Home And Garden

  G ardening is a much-loved activity but unfortunately, due to our busy lifestyles, we don't all have the time to beautify our outdoor spaces. So how exactly can we give our gardens the attention it deserves? To get the nation gardening smarter, we suggested 10 tips across watering, lawn maintenance and weeding to help you see greater rewards from your own garden. Watering 1.  Keep flowering beds evenly moist. Water just 1-2 times per week. 2.  It's better to water plants in the evening or early in the morning, when the soil is cooler, as less will evaporate than during the heat of the day. 3.  Avoid watering leaves or plant heads to avoid mould formation, and water gently to avoid damage. 4.  Try an automatic irrigation system if you are away a lot. With a water control they can regulate the amount of moisture in the soil so can let more or less through depending on how the soil feels. Lawn 5.  Protect your lawn from hot weather – temperatures o...

If your lawn is patchy and full of weeds, it will never be the envy of the neighborhood. What you’re after is a lush, green lawn with even grass and no dandelions poking their way through. That may sound hard to achieve, but it isn’t too difficult if you follow these steps. If you only have a few pesky weeds punctuating your lawn, you may be able to dig them up by hand—paying careful attention to make sure you get them roots and all. But if your lawn is overrun with weeds, you may need to start from scratch. Here’s our how-to guide on restoring a lawn full of weeds. Restoring a Lawn Full of Weeds in 10 Steps Step 1: Identify the Weeds You Have In order to make a successful game plan, you’ll need to know just what kind of weeds you’re dealing with. Weed treatments are designed to target specific weeds, so what may work on your broadleaf weeds may leave your grass-like weeds A-OK. Weeds come in multiple categories, either broadleaf, grass-like, or grassy. Broadleaf Appearance: Broad, fla...

The next time your neighbor with the emerald green lawn casts a look down their nose at your less than perfect lawn, don’t feel bad. The fact of the matter is that your weedy lawn is doing more for your garden, the environment and your wallet that the supposedly “perfect” lawn your neighbor maintains. One of the major benefits of having a weedy lawn is that many weeds in your lawn attract butterflies and caterpillars. Common lawn weeds, such as plantain, dandelion and clover are sources of food for the Buckeye butterfly, Baltimore butterfly, Eastern tailed blue butterfly and a great many others. Allowing some of these common weeds to grow in your garden, encourages butterflies to lay their eggs in your yard which will result in more butterflies in your garden later on. Weeds also help to attract other beneficial bugs to your garden as well. Many good bugs, like predatory wasps, preying mantis, ladybugs and bees find food and shelter in the weeds in our yards. These “good” bugs will ...

There are a lot of fungus varieties that can cause problems in turf grass. Mushrooms are among the most visible but least harmful of lawn fungi. Fairy rings are caused by up to 50 different types of fungi and create expanding rings in turf. Neither of these problems has a simple "cure." But there are a few things that might be helpful if you discover you have one or both of these lawn disease situations. Mushrooms Don't Harm Your Turf Mushrooms are caused by a large number of different fungi. They are sensitive to moisture and so they normally appear during periods of heavy rainfall or on very heavily irrigated turf. Mushrooms feed on decaying organic material in the thatch or soil, and do not attack living grass plants. Shallow dead tree roots, construction debris, or heavy thatch on the lawn can become the "host" that mushrooms feed upon. In almost all cases, mushrooms will disappear when lawn moisture levels return to normal, and regular mowing is about ...