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Gardening Supplies

Saturday, November 7th, 2009

Garden supplies are essential to the development of a good garden. They make gardening easy, and there are certain things that gardeners find indispensable.

Here are some examples:

Gloves: gloves help protect the hands from chapping or getting bruised while working in the garden. Typically, they are made of supplex nylon for toughness, as well as a feeling of softness against the skin. Sometimes gloves are made of Lycra spandex for good fit, stretch ability and comfort. Gloves are even made from fabric that breathes and promises durability. The palm is made of leather. Such high-tech gloves offer extra knuckle protection and a cloth sweat wipe. They are usually washable, do not shrink or stretch and resist hardening. For more demanding jobs, gloves are made to resist abrasion and are double stitched for protection.

Neem oil can safely be used for pest control, especially aphids and mites. It is a bio-pesticide that can be used to keep many insects out of your garden. Neem oil comes from pressing the neem tree, which is part of the indigenous flora of India and eastern Burma. It has been used effectively for several thousand years as a natural insecticide. A garlic barrier is an odorless insect repellant that can be used on lawns, flowering plants and vegetables. And, leaf mulch can be used to enrich the soil. Another soil enricher is earthworm casting. Know as black gold, this mulch it is produced by earthworms.

Pruners keep your garden trim and well groomed. Make sure they are made of high quality aluminum and built to precision with ultra hardened tool steel blades. Some pruning equipment is made to allow the gardener to trim at ground level while standing. Thorny bushes can be pruned from a safe distance. Some pruners come with a rotating cutting head with a range of 240 degrees.

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Pruning Tools and Garden Maintenance.

Sunday, August 9th, 2009

Secateurs are used for any small branches, up to as thick as a garden hose. Great for quick trimming, tidying up cutting flowers, etc. Secateurs are used more often than any other pruning tool. Let us presume that your garden is properly maintained on a regular basis. Therefore, any pruning needed should never get any larger than the thickness of a garden hose – also, there are a lot more small branches than large ones, and it is not all that often that large branches need removing.

Loppers are used for branches that are too large to be cut with secateurs. A saw is needed for even larger branches. Always use good quality tools and make sure they are always sharp. Poor quality tools will fall apart rather fast, and blunt tools just make the task harder.

Proper pruning.
In order to maintain the overall good health of your plants, cut out any diseased, weak or dead growth.
For diseased growth, it pays to get a good gardening book, or some reference material, in order to identify diseases before madly cutting anything out.
For weak growth, well, here you must make an educated appraisal of the overall look of the subject plant.By example, if what you see is mainly pencil thickness branches, and here and there, twigs, or stuff that looks like hair pins – get rid of the twigs. Or, if the majority of the branches are good and solid, but there are a number of spindly ones in there – keep the solid stuff. This is not an exact science and if you miss a few, or just cannot decide – leave it. By observing what happens in the following season, you will see how these things grow – and be prepared for the next season.

Dead growth can be tricky sometimes, so let me hasten to add – just because a branch has no leaves on it, does not necessarily mean that it is dead. What is needed here, if there is doubt as to the viability of a branch is, grab it down low and pierce the bark with your thumbnail. If there is very little change in color, it is probably dead. Try a few other places along the branch to see if the results match. To compare, look to a branch you have already pruned and know is alive, do the thumbnail thing. Compare the color on the two branches.

With wood you know is dead, using the thumbnail trick, continue doing this down the branch, until you find live bark, if there is none remove the entire branch.

Where you are going to cut.
You want, in all instances, to cut to healthy wood. If you are pruning a healthy branch, at your desired new length, locate an outward facing bud, as in away from the plant. The bud you are cutting to should be easily identifiable by the fact that, this is where a leaf once was and there should be a swelling, if not an actual bud showing. To identify a new bud, if it’s not immediately obvious, look to find some sort of pattern. Is there a shape, ridge, dimple or something that occurs evenly down the branch – this can be flat or raised, but this is your bud.

In most cases, you are cutting from just above the bud, about 5 mm. and down on a shallow angle – towards the plant. The thick part of the secateurs, the anvil, should always be uppermost to the part of the plant being removed, this way any bruising by the anvil is removed with the unwanted plant material. If the plant has buds opposite each other, then cut straight across, above the buds.

If removing a branch close to the main trunk of the plant, do not cut it flush with the trunk. Leave a small nub of wood and viable bark, this will encourage the plant to cover the wound with new bark. This will help prevent access by pests and disease. No garden can be successful without pruning tools and garden maintenance.

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The Best Secrets Of How To Prune Roses .

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009

Pruning your roses is an essential part of rose maintenance. There are many ways and opinions on the best way to prune, when the perfect time to prune is, and which roses need pruning. Many seasoned rosarians have their favorite tested methods.

Pruning roses is not as complicated as some people think. To make it easy, there are 7 basic rules to follow when pruning your roses. If you keep these rules in mind, you will be rewarded with the most beautiful rose bushes.

The first rule in pruning roses is to remove any dead or dying growth. In doing this, your bushes will look good and will be free from signs of diseases. Removing the deadwood will discourage insects from making your rose plant their home. Insects love rose plants so keep an eye out for them while pruning.

Second, you should keep the center of your rose plant clear. This helps keep your bushes clear from pests and insects and allows good ventilation, which reduces the likelihood of fungus growth and other diseases.

Third, it is important to keep your rose plant away from other bushes so that their growth will not be impaired. If your rose plant is disturbed or overcrowded by other plants it may not grow, as you desire.

Fourth, you must shape your rose bushes while they are growing. This will prevent the roses from growing too wildly. If you do this, your roses will grow properly in the right direction. You will notice some roses growing in different directions. These are roses, which have not been shaped during growth.

Fifth, you must use sharp pruning shears. This is important so you make a clean cut and don’t effect the areas that you are not pruning. If you use a pruning shear that is not sharp, it may result in uneven branches, which can hinder or result in uneven growth.

Sixth, you must clean your pruning shears so they are free from diseases or fungus spores. The shears should be kept dry to prevent rust formation which makes your shears dull. If your shears are not sharp, you will have a hard time cutting the desired parts and will end up damaging the branches.

And lastly, you should seal the cuts you have made so that they will be free from disease. Using Elmer’s glue works well and it is inexpensive.

Roses are considered tolerant plants so pruning roses is important to keep them free from diseases and insects. If you follow these basic rules, your roses will flourish and live for many years. It only takes a little patience and your efforts will be well rewarded. Read more other articles about trendy hairstyles and layered hairstyles.

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How To Choose A Single Or Double Stage Snowblower

Saturday, June 27th, 2009

If you are living in a neighborhood that has heavy snow during the winter or if you are a property owner who has problems clearing snow yourself you might want to think about buying a new or used snowblowers. For areas where snowfall is light or for smaller backyards a single stage snowblower should be sufficient. If on the other hand your area frequently experiences very heavy snowfall or you have a sizeable area to clear a double stage snowblower is perhaps a better choice.

Do You Need a Single or Double Stage Snowblower

When deciding on the type of snowblower you will buy consider the size of the area carefully. Match up the width of the pathway you want to clear with the path width of the snowblower model, to minimise the number of passes you will have to perform. Also take into account the annual snowfall in your district and how ‘packable’ it is. If you receive in the region of 50 inches of snowfall each winter a single stage snowblower is probably up to the job. For any more than this or for districts where the snow is typically wet you will certainly be better off with a double stage snowblower that has a motor of 7 horse power or above.

The Different Types of Snowblowers

In a single stage snowblower an auger, which is a rotating drum cuts the snow which is then lifted to be expelled through a chute. A double stage snowblower works in the same way, as the snow is cut but impellers then work to toss the snow into the chute. As a result the snow is thrown further away and with greater power and you can clear the area much faster. For both types of snowblower the discharge can be adjusted by direction and angle. A double stage snowblower needs more power so a larger motor is needed which, of course, increases the manufacturing costs.

Single Stage Snowblowers

Carefully consider the clearing path when you are buying a new snowblower. Single stage models have clearing paths between 20 and 22″ which is fine for small areas but would require a lot of passes for a large area. They are fairly straightforward to look after and being quite compact are a good deal easier to store than a bulkier double stage snowblower. Also examine the wheels. Larger wheels assist propulsion as the blades of the auger can bite into the ground better and help to drive the machine forwards. A single stage snowblower purchased new would be between $250 and $550 with the higher priced machines frequently having a more powerful motor and a clearing path that is wider.

Double Stage Snowblowers

For double stage snowblowers clearing paths usually vary between twenty four to thirty inches with motors from about 7hp to thirteen horse power. Prices range from in the region of $650 to over $2500 for a sturdy, heavy duty machine for very large area such as parks, golf courses and public areas. For most householders, with a large area to clear, a more moderately priced middle range snowblower with a 7 or 9 hp engine and a clearing path around 25″ should be sufficient.

Motors

Craftsman snowblowers are equipped with Briggs & Stratton engines which need no pre-mixing of the gas and oil and have lower noise, toxic emissions and vibrations. Many of the models have electric starters which are often easier to use in the cold than a recoil starter. Honda snowblowers are fitted with overhead cam motors which can operate for roughly an hour and thirty minutes on a single fillup of gas.

Snowblower Weights and Sizes

Check how heavy the machine is before you get it. Some are much heavier than others and if you need to lug it up and down steps when you store it for the summer a heavy machine will make this harder. Also make sure you have room to store your snowblower. Double stage machines are bulky and occupy more room than a compact single stage machine.

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Troubleshoot A Lawn Mower Motor

Friday, June 19th, 2009

When your lawn mower is not operational as it normally does, this means that there is something amiss. Since this is powered by electricity or gas, odds are that the trouble originated from the motor. Here are some steps to assist you troubleshoot what is amiss and then fix the problem.

First, before you get yourself down and dirty, put on some gloves and use some eye shield. You don’t like something to get on your hands or eye so it is better to be safe than sorry.

After that, disconnect the spark plug to prevent the engine from inadvertently running on its own when you are working to find out what went wrong.

Before you take apart the motor, examine the spark plug as the trouble possibly will be right there in your hand. Spark plugs will break down because of wear and tear. If this is the case, you only need to purchase a new one and then change it. If the lawn mower starts and functions like it used to therefore your problem has been resolved.

If it did not function, examine the ignition system. The best technique to examine is through touching the end of the spark plug with a grounded chunk of metal. If there is a spark, then this is not the trouble.

Every so often there is already corrosion in the wiring and this is what contributes to the trouble. If this is the case, you better bring it to the repair center instead of repairing it yourself.

The carburetor just similar in a automobile is the usual cause of engine trouble. To make your lawn mower function once more, all you need to do is clean it especially if this is covered with gunk. You can clean it using some water and let it dry. Other alternative is to run a wire through it especially in those hard to reach places.

If the condition has not improved, you had better inspect the fuel tank and gas lines. Should there be a jam, try using either a thin wire or a light brush. It is also probable that using the push primer will work the trick as this aids to create the right air fuel combination for the motor.

The trouble may also originate from your intake and exhaust valves. This occurs if you don’t replace the oil on a regular basis. Not like the other parts, you can’t clean it and set it back where it is located. You need to purchase new oil and although this will cost you some money, it is still more economical than purchasing a new lawn mower.

One part in the lawn mower that is not that important is the spark arrestor. This part is usually found in outdoor motors and sometimes it catches sparks. This should also be cleaned since if no cleaning is done, your lawn mower can catch fire and the best approach to do that is with a wire brush.

The lawn mower is composed of many tiny parts and if you don’t take care of it correctly, it might conk out on you when you least expect it. To avert that, perform some preventive maintenance every three or six months. If there is a trouble and you don’t see what to do, better get help rather than making things worse.

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