The most important thing that you can do to take care of your lawn during the hot summer months is to properly water it. The stress of the summer heat makes proper watering important.

Water your lawn early in the morning. During the day up to 30% of the water from a sprinkler can evaporate before even hitting the ground! Water ing in the early morning hours prevents the water being lost to evaporation and allows it to soak into the ground before the heat of the sun can evaporate it. Do not water at night. Night watering invites fungus to form in your yard.

During the summer months cut your grass higher then you normally do during the spring and fall months. I recommend setting your mower blade at least one inch higher during the summer months. I like to cut my grass at least 4 inches tall during the hot summer weather.  The taller grass blades will help to shade your root zone and retain moisture.

Keep your mower blades sharp. The sharp blade cuts the grass blade straight across. A straight cut blade of grass will seal faster to retain water then a ragged edge grass blade from a dull lawn mower blade.  Leave your lawn clippings on the ground to decompose and also help keep the moisture in the ground.

Always fertilize your lawn in the spring. Do not fertilize in the summer. The fertilizer will put your lawn into distress. The fertilizer application you made in the spring suffice.  See our blog on using compost to fertilize your yard.

If you have areas of brown dead grass check to see if weather you can pull the grass up by its roots or not. Grass that is suffering from drought damage will not pull up by the roots. If the grass does pull up by the roots it you may have an infestation of bill bugs. Check with your local lawn and garden store for how to properly treat for bill bugs.

Remember that during June, July and August keeping the lawn sufficiently watered is the key to having a healthy lawn. With a great looking healthy lawn, garden accents from our website will give your lawn that unique look that only you can give it to personalize your lawn.

Using organic compost in the natural chemical free way to have a green healthy and vagrant lawn.

Compost is one of the easiest was to keep your lawn healthy and green. This is preferable because it’s is safe and organic. You are not constantly adding chemical based fertilizer to your lawn or garden.  It is best to compost your lawn 2 or 3 times a year.

Compost is great fertilizer because besides having nutrients like nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus it often has trace elements in it. You normally do not find trace elements in commercial fertilizers.

Some additional benefits to using compost are:

                Compost will not burn your grass

                Compost won’t smell as old manure-based fertilizes

                Compost won’t stain your concrete or brick walkways

                Compost works fast

                Compost is not expensive compared to commercial fertilizers

Step 1

Start with a good, fine-textured compost. Garden centers carry good, bagged compost that is ready to use. You can also use home -made compost if you have some that you produced for yourself. Just make sure that it is fine  textured so it will rake out evenly without leaving clumps. I suggest using some fine hardware screen to sift out the lumps.

Step 2

                Spread the compost. You can use a shovel or just start dumping the compost out of the bag around your lawn. Do not apply it thickly.

Step 3

With a flexible garden rake spread out the compost over your lawn unit it is about ¼” thick. You want a fairly thin layer. Do not apply it much thicker.  More is not better. This will only cause you problems such as smothering your grass. When you are done raking you should not see very much compost showing through the grass.

Step 4

Once you have raked a nice thin evenly applied layer of compost, water it in for 15 to 20 minutes. Take care of your lawn as normal, applying water regularly. Do not mow your lawn for about 1 week.   Allow the compost 7 or 8 days to break down and release its nutrients. After one week you can return to mowing your lawn just as you regularly would.

That is it!

                If you compost your lawn 2 or 3 times a year, it will be very lush and healthy. You will never want to use regular chemical lawn fertilizers again. If you are looking for an organic way to have a healthier lawn, this is it. Also once you have your green healthy lawn do not forget to check out our website for items to bring that uniqueness that only you can bring to your lawn, garden or patio.

Hummingbirds beat their wings about 78 times per second. During a display dive, their wings can beat up to 200 times per second.

They take about 250 breaths per minute

Their hearts beat about 1,260 times per minute

They have 1,500 feathers

They consume half their body weight (1/8 lb)in food every day. That would be like an average kids eating about 40 to 50 pounds of food a day.

During migration, they must fly 500 miles nonstop over the Gulf of Mexico to reach their wintering grounds in Mexico and Central America. The make the trip, they must eat enough so they weigh 1 1/2 times their usual weight.

They can fly at speeds of 60 miles per hour and can fly forwards, backwards, up, down, sideways and even upside down briefly, but they can not walk.

Average life span is 3-5 Years-Maximum 12 Years.

Check out our website for Hummingbird feeders to attract these wonderful birds to your backyard.

Hummingbird Nectar is easy to make at home. First bring water to a boil. Once the water has boiled for a while put it into a measuring cup. Begin with four parts water then add one part ordinary white cane sugar. Stir the sugar into the hot boiling water thoroughly to make sure that all of the sugar is desloved into the water. When done stiring allow nectar to cool. Unused nectar can be stored in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. This mixture approximates the average sucrose content (about 12%) of the flowers favored by North American Hummingbirds.

Once your hummingbird nectar is cooled add it to your hummingbird feeder.