips and common sense advice for consumers purchasing
area rugs and
inflatable kayaks.
Her many articles offer valuable insight and straight talk on confusing topics.
