For gorgeous grass next season, start with soil, end with seed

(ARA) - Summer is winding down and soon it will be time to drain the gas from the lawn mower and safely store the string trimmer. You may feel like summer yard work is done for another year. But don’t turn your back on your lawn just yet.

Take care of some essential lawn chores this fall and you’ll reap the rewards next spring – in the form of a lush, healthy, beautiful lawn. In fall, lawn grasses need to become especially strong as the weather cools. Give them some TLC now, and your lawn will reap the benefits over the winter and into next spring. During the fall, your lawn is getting ready to go dormant for the winter. Your grass will rely on its roots throughout the winter season to obtain nutrients until spring.

Following these five (surprisingly fast) simple steps will ensure a sensational start to lush lawns next spring.

1. Start with the soil and aerate

The healthier your soil is the healthier your grass will be. Good, aerated soil will make room for water, nutrients, air and roots to move with ease. Aerated, healthy soil will hold water like a sponge, but at the same time promote drainage. Aerating also creates a good environment for the micro-organisms, worms and other life forms necessary for healthy turf. Without good soil you will find yourself doing lots of weed control and over-fertilizing.

2. Don’t delay dethatching

Thatch is the layer of dead grass that settles in between the soil surface and the green foliage of the grass. Too much thatch interferes with nutrient and water absorption. To gauge thatch’s thickness, take a 6-inch-deep plug of sod and soil from the lawn and measure the thickness of the packed thatch. If your thatch layer is more than 1/2 inch thick, your grass will struggle to grow.

3. Supply soil conditioners

Also called soil amendments, soil conditioners added to soil improve plant growth and overall health. Soil conditioners are not fertilizers, but they do improve soil’s drainage and some will also increase the water holding capacity of your soil.

4. Sow your seeds

Sowing grass seed will increase turf density and improve the overall health and appearance of your lawn. Seeding in the fall helps the lawn recover from heavy summer traffic and it influences the lawn's look for the following spring. A dense lawn is also the best natural defense against weed and insect damage. For a wide variety of grass seed choices specifically formulated for your geographic region visit www.outsidepride.com.

An increasingly popular addition to backyard beauty is planting wildflowers instead of grass in hard to maintain, problem spots, like slopes and banks. Outsidepride.com offers a wide variety of blends for nine areas of the country, from the rainy Northeast to the dry Southwest. Adding wildflower seed this fall to your backyard will add beauty and diversity to your landscape next spring.

5. The easy way is the better way

When it comes to labor intensive fall lawn chores like aerating, dethatching, and soil conditioning, brute force isn’t necessarily the best, most efficient way to get the job done. You could rent a core aerator to pull up finger-sized cores of soil, but it takes a strong back and plenty of time to manage the heavy equipment. If your lawn is small enough, you can do the dethatching job using a thick-bladed thatching rake. But bigger lawns call for a power thatching mower. Soil conditioning is easier, yet still time-consuming.

Try a labor-free, easy, all-natural option that’s a liquid product, like LazyMan Liquid Gold. You can tackle the tasks of aerating, dethatching and soil conditioning with a hose-end sprayer in a matter of minutes.

Non-toxic and all natural, LazyMan Liquid Gold’s polymers penetrate hard soil and alternately attract or repel water molecules, opening pathways to allow free passage of moisture and nutrients. A brew of microbes feeds on dead plant tissue in the thatch layer, reducing thatch by half with just three applications at four-week intervals. Finally, humic acids and soil fungi promote soil fertility and plant growth.

After one-step spraying of LazyMan Liquid Gold, you’ve already accomplished three essential fall lawn care tasks. Now, all that’s left to do is seed and feed.

By following these simple lawn care practices in the fall, you can put your lawn to bed and sleep easily knowing that when your lawn awakens from winter it will be healthy and super-charged for spring. To learn more about lawn care, visit www.outsidepride.com.

Courtesy of ARAcontent

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In Tough Economy, Gardening--And Heirlooms--Take Root

(NAPSI)-It's growing season again, and as millions of eager gardeners take to the soil, their goals are many.

First, of course, there's the matter of the economy--more people are opting to grow their own food to save money (a dime's worth of seed can yield about a dollar's worth of fruits and vegetables). And given the recent scares with tainted peanut butter and store-bought produce, food safety is on everyone's mind.

When you grow your own, you not only reduce the risks, but you can also increase the benefits. Enthusiastic home gardeners--in droves--are embracing heirloom vegetables as a healthy and delicious alternative to lackluster modern hybrids.

Heirlooms--vegetables of value that breed true from seed (and thus can be handed down to the next generation)--are diverse in color, shape, size and flavor. Seed Savers Exchange, a nonprofit network of gardeners who collect, share and save heirlooms (thereby promoting agricultural biodiversity), recently mailed 10,000 heirloom tomato and pepper plants to gardeners in just one month--double its usual amount.

One expert not surprised by that statistic is Amy P. Goldman (Board Chair of Seed Savers), whose recent book, "The Heirloom Tomato: From Garden to Table," cemented her reputation as an authority on heirloom growing and seed preservation.

"Heirloom tomatoes are the people's tomatoes, bred by farmers and gardeners and designed to be homegrown," she said. "Growing your own saves money but there are also intangible benefits: Nearly everyone has room, even in a window box, to cultivate a little piece of happiness."

There's so much more to the world of tomatoes than most of us realize. Red may be the norm, but vive la difference! There's the yellow and red Big Rainbow, the green-when-ripe Aunt Ruby's German Green, the maroon Black Cherry--and the list goes on.

• In her book, Goldman provides seed sources, fascinating vignettes of the growers who bred and preserved these wondrous fruits, and delectable recipes. There's detailed information for selection of the best tomato varieties to grow according to one's taste, cooking preferences and climate, as well as everything you need to know to grow your own tomatoes successfully. Some of the tips for starting seeds include:

• Start tomato seeds inside five to six weeks in advance of setting them out at the frost-free date. Tomato seeds germinate best when given a measured supply of water, cover of darkness and plenty of heat.

Insulated seed trays with water reservoirs and capillary matting make the best seedbeds; ordinary seed trays are also fine. Fill your seedbed with a sterile artificial soil mix (containing materials such as peat moss, vermiculite and perlite) and water until thoroughly wetted; allow it to drain.

• Space five or six seeds equidistant on top of the moistened soil in each seed cell, and label as you go. Dust a quarter-inch layer of potting mix on top and tamp down. Water with lukewarm water, cover and set aside in a warm dark place. Early tomatoes will emerge in as little as three days. Uncover the tray and place under a fluorescent light rigged with a timer to provide 16 hours of light daily.

• Thin seedlings to one per cell; feed with a half-strength liquid fertilizer weekly and pot up into individual pots after the first set of true leaves (not the seedling leaves the plantlet was born with) appear.

For more information, go to www.rareforms.com.

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Call of the Wild (Flowers)

(ARA) – At a time when “green” is the color of thoughtful lifestyles, gardening practices are going greener, too. Some gardens awash in the biggest, brightest, newest flowers are sadly lifeless, lacking the buzz of the bees, the fluttering of butterflies and the zip of hummingbirds. To make these creatures welcome, gardeners need to go a little wild themselves, setting aside their visions of gardens groomed and sprayed into submission.

Gardeners need to re-imagine their gardens as an outdoor café and build safe havens for birds, bees and butterflies. How? By setting the table with nectar and seeds that are on the menus of local wildlife. This spring, plant a patch of wildflowers and watch the garden come alive.

Wildflowers and their dependents -- insects and birds -- work together in harmony with local climates. Naturally adapted to soil, sun and moisture conditions, wildflowers offer more than simple grace and unaffected charm.

They represent an earth-friendly, attractive alternative, thriving without fertilizers, pesticides and constant irrigation.

In nature, wildflowers mark the seasons with glorious bursts of color. Spring bluebells and columbines might give way to yarrows and rues, which in turn leave the season’s last word to coneflowers and asters.

The wildflower patch is typically an exuberant and ever-changing continuous carpet of carefree blossoms. Since the look is more relaxed than that of formal garden beds, wildflowers can beautify areas that are very difficult to maintain -- hillsides, woodland edges, lake borders or that awkward strip between the driveway and the property line.

While the aim is a casual, unstudied appearance, wildflower gardens do require some planning. One key is choosing a seed mix created for your region, taking into account the hardiness zone, elevation and typical soil, sun and moisture conditions.

Wild-flower-seed.com offers a wide variety of blends for nine areas of the country, from the rainy northeast to the dry southwest. The company also has specialty mixes specifically designed to attract beneficial insects and butterflies -- as well as a blend deer find unappealing. Each mix includes 10 to 20 plant species, providing flowers season-long and a mix of annuals and perennials for both quick color and staying power.

Site preparation is important and a little up-front effort can pay big dividends. Follow these steps:

* Choose a sunny, well-drained location. Most wildflowers want six to eight hours of direct sunlight and few will tolerate “wet feet.”

* Remove any sod and till to a depth of just 1 or 2 inches. More will only bring additional weed seeds to the surface.

* Weed control is crucial to get wildflowers off to a good start. Instead of using a strong, chemical pesticide to kill weeds, manage weeds naturally. Encourage weeds to grow with regular watering and then pull the weeds before sowing wildflowers, or use a low-toxicity herbicide.

* Sow seeds according to directions -- the maximum amount recommended will produce a dense patch, the minimum a more scattered look.

* For easier sowing, mix seed with dry sand, which is more visible against the soil. Blend well, using a ratio of one part seed to one or two parts sand.

* Good seed-to-soil contact encourages germination. A lawn roller is ideal, but stepping across the bed, compressing soil underfoot, will do the job.

* No fertilizer is necessary, but the seedbed should be kept moist for about four weeks until seeds sprout. Then watering can taper off unless conditions are unusually dry.

Once established, a wildflower garden requires little routine maintenance. A once-a-year mowing to 4 to 6 inches in late fall will keep tree seedlings from intruding and spread the season’s crop of seeds.

To see wildflower mixes offered for your region and view details on individual species, visit www.wild-flower-seed.com.

Courtesy of ARAcontent

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