The biggest grass mistake homeowners make is not keeping their lawn mower blades sharp. Dull mower blades can be spotted easy by all of the dents on the blade edge. A sharp blade will be smooth. Using a worn mower blade can leave your grass blades torn and susceptible to diseases. Sharp mower blades give you an even cut. Use a flat file to sharpen the blade. Or, you can evnen pull out your Dremel motor tool if you have on to speed up the sharpening.

Your Top 5 Lawn Mowing Tips:

1. Cut your grass more frequently and never cut off more than 1/3 of the leaf blade.

2. Mow at a higher cut.

3. Look out for high spots so you don’t scalp your lawn.

4. Cut across hills, not up and down them.

5. Alternate mowing directions.

Did you forget to clean out your lawn mower deck before putting it away for the winter? Do you now have grass clippings stuck to the underside of your mower like cement? This will help speed removal of grass.

Help clean your lawnmower deck of dried grass by idling it for a few minutes or so while spraying water under the blade. This will force feed the water into the hard grass and quickly soften it up.

Just use a putty knife or even a piece of wood and scrape the remaining softened grass from under your mower deck. After shutting it down first of course.

Making your own rain barrel can be costly. However, there less expensive alternatives and you can put your own rain barrel together for about $30. Below are the tools and materials required as well as the instructions to making your very own rain barrel:

Tools List Drill 6″ Hole Saw or saber saw 29/32″ Drill Bit 3/4″ Pipe Tap Materials List 55-Gallon food grade barrel Screen 3/4″ Brass Faucet Teflon Plumbers Tape 3/4″ Hose Adapter

Instructions

1. With a 6″ saw, preferably a hole or a saber saw, cut a round hole on the top of your barrel. This is where the downspout will direct the rain water.
2. Use the 29/32 bit and drill one hole at the top of the barrel and one at the bottom. The bottom hole will be for your gravity fed faucet and the top one is for overflow.
3. Using a 3/4″ pipe tap, thread both of the 29/32″ holes.
4. If your barrel is used, you will need to clean thoroughly. Since this water will be used for your garden, avoid bleach and instead use something a little greener. Castille soap is great for this since it is made from vegetable oil.
5. Screw the hose adapter into the 3/4″ threaded hole that you drilled at the top of the barrel.
6. Using the Plumbers tape, wrap the threaded side of the faucet to insure a leak proof fit.
7. Screw in the threaded end of the faucet into the 3/4″ threaded hole at the bottom of the rain barrel.
8. Cover the hole in the top by placing piece of screen onto the barrel. This can be any piece of screen that you may have around. I used an old piece from a screen window.
9. Place a length of hose onto the hose adapter on the top of the barrel. Make sure you direct the flow away from your house.
10. Be sure that the barrel is raised above ground, the higher the better since you will rely on gravity for your water pressure.
11. Cut the downspout approximately 4 inches above the barrel. You will probably want to add an elbow to the downspout at this point.

Once you get this far the barrel is ready for use. You can add the faucet to the bottom and let gravity do its thing, or you may even add a hand pump to the top if additional pressure is required.

Benefits to creating your own water barrel not only include an efficient way to conserve our natural resources but rain water is also great for plants because rain water is free of dissolved minerals. This is what is commonly known as soft water.

If you follow the instructions above you will be able to maintain your garden by providing water for your plants. We may not be able to control the drought, but a rain barrel is an excellent way to save our gardens.

That clump of used ground coffee you have left in the filter is high in nitrogen, making it a good mulch for fast-growing vegetables such as tomato plants for both the nitrogen boost and for coffee’s ability to help control late blight. Used coffee grounds repel snails and slugs as well as adding nutrients to the soil. Coffee grounds are also cherished by worms so simply toss them onto the garden and the worms will find them.

Just collect your used coffee grounds each day and spread them out on a pan to dry until damp but no longer soaking wet. Spread your fresh grounds/Fertilizer around the base of the needy plant and it will release the nitrogen as the grounds break down and water passes through them.

Plants That Repel Insects And The Bug They Deter:

* Nasturtiums (aphids)

* Geraniums (Japanese beetles)

* Marigolds (Mexican bean beetles).

These herbs are also good to have in the garden to repel pests:

* Garlic and Chives (aphids)

* Rosemary, thyme, mint and sage (white cabbage butterflies).

You can use basic household items to make your on homemade Fertilizer. Just look around, you probably have everything you need to get started.

Homemade Fertilizer Ingredients: # Lawn Sprayer # One part ammonia # One part Epsom salts # One part beer

1. Mix contents into a container.
2. Pour into sprayer.
3. Spray lawn equally with mixture.
4. Wait at least 4 weeks and reapply.

This mixture will fertilize an area of about 500 square feet, depending on the water pressure through the sprayer. You should wait at least 4 weeks to determine if you need to increase the amount you spray on your lawn.

Your time to Mulch depends on what you hope to achieve by mulching. Mulches moderate the soil temperature by providing an insulating barrier between the soil and the air. Therefore mulched soil in the summer will be cooler than the close by non mulched soil; while in the winter, the mulched soil may not freeze as far down. However, since mulch acts as an insulating layer, mulched soils tend to warm up more slowly in the spring and cool down more slowly in the fall than non mulched soils.

When adding additional layers of mulch to existing perennial beds, wait until the soil has warmed completely.

Mulches used to help moderate winter temperatures can be applied late in the fall after the ground has frozen but before the coldest temperatures arrive. Applying mulches before the ground has frozen may attract rodents looking for a warm over-wintering site. Delayed applications of mulch should prevent this problem as, hopefully, the creatures would already have found some other place to nest!

Mulches used to protect plants over winter should be loose material such as straw, hay, or pine boughs that will help insulate the plants without compacting under the weight of snow and ice. One of the benefits from winter applications of mulch is the reduction in the freezing and thawing of the soil in the late winter and early spring. These repeated cycles of freezing at night and then thawing in the warmth of the sun cause many small or shallow rooted plants to be heaved out of the soil. This leaves their root systems exposed and results in injury or death. Mulching helps prevent the rapid fluctuations in soil temperature and reduces the chances of heaving.

It just takes common sense and a bit of know-how. If you have a good bench grinder or a professional blade grinder, you can do a professional job. If not a flat metal file will do the job just as well but it will just take more time.

This axe and hatchet information will help you choose the best type for your job at hand.

Axes & Hatchets Safety Tips

Your second option is very effective also. You can make a homemade weed killer using white vinegar, salt and dishwashing liquid. Many people call this a weed killer, but it is actually a vegetation killer. It will kill anything it comes in contact with and will change the composition of your soil. Spray it on your lawn and it will kill the entire lawn and you will not be able to plant new grass for sometime. This method does the same to your garden. You will not be able to plant where you spray it for several months. So before you do it, think twice. Mix a gallon of white vinegar with a cup of rock salt and 1 tablespoon of dishwashing liquid. The dishwashing liquid makes the solution stick to the plant leaves. Make sure you shake the solution to dissolve the salt. Just pour into your favorite spray bottle and your good to go.

One thing to think about many plants have already dropped their seeds, so the weeds are going to come back. The best solution to eradicate weeds is spend the time to pull them out when they first appear for several years and use the solution to spot kill weeds in a garden but not a lawn.