Making it through the long winter

Making it through the long winter

Keeping Your Lawn Green and Chemical Free

Meghan West

Whether you're using a standard Huaqvarna lawn mower from your local gardening store or a large sit-on mower, grass maintenance and care is essential if your want luscious green blades for as much of the year as possible. If you want to stay away from harsh chemicals you're in luck, as there are plenty of home remedies available as well as quick tips to reduce the amount of time you spend digging up weeds and picking up grass trimmings. This simple guide will offer a few quick tips to help you to create a garden you can enjoy and be proud of.

Leave It or Bin It

Homemade compost is perfect for your garden and if you've got the time you should certainly build or purchase your own compost heap. Just make sure it has good drainage and is protected from the elements and turn it once a week to allow it to aerate, which will help it to break down and rot. Everything from grass trimmings to organic house waste can be thrown on, reducing your household garbage and potential bin odours. However if you really want to save time you can actually just leave the grass trimmings where they are. This will rot down providing a variety of nutrients that may otherwise go to waste.

Quick Trim

When you mow your grass try to only cut it down by about a third. Any lower and you may start scalping it, which is where you cut too low and expose the soil beneath. In hot climates this can cause the soil to dry out quickly causing root damage and dead patches of grass. 

Homemade Herbicides

Making homemade weed killers is easy and doesn't even require you to make any effort producing them as you can use household staples and leftovers. After boiling your spaghetti take the boiling water and pour it on any stubborn weeds, alternatively take the leftover pickling vinegar and pour that on instead. Both of these methods will help to kill the weed in just a couple of days and you don't have to invest in expensive chemicals. Salt is another great solution, however it can cause the ground to become barren for long periods of time so use it sparingly to avoid killing the surrounding grass. Having a big bag of salt purchased in bulk both saves you money and is also safe to use, especially if you have kids running around.


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2023© Making it through the long winter
About Me
Making it through the long winter

It's been a long and hard winter for many farmers in my area. We rely on agricultural suppliers and stores to get us feed and supplies through the winter. It can be hard to balance the books and sometimes you need to make some hard decisions to have enough money to make it through the winter. If you are a farmer making some hard decision on how to afford to keep your livestock and crops healthy through a long winter, then this blog has tips on how to make it through a long winter as a farmer with a limited operational budget.