Just Swinging in my Backyard Hammock
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.
Tagged with: backyard • garden furniture • hammock • hammocks
Filed under: backyard garden
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Many people are buying rubber mulch thinking they are doing a good thing because they are being told that rubber mulch is a recycled product and that they will not have to mulch again for many years because ground up rubber does not degrade — as real mulch does as it becomes part of the soil.
However, there are certain things we should not recycle such as lead, asbestos, mercury – and we should not be recycling used tires on either gardens or in places where children play.
Used tires are considered a “Hazardous Waste” in some states and in other states are considered a “Special Waste”. In any case, this is not the way to get rid of used tires
Here are the results of North Carolina’s study on rubber mulch.
Media Notes for North Carolina Growers
Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services
http://www.ncagr.com/agronomi/pdffiles/rubber.pdf
http://www.ncagr.com/agronomi
Ground Rubber: Potential Toxicity to Plants
by M. Ray Tucker, Agronomist
(919) 733-2655
In an effort to find materials to supplement pine bark media, some growers have considered using ground rubber from recycled tires. Ground rubber is free of most disease pathogens, provides good drainage, resists decomposition and is both inexpensive and widely available. However, it has one critical attribute that may negate all of these seemingly good qualities: high levels of zinc.
Tire manufacturing involves addition of zinc oxide to strengthen the rubber. Ground rubber contains 1.55 percent zinc. Under acid conditions in the soil, zinc bound in the rubber becomes available for plant uptake. Research shows that as little as 2 percent ground rubber mixed with sand causes a decline in plant growth that is directly attributable to zinc toxicity (Schulz 1987). Symptoms of this toxicity in amended media include wilting, discolored leaves and very high concentrations of zinc in the leaf tissue (Bowman and others 1994).
Although zinc is essential for plant growth, most landscape soils and media used for container-grown nursery stock already contain adequate levels. Therefore, addition of zinc from any source may cause more problems than it resolves. Ground rubber, as either a mulch or a media amendment, increases the potential of zinc toxicity, especially when coupled with application of micronutrients in the fertilizer. As the old adage says
“Enough of a good thing is as good as a feast … too much of a good thing is good for nothing. …”
-Theodore Hook
As a rule, evaluate any potential soil or media amendment thoroughly before using it on a routine basis. Research on the effects of ground rubber on plants indicates that it is unsuitable for use in production of nursery crops (Handreck 1996).
References
Bowman DC, Evans RY, Dodge LL. 1994. Growth of chrysanthemum with ground automobile tires used as a container soil amendment. HortScience 29:774-6.
Handreck A. 1996. Zinc toxicity from tire rubber in soilless potting media. Commun Soil Sci Plant Anal 27(13 & 14):2615-23.
Schulz M. 1987. Effects of ground rubber on Phaseolus vulgaris. Z Pflanzrnahr Bodenk 150:37-41.-