Ken's Blog

2012-01-04T09:59:00.000-08:00

Recycle Your Christmas Tree

Get creative in reusing your tree

POSTED BY: NHGC

December 17, 2009

Your holiday tree doesn’t have to end up at the local landfill at the end of the season—make the most of your tree by recycling it. Follow these tips:

-Give it to the birds. Stand your tree about 10 feet from the bird feeder or in a corner of your garden as a shelter for the birds. Decorate branches with fruit slices, pine cones smeared with peanut butter, seed cakes, and suet bags. To prevent the tree from blowing away in the winter winds, attach it to a stable support with wire or twine.

-Create winter mulch. Cut the boughs off and use them as protective mulch around perennials and small shrubs. Remove brnches in the spring.

-Compost or chip it. Many communities pick up discarded holiday trees, then compost or grind trees into wood chips for mulch. Contact your local government office.

-Make potpourri. Dry the branches, then remove and crumble the needles. Mix needles with cinnamon sticks or whole close, place in a bowl, and enjoy?

-Create a winter display. Arrange branches in a large container near your door, porch or other focal point. Add other decorations, such as dried grasses, bright dogwood, barberry, cones, and berries.

-Make a windbreak. Use the tree to shield newly planted evergreens or young broadleaf evergreens like rhododendrons.

-Use as a trellis. In the spring, convert the trunk into a trellis for climbing vines or tomatoes.

2011-12-14T08:59:00.000-08:00

Contemporary Twist

Brighten up your porch, front steps, or entryway with this cheerful container
By: Amy Sitze

If you’re drawn more toward contemporary designs than traditional decor, here’s a modern twist on a holiday container.

Materials:

• Colorful twigs such as yellow-twig dogwood and redtwig dogwood
• Florist’s wire and 6-inch florist’s pick, both available at craft stores
• Pine cones
• Arborvitae branches (or other evergreens with a feathery texture)

Method:

First, add tall redtwig dogwood branches to the center of the container. They should be about twice the height of the container.

Next, add arborvitae branches (or other evergreens with a feathery texture) evenly around the sides of the container, hiding the soil or sand. (See Photo to the right)

For an even more dramatic look, hide white holiday lights deep in the arborvitae, where individual light bulbs can’t be seen but produce a pretty glow.

2011-12-06T10:25:00.000-08:00

Plan for More Garden Space

During winter, a lot of us make a plan for the next gardening season, and chances are, that plan involves making more space to garden.

If you've thought about increasing your garden space but you're not sure where to start, we can help with a few ideas on how to downsize your lawn and turn it into space for planting. Follow these tips for getting started.

   Develop an overall plan. Decide how much lawn you really need, and for what purposes. A landscape designer can be helpful and can offer advice on replacement plants suitable for your soil and climate.

   Phase in the changes. Set up a season-by-season schedule for your lawn conversion, arranged in order of importance. For example, shade trees should get high priority, since they require years to mature.

Tired of Turf?

   Once a week, my town sends an 18-ton sanitation truck rumbling down my road to collect yard waste. As the crew gathers up bag after bag of lawn clippings from my neighbors, I can’t help feeling that robbery is afoot. But far more is at stake with a lawn than what happens when grass clippings are trucked away instead of being left to return their rich nutrients to the soil.
   Lawns are a 20th-century import from northern Europe. Most lawn grasses are better suited to English gardens than to the varied soils and climates in our North American yards. So maintaining a traditional “putting green” lawn often requires extreme measures that have profound effects on your yard’s ecosystem. Consequently, they’ve been called “green deserts.”
   According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, American lawns guzzle up to 60 percent of our cities’ clean water annually, plus 67 million pounds of pesticides and $5 billion in fertilizers (more fertilizer per acre than farmers use). Conventional lawns account for an estimated 90 percent of landscaping costs. In addition, 10 percent of the air pollution caused by gasoline engines comes from lawn-care equipment.
   Overuse of pesticides, weed killers, and chemical fertilizers destroys the soil’s natural ecology by eradicating most earthworms, insects, spiders, and millions of other beneficial organisms necessary for your garden’s health. Surviving pests can develop resistance to chemicals, leaving lawns dependent on even stronger chemicals. In addition, the shallow, dense root systems of lawn grass prevent moisture from penetrating deeply into the soil, causing run-off of precious rainwater.
   To birds, frogs, bees, and other wildlife, a conventional lawn has all the appeal of a sun-blasted concrete parking lot. As with concrete, a large expanse of clipped lawn reflects more heat than do natural plantings, resulting in higher summer cooling costs for nearby houses.
   Lawns do have their uses, (playing areas for young children for example), and it’s understandable that most people aren’t willing to give them up completely. Still, many gardeners have decided to replace their lawns (or parts of their lawns) with more natural, earth-friendly plantings. Shrinking or eliminating a lawn can be a formidable undertaking, so you may opt to tackle the conversion in stages over several years.
   Develop an overall plan. Decide how much lawn you really need, and for what purposes. A landscape designer can be helpful and can offer advice on replacement plants suitable for your soil and climate. Besides trees, shrubs, ground covers, and nonlawn grasses, your master plan might include vegetable gardens, mulched walkways, bird-feeding stations, and ponds.
   Phase in the changes. Set up a season-by-season schedule for your lawn conversion, arranged in order of importance. Shade trees should get high priority, since they require years to mature. And if you’re replacing lawn grass with drought-tolerant native plants, put them in areas farthest from water outlets—this will substantially reduce watering chores as soon as the new plants become established.
   Kill unwanted grass. Using herbicides to eradicate grass can harm beneficial soil organisms. Instead, I’ve had good results using two or three layers of newspaper covered with grass clippings, shredded leaves, or wood chips. This starves grass of light while allowing rainwater to penetrate the soil. In small areas, you can simply dig out lawn grass by hand.

Tips for Growing Non-Toxic Lawns:

If you still want to grow some grass, you can minimize your use of chemicals and water by following these tips:
   • Mow with a sharp blade. Dull blades tear the grass, providing openings for disease organisms.
   • Cut only one third of the grass blade at each mowing. Taller grass suppresses weeds and develops deep, drought-tolerant root systems. I leave my lawn at 2" all year long.
   • Leave grass clippings on the lawn. They supply at least a third of your lawn’s yearly nitrogen requirement. Use a mulching blade if you can and rake up only the thick grasses that may damage the lawn if not removed.
   • Water deeply and infrequently. Frequent, light watering encourages shallow roots and reduces drought tolerance. To reduce evaporation, water in the early morning. Never water at night; this could cause other grass deseases to develope. By watering deeper you are training the roots to grow downward into the soil and this makes for a more drought tolarant lawn.

2011-11-10T08:05:00.000-08:00

Prepare Water Gardens for Winter

By: NHGC

As frost begins to nip at our gardens, it's time to think about winterizing ponds and other water features. The experts at TetraPond, a water-garden supplier in Blacksburg, Virginia, offer the following tips:

Cut back lilies and other deep-water plants to about one inch above the tip. Replace soil and gravel, as needed. To prevent rot, be sure not to cover the plants' crowns.

Move plants to deeper water if you live in a climate where ponds freeze.

■Cut back all growth on bog plants surrounding your pond and mulch with 6 inches of straw.

■Place tender floating plants like water hyacinth in a 3-inch water-filled tray and move them to a frost-free shed or greenhouse.

■When temperatures drop and fish spend most of their time on the bottom of the pond, stop feeding them.

■To reduce next spring's chores, clean out leaves and twigs that fall into the pond and remove as much duckweed as possible. You may want to buy a pond netting to aid in the leaf removal.

■If you don't already have a de-icer or bubble airater, buy one now to keep a small area of the pond ice-free. This will help your fish survive by creating a spot for harmful gasses to escape.

■Turn off filters, (other than fall boxes and skimmers; these can remain running.), then clean them and store them inside.

*Check out Ken's Landscape Designs website store for products.

2011-10-25T14:10:00.000-07:00

Awesome Autumn Container

Create a colorful autumn container
By: Michelle Leise

Follow our steps to create a colorful and vibrant autumn container.
Materials
• Drill with 5/8- to 1/2-inch bit
• Pot, about 24 inches high with a diameter of 24 inches at the top
• Plastic saucer with a diameter of about 18 inches
• Trowel
• Potting soil
• Assorted fall perennials and annuals
Tips
• Put in more plants than you think you’ll need. You’ll be surprised by how many will fit and still flourish, and it’s really the only way to get a spectacular-looking container.
• Fertilize once a month and water as needed, depending on the weather and amount of rain.
• For cold climates, use pots made of fiberglass, which withstand freezing temperatures better than plastic and terra cotta.
• Protect your potted perennials during winter if you live in a cold climate. In late fall, carry the pot to an out-of-the-way location and tip it upside down with the plants and soil left in the pot. Don’t bother trimming anything—even the grasses—because the extra foliage will provide warmth and protection during the winter. The foliage will get crushed when you tip the pot over, which is fine. The plants and soil will stay secure because the roots will have combined into a single root ball. Pile plenty of straw around the pot to insulate the plants during the winter.
• When danger of frost has passed in spring, tip the pot back over, trim back the perennials, discard the old annuals, and plant new annuals in their place.
• After a perennial grows for two to three years in the container, divide it so it stays healthy.

Method

-Step 1: Drill drainage holes. Drill three to five drainage holes into the plastic saucer. If the pot doesn’t have drainage holes, drill several of them.

-Step 2: Choose pot and placement. Use a pot that’s sturdy enough to hold large plants and big enough to look visually balanced when you add tall grasses. Place the pot close to its permanent location so you won’t

have to carry it far when it’s full.

-Step 3: Fill with soil. Set the saucer into the pot (see step 3 photo) so it rests about 6 to 8 inches into the pot—that way, you won’t have to fill the entire container with soil, which saves money. Fill with potting soil until the soil is 2 to 3 inches from the top. Don’t fill to the brim or soil will spill out as you add plants.

-Step 4: Group plants. Group together the plants you’re considering so you can look at the overall color scheme and see how their textures and heights work together (see step 4 photo).

For a fall planting, purples, grays, silvers, and burgundies combine beautifully, especially when they have diverse textures. Think of plants such as kale, purple fountain grass, miniature asters, mums, sedum, and licorice plant. Look to recycle summer container plants—we reused Lamium maculatum ‘White Nancy’ and Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ from a summer pot we took apart.

-Step 5: Plant selections. After you remove plants from their nursery pots, use your hand or a trowel to gently spread out roots that appear root-bound (growing in a tight circle). Mums are especially prone to this.

To get lots of color and size right away, put in healthy potted plants from a nursery and some well-established perennials that you (or a friend) have grown for at least a year or two. Ornamental grasses, for instance, will be taller and more lush if you divide them from a mature plant.

2011-10-11T10:32:00.000-07:00

How to Preserve Your Harvest

Learn how to store and preserve your favorite fruits and veggies
By: Veronica Lorson Fowler

Got tomatoes coming out of your ears? Running out of room on the countertop for all that squash? Just served green beans for the fifth night in a row? It’s time to “put up” all that bounty, as our grandmothers might say. But don’t panic—you don’t need a big country kitchen, a pressure-cooker, or even a pantry. Preserving food these days is faster and easier than ever.

Stash it

One of the easiest ways to preserve garden produce is to keep it at plain old room temperature. Onions, garlic, dried herbs, and winter squashes (such as butternut and acorn) will stay good for weeks. Just harvest, brush off any dirt, and “cure” them for a few days by spreading them out on newspaper in a cool, breezy place out of direct light.

Dry it out

Drying and dehydrating is another time-tested way to store foods. For example, you can cut herbs from the garden, gather their stems together with rubber bands, and hang them upside down in a cool, dry place (such as a closet) for a few weeks.

Apples and tomatoes can be dried in the oven. Wash them thoroughly, slice them up, and treat fruits as needed with ascorbic-acid color keeper (such as Fruit Fresh) to prevent discoloration. Spread out on multiple cookie sheets and bake in a 250°F oven for several hours, turning once or twice, until leathery. Since it’s difficult to get the produce dry enough with this method to prevent any spoilage, store in plastic bags in the freezer.

A food dehydrator is a more efficient way to dry food. It allows you to process large amounts of fruit and vegetables. A dehydrator, which starts atabout $60, dries food so well that you can keep the dehydrated produce at room temperature for several months.

The big chill

Freezing food is one of the easiest methods around. It preserves the flavor, color, and texture of foods extremely well. Deep freezers are surprisingly affordable—they start at just $150.

Freezing is ideal for most fruits and berries. No method preserves their taste and texture better. Wash thoroughly. Cut up larger fruits. Treat apples, pears, peaches, and other produce that might brown with ascorbic-acid color keeper. Freeze on cookie sheets until frozen solid. Store in plastic bags or rigid plastic containers for up to one year.

Or, go ahead and prepare some of your favorite desserts and freeze them unbaked. Fruit pies and fruit crisps freeze unbaked very well. (Some pie aficionados argue that fruit pies actually bake better this way.) Then bake as usual, still frozen, but allowing extra time. Freeze up to three months.

Soups and sauces made with homegrown produce also freeze easily. Tomato sauce, spaghetti sauce, tomato soup, vegetable soup, and squash soup freeze beautifully. Dishes containing pasta, rice, or potatoes, however, don’t freeze well. They absorb too much liquid and get mushy or mealy. Pack into rigid plastic containers and keep for up to a year.

Can you can?

Canning strikes terror in the soul of some cooks. It seems old-fashioned, difficult, and rife with the danger of food poisoning. But as long as you follow a reliable recipe and take the specified precautions, you’ll be fine.

Canning is divided into two basic methods. The easiest—boiling-water canning—requires a special canner pot or a big stockpot with a lid. Just boil filled jars for a specified period of time to sterilize the food and seal the jar. (Times vary; check canning recipes for details.) This simple method works for pickles, jams, jellies, salsas, plain tomato sauce, canned tomatoes, most fruits, and many other foods.

Pressure-cooker canning is used for foods with lower acid levels, in which more types of harmful microorganisms can thrive. The pressure canner (which starts at about $60) heats food to a hotter temperature than a boiling-water canner. Forget the horror stories you’ve heard about exploding pressure cookers—today’s pressure cookers are safer than ever. Just follow directions. Pressure cookers are required to safely process green beans and other vegetables (except most tomato recipes), most soups, and anything containing meat.

If traditional canning sounds a little daunting, start out by doing some “cheater” canning. Make refrigerator pickles, refrigerator pickled garlic, pickled hot peppers, and other pickled vegetables that don’t require heat processing. Just cut up fresh cucumbers and other fresh produce, pack in jars with a vinegar-based brine (often prepared with no cooking), and store in the fridge for at least a week or up to several weeks, depending on the recipe.

Or you can make freezer jam—just mash up fruit, sugar, and pectin. It’s softer than traditional jam, but with a delicious, fresh flavor. It will keep for up to six months in a freezer.

Other preserving methods

There are other delicious ways to preserve the bounty from your garden, too. Try preserving in alcohol. Brandied peaches or pears are wonderful topped with ice cream. Or make a fruit cordial—a combination of fruit, alcohol, and syrups. Some recipes are more about preserving the fruit to eat and some are more about creating a memorable after-dinner sipping beverage. To make brandied fruit or other fruit preserved in alcohol, simply submerge washed fruit (either whole or cut up) in brandy to which some sugar has been added. Use a plate or other clean weight to hold the fruit under the liquid. Look for recipes online, including ones that include a variety of fruits, spices, and other sweeteners. Food preserved in alcohol will last several months and often years.

You can also preserve foods in vinegar or create flavored vinegars with produce from your garden. Make herb vinegar (tarragon is a favorite) or fruit vinegar (raspberry is classic).

Oil is also a centuries-old way of preserving food, though these days food scientists recommend that it be stored in the fridge to prevent spoilage. Try dried tomatoes preserved in olive oil, or make your own garlic oil.

Few things are more satisfying than lining a shelf with neat rows ofhomemade preserves, salsas, and sauces to enjoy for months to come. Or, on a wintry day, enjoying toast topped with raspberry jam you made back in July. You’ll savor the food—and a true sense of accomplishment.

2011-07-06T13:56:00.000-07:00

Mulch......One of my pet peeves.

That's right, it's one of my pet peeves because I see way to many people, (including contractors), just wasting their money when applying mulch to their landscape beds. That's not to say that mulch shouldn't be used around shrubbery, I believe that quality mulch is one of the best ground covers for plants. It provides cooling from the suns heat, retains moister for the plants, ads an attractive color, and gives some weed protection. Where I see the waste of money is in the weed barrier fabric that everyone seems to want to put under the mulch. This is not necessary because of the for mentioned factors. Because mulch can hold moister and with the small grains of dust and dirt that can naturally blow into the mulch; weed seeds that can also blow in with the wind will root themselves right into the mulch. The mulch will provide enough cover as to kill the weeds under it so, you do not need the weed fabric. Fabric can also stop a good amount of water from getting to the roots of your plants. Many of the available fabrics have a run-off factor, more so on hills. It also makes it very difficult to add new plants to your beds later, and can stop perennials from growing larger or expanding. Here is what I do for new beds:

Preparation of a new planting bed.

1) Outline your bed area with some form of marking system. I use field marking paint.

2) Spray inner area with Vegetation contact killer. Be careful not to go outside of your lines or over spray were you don't want to kill vegetation. Be very careful around plants in that area. Remember, Vegetation killer is just that, it will kill what it lands on. Allow area to begin dieing off; when lawn and/or weeds look to be yellow or faded, you can begin to work the bed.

3) Trench or install your edging around the border of your bed. I recommend some form of edging that goes into the ground a minimum of 4 inches to prevent the grass from growing into your bed and eliminate your trenching/trimming each year.

4) Bring in any soil you need to add to the bed. I.E. if you want to raise the bed above the ground level. Rake out to a pre-planting grade.

5) Plant your area with desired plants. Be aware that you will be adding a 3 inch or more cover of mulch to the bed later so, you may want to leave the plant/pot ball up an inch or two from your final grade of soil to allow for this mulch cover. Note: if planting a perennial bed, you should use a lighter cover of mulch as not to prohibit growth or expansion of the perennials. You may also want to plant perennials after you apply your mulch cover.

6) Adjust and rake out the final soil grade of your bed and apply your mulch cover. Note: Do not bury your plants with mulch. Many people pull the mulch right up tight to their plants and end up killing the plant. Too much mulch next to your smaller plants can suffocate them; they need air flow under them so they don't suffocate or rot off with too much water.

To prevent weeds from over running your beds, apply a weed preventer to the soil in the spring after you fluff and/or add new mulch. This will prevent up to 75% of new weeds from germinating. If you see weeds starting to grow, spray them when you see leaves forming with contact killer. This will stop all that kneeling and pulling of weeds that I know you just love to do. Two factors will stop your preventer from working well; 1-if you disturb the soil like pulling weeds or digging in the area. This breaks the weed barrier that the preventer makes. 2- if you get a week of 90 plus degree temperature it could knock out the preventer's percentage of effectiveness. You may want to apply it twice a year,(spring and end of summer), if you have a large problem with weeds in your area.

Spring Cleaning

2011-03-24T06:58:00.000-07:00

Spring Cleaning, Backyard Style
Seven time-saving tips to get your backyard ready for summer

(ARA) - Now that the wintry weather is gone and the colorful blooms are back, it’s time to think about spring cleaning. But while you’re washing windows, scrubbing walls and dusting corners inside the house, don’t forget about rolling up those sleeves and giving the outside a once-over, too.

Spending some time in the backyard as soon as spring rolls around can really pay off. “Winter can leave a lawn in pretty tough shape,” says backyard expert Michael Miller, president of backyard tool manufacturer Hound Dog Products. “But there are lots of little things you can do to help spruce up your backyard when the weather starts to turn warmer. By digging in to cleanup in early spring, you’ll be ahead of the game, and your neighbors will be playing catch-up all year long.”

Miller offers seven tips that the professionals use to ensure a successful backyard spring cleanup effort -- and to help your home’s outside sparkle and shine as vibrantly as the inside.

* Rake. As soon as the lawn begins to wake up for the season, give it a light once-over with a rake, taking care not to disturb any new grass plants by raking too hard. In addition to clearing leaves, twigs and other debris left over from last fall, the first raking of the year also allows you to assess the extent of any winter damage to your lawn. Look for early signs of pests or disease, and nip them in the bud before they cause big problems.
* Aerate. Heavy use throughout the year can cause soil to become compacted. Removing plugs of sod in the spring -- aerating -- loosens the soil and lets water, air and fertilizer get down to the grass plant’s root structure. For smaller yards, or for concentrated trouble spots in any size yard, consider using a manual aerating tool that removes plugs from the turf. If you have a large yard, consider renting a power aerator.
* Top dress. After you aerate, spend a few minutes doing what the experts call “top dressing,” spreading a thin layer of peat moss over the lawn with a rake. The top dressing helps to gradually condition the lawn throughout the year, strengthening the grass so it can resist disease, weeds and thatch, and reducing the amount of water and fertilizer it needs.
* Weed. Go after weeds early in the season before they have a chance to go to seed. Cultivating a healthy lawn is one of the simplest ways to crowd out weeds. Or, remove dandelions and other broadleaf weeds with an easy-to-use weeder. Ergonomic tools like the Weed Hound have helped make long afternoons spent weeding nothing more than a backbreaking memory. All you do is place the tool over the weed, step lightly on the footrest, and pull the weed up, root and all.
* Fix bare spots. Whether it’s due to disease or dog urine, bare patches can make a yard look shabby. A quick and easy way of improving the look of your yard is to repair the discolored patches, especially in early spring, when the cooler temperatures help the grass grow. Just clear away the dead-looking patches, sprinkle grass seed on the newly exposed soil, add fertilizer, and keep the area moist until it sprouts.
* Remove thatch build-up. Thatch prevents sunlight, oxygen and moisture from getting to the nutrient-hungry soil below. But it’s easy to remove, especially if you do it regularly -- every year or two. Just go at the yard with a dethatching rake or power dethatcher to clean away the layer of tangled roots and stems. It takes some elbow grease, but it will help clear the way for new growth.
* Give your tools a spring tune-up. Spend a few minutes in the garage or storage shed making sure your tools are in good working condition -- before you need to use them for the first time. Consider taking your lawn mower in for an annual tune-up. The dealer can replace the oil and spark plugs, sharpen the blade, and get it ready for the season.

A little effort in early spring can lay the groundwork for a thriving, healthy backyard -- and have your neighbors turning green with envy. For more backyard tips, visit hound-dog.com
Courtesy of ARA Content

Helpful Hints For Winter.

2010-12-14T17:20:00.000-08:00

Hey, thought you could use these..........Brrrrrr
SEND THESE TIPS TO YOUR COLD WEATHER FRIEND"S

Just a few common Helpful Hints For Winter.

Keep your headlights clear with car wax! Just wipe ordinary car wax on your headlights. It contains special water repellents that will prevent that messy mixture from accumulating on your lights - lasts 6 weeks.

Squeak-proof your wipers with rubbing alcohol! Wipe the wipers with a cloth saturated with rubbing alcohol or ammonia. This one trick can make badly streaking & squeaking wipers change to near perfect silence & clarity.

Ice-proof your windows with vinegar! Frost on it's way? Just fill a spray bottle with three parts vinegar to one part water & spritz it on all your windows at night. In the morning, they'll be clear of icy mess. Vinegar contains acetic acid, which raises the melting point of water---preventing water from freezing!

Prevent car doors from freezing shut with cooking spray! Spritz cooking oil on the rubber seals around car doors & rub it in with a paper towel. The cooking spray prevents water from melting into the rubber

Fog-proof your windshield with shaving cream! Spray some shaving cream on the inside of your windshield & wipe if off with paper towels. Shaving cream has many of the same ingredients found in commercial defoggers.

De-ice your lock in seconds with hand sanitizer! Just put some hand sanitizer gel on the key & the lock & the problems solved!

Fall is upon us.

2010-10-25T13:44:00.000-07:00

Fall is here and leaves are falling.

What to do with all those leaves and clippings?

Compost Guide - Composting Fundamentals
Courtesy of VegWeb, LLC

Introduction to Composting
Composting is the decomposition of plant remains and other once-living materials to make an earthy, dark, crumbly substance that is excellent for adding to houseplants or enriching garden soil. It is the way to recycle your yard and kitchen wastes, and is a critical step in reducing the volume of garbage needlessly sent to landfills for disposal. It's easy to learn how to compost.

There are a tremendous number of options for containing your compost. Some people choose to go binless, simply building a compost pile in a convenient spot on the ground. Others build bins from materials such as recycled pallets, or two-by-fours and plywood. And, of course, there are many commercial bins on the market.
Composting is not a new idea. In the natural world, composting is what happens as leaves pile up on the forest floor and begin to decay. Eventually, the rotting leaves are returned to the soil, where living roots can finish the recycling process by reclaiming the nutrients from the decomposed leaves. Composting may be at the root of agriculture as well. Some scientists have speculated that as early peoples dumped food wastes in piles near their camps, the wastes rotted and were terrific habitat for the seeds of any food plants that sprouted there. Perhaps people began to recognize that dump heaps were good places for food crops to grow, and began to put seeds there intentionally.
Today, the use of composting to turn organic wastes into a valuable resource is expanding rapidly in the United States and in other countries, as landfill space becomes scarce and expensive, and as people become more aware of the impacts they have on the environment. In ten years, composting will probably be as commonplace as recycling aluminum cans is today, both in the backyard and on an industrial scale. Many states in the USA have stated goals or legislative mandates to drastically reduce the volume of waste being sent to landfills. Utilizing yard and kitchen wastes (which make up about 30% of the waste stream in the USA [1]) is a big part of the plan to minimize waste overall.
You can contribute to the 'composting revolution' by composting your own yard and kitchen wastes at home. If you have a large yard, you might prefer the ease of composting in a three-bin system out by the back fence. Cities and towns can promote composting through home composting education efforts and the collection of yard wastes for large-scale composting. Whatever your style of composting, there's plenty of room to get involved!
Composting Fundamentals
Good composting is a matter of providing the proper environmental conditions for microbial life. Compost is made by billions of microbes (fungi, bacteria, etc.) that digest the yard and kitchen wastes (food) you provide for them. If the pile is cool enough, worms, insects, and their relatives will help out the microbes. All of these will slowly make compost out of your yard and kitchen wastes under any conditions. However, like people, these living things need air, water, and food. If you maintain your pile to provide for their needs, they'll happily turn your yard and kitchen wastes into compost much more quickly. Keep in mind the following basic ideas while building your compost piles:
AIR
Composting microbes are aerobic -- they can't do their work well unless they are provided with air. Without air, anaerobic (non-air needing) microbes take over the pile. They do cause slow decomposition, but tend to smell like putrefying garbage! For this reason, it's important to make sure that there are plenty of air passageways into your compost pile. Some compost ingredients, such as green grass clippings or wet leaves, mat down very easily into slimy layers that air cannot get through. Other ingredients, such as straw, don't mat down easily and are very helpful in allowing air into the center of a pile. To make sure that you have adequate aeration for your pile and its microbes, thoroughly break up or mix in any ingredients that might mat down and exclude air. You can also turn the pile to get air into it, which means completely breaking it apart with a spade or garden fork and then piling it back together in a more 'fluffed-up' condition.
WATER
Ideally, your pile should be as moist as a wrung-out sponge to fit the needs of compost microbes. At this moisture level, there is a thin film of water coating every particle in the pile, making it very easy for microbes to live and disperse themselves throughout the pile. If your pile is drier than this, it won't be very good microbial habitat, and composting will be slowed significantly. If your pile is a great deal wetter, the sodden ingredients will be so heavy that they will tend to mat down and exclude air from the pile, again slowing the composting process (and perhaps creating anaerobic odor problems). If you are using dry ingredients, such as autumn leaves or straw, you'll need to moisten them as you add them to the pile. Kitchen fruit and vegetable wastes generally have plenty of moisture, as do fresh green grass clippings and garden thinnings. Watch out for far-too-soggy piles in wet climates (a tarp may help to keep rain off during wet weather). In dry climates, it may be necessary to water your pile occasionally to maintain proper moisture.
FOOD
In broad terms, there are two major kinds of food that composting microbes need.
'Browns' are dry and dead plant materials such as straw, dry brown weeds, autumn leaves, and wood chips or sawdust. These materials are mostly made of chemicals that are just long chains of sugar molecules linked together. As such, these items are a source of energy for the compost microbes. Because they tend to be dry, browns often need to be moistened before they are put into a compost system.
'Greens' are fresh (and often green) plant materials such as green weeds from the garden, kitchen fruit and vegetable scraps, green leaves, coffee grounds and tea bags, fresh horse manure, etc. Compared to browns, greens have more nitrogen in them. Nitrogen is a critical element in amino acids and proteins, and can be thought of as a protein source for the billions of multiplying microbes.
A good mix of browns and greens is the best nutritional balance for the microbes. This mix also helps out with the aeration and amount of water in the pile. Browns, for instance, tend to be bulky and promote good aeration. Greens, on the other hand, are typically high in moisture, and balance out the dry nature of the browns. If you'd like specific information on different materials, check the 'What to Compost' section.

OTHER THINGS TO CONSIDER
If you live in a cold climate, your compost pile will probably go dormant in the winter. No problem -- it'll start back up again when the springtime thaw comes.
A common misunderstanding about compost piles is that they must be hot to be successful. This just isn't true. If you have good aeration and moisture, and the proper ingredient mix, your pile will decompose just fine at temperatures of 50 degrees Farenheit or above.
Hotter piles will decompose a bit faster, however. One way to understand why this is so is to realize that the heat in a hot pile is the result of the collective body heat of billions of microbes that are busy digesting the ingredients in the pile. Generally speaking, a hotter pile means more microbes or conditions that allow the microbes to have faster metabolisms, and therefore a faster composting process. If you'd like to keep your pile as warm as possible, consider the following:
For a pile to get hot and stay hot for a long period of time, the typical minimum size for the pile is one cubic meter (a cube one meter, or about three feet, on a side). A pile this size has plenty of mass in which those billions of heat-generating microbes can live, yet is also large enough that the center of the pile is well-insulated by the material surrounding it. Smaller piles just cannot insulate themselves well enough to remain hot for long, if at all. You can also provide additional insulation to a pile by stacking bales of hay or straw, or bags of dry autumn leaves, around your bin system. Some people even used stacked hay bales to make bin systems (this kind of bin will slowly compost itself, of course).
Composting Questions and Answers:
When is my compost finished?
Finished compost is dark in color and has an earthy smell (like the smell of soil). Usually, it's difficult to recognize any of the original ingredients, although bits of hard-to-decompose materials (such as straw) sometimes can be seen.
There is no single point at which compost is finished -- it's a bit more subjective than that. For many outdoor garden applications, for instance, it can be fine to use compost that still has a few recognizable bits of leaves or straw -- it will finish rotting in the soil. If you plan to use compost in seed-starting mixes, though, you're best off having a well-finished compost, because seedling roots may be attacked by decomposer microbes if the roots contact unfinished compost.
How can I use my finished compost?
To tell you the truth, well-finished compost looks so fine that I'm tempted to eat the stuff sometimes. However, there are several more common ways that compost can be used, on gardens, lawns, landscapes, and houseplants:
COMPOST AS SOIL AMENDMENT:
Many people put compost into their garden soil by digging it in prior to spring planting. The image shows a potato harvest by apprentices at the UCSC Farm and Garden in 1990. Due to the use of copious amounts of compost, the potato beds yielded about one pound of potatoes per square foot, or about 1000 pounds total from these four beds, each 80 feet long.
Others actually do their composting in the soil, by burying kitchen wastes and other materials in trenches in the garden. Compost can also be used as a 'top dressing' on the soil during the growing season -- in this case it is added in around the bases of plants, where irrigation and soil animals will slowly incorporate it into the soil. On lawns, many people sprinkle/broadcast sifted compost as a top dressing in the spring -- I have been doing this on a 'problem area' of a lawn for several years, in an attempt to improve the soil there for better grass growth. It is also fine to top-dress houseplants occasionally with small handfuls of finished compost.
COMPOST AS MULCH:
Compost can be left on the surface as a mulch around landscape and garden plants. This is essentially the same as a 'top dressing' application, described above, but mulches are typically meant to cover all of the soil around the plants that get mulched. Mulches protect the soil from erosion. They also save water by shielding soil from the drying effect of the wind and sun. As they decompose, mulches add nutrients to the soil, and if composed of small-enough particles, worms may slowly eat the mulch and incorporate it into the soil.
COMPOST AS TEA:
Compost tea is made by combining equal parts of compost and water and letting it sit for a while. The liquid can help to provide a 'quick boost' to ailing houseplants or young seedlings and transplants (I recommend diluting it quite a bit for use on seedlings). Stu Campbell, in Let it Rot, says that the same compost can be used to make several batches of tea (2). When you're finished making compost tea, use the mucky dregs as a mulch in the garden or landscape.
How does compost improve the soil?
Compost does several things to benefit the soil that synthetic fertilizers cannot do. First, it adds organic matter, which improves the way water interacts with the soil. In sandy soils, compost acts as a sponge to help retain water in the soil that would otherwise drain down below the reach of plant roots (in this way, it protects plants against drought). In clay soils, compost helps to add porosity (tiny holes and passageways) to the soil, making it drain more quickly so that it doesn't stay waterlogged and doesn't dry out into a bricklike substance. Compost also inoculates the soil with vast numbers of beneficial microbes (bacteria, fungi, etc.) and the habitat that the microbes need to live. These microbes are able to extract nutrients from the mineral part of the soil and eventually pass the nutrients on to plants.

Fall is the time to over seed

2010-09-17T20:40:00.000-07:00

Fall (Sept.) is the time to over seed burned out lawns and plant shrubbery. You have 'til Oct. 12th. in CT. this year for overseeding lawns.

If your like most of us in the CT. Valley, your lawn may look like mini dried up hay fields due to the lack of rain and hot weather months of this past summer. Don't worry though; most lawns will begin to reassert themselves and start growing again in the cooler temperatures of fall. If you wish to, now (Sept.) is a great time to over seed your yard. You may want to repair the burned out areas or just fill in a sparse lawns with more seed; which will give it a better weed protection. The thicker the lawn, the less chance weeds have of finding a soft bare area to germinate into. The seed will have plenty of time to germinate before the winter snows, and you can apply a time release Starter fertilizer or a Winter fertilizer to it this fall after you see some germination happening. Next spring, jump right into a Fertilizer with weed preventer; since your lawn has already begun germination, the weed preventer will not harm your new seed and will stop weed seeds from germinating into your lawn.

If you had a summer that was harder then most, you may have noticed some of your shrubbery burned out as well as your lawn. This year was a bad one for shrubs that may have been under stress for any number of reasons. Besides the lack of rain and extreme temperatures; shrubs can be stressed due to the fact of being newly planted; insect damage; or decease. Most times these go unnoticed 'til it's too late or severely damaged. Check the plant by snapping a Woodie twig off the plant and look for any signs of green still in the plant. You can save a plant by cutting it back some if it still has life in it; or you may just decide that it is better replaced then cut down smaller then the rest of your landscaping. Either way, now is the time to do this before you have to start raking leaves and pruning back perennials. It's coming faster then you think, so start now with the repairs if needed and get a jump on a healthier looking lawn in the spring.

Koi pond fish.

2010-09-03T13:15:00.000-07:00

Ken's now sells pond Koi.

Follow this link to Ken's website and see the quality Koi starter packs you can now purchase direct from one of the leaders in quality Koi farms, Blackwater Creek.

http://www.kenslandscapedesigns.com/kld_shop.php?crn=295&rn=758&action=show_detail

Rainwater harvesting

2010-07-29T06:52:00.000-07:00

Rainwater harvesting
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Rainwater harvesting is the accumulating and storing, of rainwater. It has been used to provide drinking water, water for livestock, water for irrigation or to refill aquifers in a process called groundwater recharge. Rainwater collected from the roofs of houses, tents and local institutions, or from specially prepared areas of ground, can make an important contribution to drinking water. In some cases, rainwater may be the only available, or economical, water source. Rainwater systems are simple to construct from inexpensive local materials, and are potentially successful in most habitable locations. Roof rainwater can be of good quality and may not require treatment before consumption. Although some rooftop materials may produce rainwater that is harmful to human health, it can be useful in washing clothes and in other tasks. Household rainfall catchment systems are appropriate in areas with an average rainfall greater than 200 mm (7.9 in) per year, and no other accessible water sources (Skinner and Cotton, 1992).

Rainwater harvesting is an innovative alternative water supply approach anyone can use. Rainwater harvesting captures, diverts, and stores rainwater for later use. Captured rainwater is often used in landscaping, because the water is free of salts and other harmful minerals and does not have to be treated. It is also useful in attracting and providing water for wildlife.

Implementing rainwater harvesting techniques directly benefits our state by reducing demand on the water supply, and reducing run-off, erosion, and contamination of surface water.

In many communities, 30 to 50 percent of the total water is used for landscape irrigation. Capturing rainwater for use in the landscape makes efficient use of a valuable resource, reducing water bills and reducing demand on water supply.

Rainwater harvesting can also help to prevent flooding and erosion, turning stormwater problems into water supply assets by slowing runoff and allowing it to soak into the ground. Reducing run-off also helps to reduce the contamination of surface water with sediments, fertilizers, and pesticides in rainfall run-off.

There are a number of types of systems to harvest rainwater ranging from very simple to the complex industrial systems. Generally, rainwater is either harvested from the ground or from a roof. The rate at which water can be collected from either system is dependent on the plan area of the system, its efficiency, and the intensity of rainfall (i.e annual precipitation (mm per annum) x square meter of catchment area = litres per annum yield) ... a 200 square meter roof catchment catching 1,000mm PA yields 200 kLPA.

Have you ever thought of collecting water in rain barrel that is very unattractive and can only hold 50 gallons of water? Well the future is here, the Rain X-change Rainwater Harvesting system from Aquascape has been introduced! The great thing about The Rainwater Harvesting system is that you are bringing a the natural beauty of a waterfall or fountain to your yard but at the same time can hold 500 or more gallons of water into an underground basin that is then filtered by the waterfall. The worst part of a rain barrel is that trying to get the water to where you want to use it can be a pain. The Aquascape system has a booster pump installed inside or outside your house that feeds right from the basin which can be hooked directly into your garden hose or drip irrigation system for full pressure. You can also collect water not only from the roof but from your patio, walkway or driveway using permeable pavers.

Bats:

2010-07-18T10:18:00.000-07:00

Northeastern United States:

Big brown bats commonly use bat houses in the Northeastern U.S.

This is very timely:
the latest newsletter from The Texas Gardener' Seeds said: Put up a bat house to encourage the presence of these shy animals. Bats consume 3,000 or more mosquitoes and other insects nightly, and bats are less likely to be rabid than dogs are. Need another reason? Bats are responsible for up to 95 percent of the seed dispersal essential to the regeneration of forests. Contrary to believe, bats will not just attack people for no reason. They feed on small insects not humans. Bats are extremely important. Yet due to years of unwarranted human fear and persecution, bats are in alarming decline. By putting up a bat house you are helping by giving them a home. You will also benefit from having fewer yard and garden pests, and will enjoy learning about bats and sharing your knowledge with friends and family.
So add a Bat House to your yard, and relieve yourself of those little bugs like Mosquitoes.
Where you mount your bat house plays a major role in the internal temperature. Houses can be mounted on such structures as poles, sides of buildings and tall trees without obstructions. Houses placed on poles and structures tend to become occupied quicker than houses placed on trees. Bat houses should face south to southeast to take advantage of the morning sun. In northern states and Canada, bat houses need to receive at least 6 to 8 hours of direct sunlight. It is also advantageous to paint the house black to absorb plenty of heat (when baby bats are born, they need it very warm). Use non-toxic, latex paint to paint your bat house and only paint the outside. Your bat house should be mounted at least 15 feet above the ground, the higher the house the greater the chance of attracting bats. Bats return from migration and awaken from hibernation as early as March in most of the U.S., but stay active year-round in the extreme southern U.S. They will be abundant through out the summer and into late fall. Most houses used by bats are occupied in the first 1 to 6 months (during the first summer the bat house was erected). If bats do not roost in your house by the end of the second summer, move the house to another location.

What types of bats can I expect to see in my bat house in the Northeastern states?
Throughout the northern two-thirds of the U.S. and Canada, the Little Brown Bat (Myotis launchings) and the Big Brown Bat (Eptesicus fuscus) use bat houses. They can also inhabit the Southeast, but are generally replaced by the South-eastern Bat (Myotis Australia). Pallid Bats (Antrozous pallidus) are found in arid areas. The Evening Bat (Nycticeius humeralis), Eastern Pipistrelle (Pipistrellus subflavus), Yuma myotis (Myotis yumanensis) and the Mexican Free-tailed Bat (Tadarida brasiliensis) will also use bat houses. Any bats that roost in crevices or under bridges and in buildings are likely tenants for bat houses.