Backyard Gardening Tips

Remembering back to my childhood reminds me just how much I loved our old hammock. I could have stayed in it for hours if the adults would have let me but oh no they wanted it for themselves and would give me dumb things to do just to get me out of that hammock.

Well that seems like a lifetime ago and now I’m the adult with a home of my own and it’s my turn to have a hammock. I found Hammocks.com and they seem to have the best hammocks and at affordable prices.

We had maple trees everywhere on our farm and two of them, in our front yard, were perfectly spaced for a hammock. Unfortunately we don’t have any trees large enough yet as we are only just planting them now. The two trees that are perfect are maple trees but they are between the curb and the sidewalk.

I don’t have any intentions of hanging out by the road with my new hammock.

The bases you get with your hammock today is light yet strudy so you can enjoy your hammock without coming crashing to the ground just as you get completely relaxed.

We have four huge pine trees in our backyard but they were not planted with hammocks in mind because they are just too close together so we have to go with a hammock stand, which is cool because we can then move the hammock to the sun or shade or even out of the rain if need be.

Isn’t it time you got your own hammock? Come on over and take a look at Hammocks.com and I am sure you will be swinging in your own backyard.

Image via WikipediaWhen you love the taste of fresh vegetables, you probably wish you knew how to start a vegetable garden and grow your own. It can be quite a simple, yet physical task but the rewards of fresh vegetables and knowing you had a hand in them is well worth the effort. In addition, when you involve your children in the planting and cultivating process, they are more likely to eat what they have raised, meaning better nutrition for them.

The First Steps

The first step in the “how to start a vegetable garden” process is choosing a sunny location for your tasty bounty as they need sunlight for optimal growth. Whether it is a bare patch of ground or you have to create a raised bed using landscape timbers, you want to ensure the area gets plenty of sunlight as well as have proper drainage. Don’t become ambitious and create a huge garden as it may become unmanageable but instead choose a smaller plot, no more than 80 square feet, to get your newbie gardening toes dirty.

Secondly for your quest on how to start a vegetable garden is the selection of the type of vegetables you wish to grow. You will want to choose seeds and plants that are grow well in your particular region but if you are willing to protect plants with covers and such as needed during inclement weather, then you can broaden your choices. Tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, beans, squash, cucumbers and carrots are all great starter vegetables to try as they are easy to grow and tolerant of inexperienced gardeners.

Furthering the Agenda

Next on the “how to start a vegetable garden” process is preparing the ground for planting which includes tilling the ground to break it up. Depending on the ground soil’s condition, you may have to add top soil, humus or even compost until the soil is the proper consistency for planting. Sometimes, the seed packages or the plant pots dictate the type of soil needed while other times you may have to ask the garden center’s advice.

Following preparation of the soil, the next activity in the process of how to start a vegetable garden is planting your seeds and/or plants. Tomatoes and peppers are best started from small starter plants while other vegetables do quite well starting from seed such as the cucumbers and beans. You will want to properly delineate each row with a sign so you know what has been planted.

Watering is the final step in how to start a vegetable garden and you should do so once the seeds and plants are in the ground and covered. Continue to water every other day or as needed and pull weeds as they will choke out your vegetable plants. Eventually, you will have a bumper crop of vegetables just waiting for you to pick, wash and consume as you wish.

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Image by Matt Brett via FlickrEveryone knows that you can use a lawn sprinkler to water your lawn and any surrounding plants within its watery reach.  But why do the expected?  What are some other things you can do with a lawn sprinkler?

Water Toys

There are a lot of toys that become fun only with the addition of a lawn sprinkler.  These can only be played with outdoors, when it’s warm (because you’ll get quite wet) and not when there’s a drought alert in the area.  They toys can make the water wriggle, blast, move in unpredictable patterns, or the toy is shaped like a friendly animal.  Some water sprinkler toys can be attached to your current sprinkler or to your garden hose.

Dog Toy

Not all dogs know how to swim and some have a real fear of water.  However, on a really hot day, Fido would love it if you turned on the lawn sprinkler.  Not only will he be able to cool off, but dogs are often fascinated by the pattern of moving water.  Sometimes it seems to hypnotize them.  Always keep an eye on Fido when the lawn sprinkler is on, in case he thinks the water is trying to invade his territory.

Flame Thrower

There have been people who have successfully been able to attach a propane gas tank to a common lawn sprinkler in order to make a flame thrower.  (Perhaps these people need part time jobs?)  This is not recommended for kids or anyone who is not experienced with handling explosives, dangerous chemicals or large sudden explosions.

Practical Jokes

Practice these lawn sprinkler practical jokes outside before attempting them inside.  You need a sprinkler that can be hooked up to a regular kitchen faucet.  Some sprinklers can be hooked to an outside spigot and then brought inside.  Great to plant inside a newlywed’s bedroom for their wedding night.  Make a small cover with holes in it so it is not apparent what it is.  As soon as the lights go out, turn on.

Putting Out Very Small Fires

Lawn sprinklers aren’t nearly as good as hoses, chemical sprays or even a bucket of sand on a fire.  However, if it’s getting pretty dry around your home and property, a good spritz can help keep the area around damp and keep from being a fire hazard.  This can be especially comforting if you know your neighbors are smokers or if they love setting off fireworks every time the local sports team wins a game.

Image by mbgrigby via FlickrFor any interest, hobby or gardening need, there are many online forums of people just like you, full of questions and advice.  These forums include those devoted to lawn and landscape maintenance.  If you are a professional in the lawn and landscape business, then these forums can be a fun and economic way of keeping your finger on the pulse of your industry.  But even an amateur gardener can learn a lot from lawn and landscape online forums.

Finding Them

It’s never been easier to find lawn and landscape online forums, thanks to search engines like Google, Yahoo! and Ask.com.  If you can remember life on the internet before search engines, when all you had were link directories (if that), then you are probably shuddering at this moment.  All you need to do is type “lawn and landscape forum” into your favorite search engine, and soon you’ll be spoiled for choice.

How To Choose

If you are a professional, then try to target those forums that claim to be for professionals.  These forums are also open to non-professionals (which can lead to getting you some business), but brace yourself for some stupid questions and some name calling if any poster has a chip on their shoulder.  Although some flame wars are inevitable, try to avoid lawn and landscape forums where almost every thread includes a flame war of some kind.  You don’t need the stress.

Most importantly, you need to see how active the lawn and landscape online forum community is.  There should be many recent posts, preferably in the last week.  If you see that the last post was over a month ago, then this is a big neon flashing sign that hardly anyone bothers to check out this forum.  You are better off leaving it for a more active one.  It’s a better use of your time.

Take time to read the FAQ page to see what topics are and aren’t allowed.  There also may be rules on whether you can put links your website on the signature of your posts are not.  If you can, do so, as this is great free advertising.  You already know that your target audience is interested in what you have and will be more likely to go check out your website than even if you advertised in other ways.

Choose a free lawn and landscape online forum.  There really is no reason to have to pay to be on a forum.  You do want to be sure that you have updated your computer security software before you go checking out anything online, let alone lawn and landscape forums.

Even though it was mid summer it felt like Christmas in our minds.

We were definitely blessed when we purchased the home we live in. We had looked at a few places but nothing attracted us. Then one fine sunny day Rick, our real estate agent gave a call about a house he thought we would love.

Excited we went to look at the place and he was so right, it was exactly what we wanted and only a 15 minute walk to where my wife works so we of course put an offer, only to find it was actually sold before we even saw the property. We weren’t angry but slightly miffed to say the least.

Then, a couple of days later we get a call saying the same thing. I think you’re gonna love this one and sorry about that last one. Well we headed over to check it out but there was no excitement going on the way over. I was also sure to ask Rick if this one was still on the market and chuckled a little, but I was serious.

We looked on our city map and noticed that it was only two blocks away from the other house so it was still very close to Jenny’s office and no transportation costs sounded great. Since then fuel costs have only risen.

Once we got there we discovered that it was actually two city lots forsale and it was pretty much the same price as the previous property we missed out on. Now we were getting excited but we did our best to hide any excitement. Our minds were racing with backyard garden ideas.

We saw the second lot as a great place for a backyard vegetable garden area with plenty of space for a few nice flower gardens.

I guess our faces were giving us away because we saw Rick smiling as we were doing our best to remain calm.

The entire properties were surrounded by a mess fence covered with lush green bushes making for an amazing privacy fence on three sides. We have never had privacy and for that reason were never backyard people, but we always wanted to be.

Backyard garden ideas were filling our minds making it hard to keep a straight face. We looked at each other at every turn, smiling from ear to ear when Rick wasn’t looking. Eventually we both burst out laughing and the cat was out of the bag. We loved it.

It’s three years later as I am writing this post but we still love it even though we have had to put a lot of work into our yard and will still be working on it for years to come, but that part of what we love. It’s quickly becoming the home of our dreams and a great place to retire.