Special Features - Spring Home and Garden 2013

SPRING

HOME & GARDEN

• Lawn Care • Spring Organizing • Go To Green

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Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Spring Home & Garden, Red Deer Express 3

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Spring tips for premium lawn care Local expert offers helpful advice for a pristine yard this season

BY EVAN BUHLER Red Deer Express Spring is here, and it is now time to think about looking after your lawn.

“A good lawn has to be fed regularly, whether you use organic or regular fertilizer, and it needs to be fed every six to eight weeks to be healthy,” said Bruce McEwen, president of Blue Grass Nursery.

McEwen recommends thatching and aerating your lawn in early spring once it is dry enough.

“You don’t want to be doing this stuff when it’s wet, it will cause more damage than good. It’s good when it’s dry and there’s a lot of dust.”

Thatch is the collection of clippings, leaves and other organic material that has failed to decay.

While a thin layer of thatch is beneficial to your lawn, as it provides insulation, McEwen warned that too thick of a thatch layer will prevent a healthy lawn.

“Taking care of the thatch also helps with preventing disease. It doesn’t give fungus a place to grow.”

Aeration opens the lawn up and allows water and nutrients to more easily enter the soil beneath the grass.

However, if you bag your lawn clippings then it may be unnecessary to aerate in the spring.

While the type and amount of fertilizer will vary for every lawn, McEwen stressed the importance of regularly feeding your lawn.

He advised fertilizing after spring cleanup, and then every six to eight weeks after, with one feeding in the fall, remembering to water it to prevent burning.

“Your lawn needs five to seven pounds of nitrogen per year for every 1,000 square feet of area.”

Fertilizer consists of three major elements: nitrogen, phosphate and potassium and McEwen recommends a fertilizer with a higher nitrogen percentage.

He also said that people have to be aware

of the way their mower is operating.

“Something people don’t realize, to have a healthy lawn, you have to sharpen your mower blades regularly,” said McEwen.

When you see the little white tips on the end of your blades of grass it is time to sharpen your mower, because the grass is being torn instead of cut properly, he said.

As for those pesky weeds, McEwen’s preferred method of weed removal is to hire Green Drop or another weed removal company.

However, you can also use organic products, but McEwen does not know how effective those products are.

“You can pull them by hand, but you have to be diligent, and keep doing it until they finally disappear.”

He recommended watering your lawn about an inch a week.

“We are very fortunate in this country to get regular rain, so you can judge how much you need to water.”

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McEwen suggested giving a good watering at least once or twice a week, instead of a little bit at a time.

“If you just get it a little wet on the surface all the time that’s when the roots will grow, and once it gets hot it will turn brown.”

There are two types of sod that are popu-

lar in the area: bluegrass and fescue.

McEwen recommended the bluegrass sod for high traffic areas and advocated that is excellent for families.

On the other end of the spectrum is the fescue sod, which requires low maintenance and is ideal for low-traffic areas. reporter@reddeerexpress.com

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4 Red Deer Express, Spring Home & Garden

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Getting prepared for this spring Efficient and easy ways to organize your home, yard and storage spaces It is that time of year when everyone’s thoughts are on yard and gardening preparation as well as spring-cleaning, but most people overlook the benefits of an organized and efficient garage. Your garage is the family catchall that seems to hold everything from Christmas decorations to sports gear, garden tools to toys, and recycling to camping gear. It sometimes seems that the garage has room to hold everything but your vehicles.

With a few simple organizational items

Terry

HOLLMAN and strategies, your garage can start to become more organized and efficient.

The best place to start is with some adjustable shelving on your walls. Mounted

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above head-height, these shelves will be high enough to be out of your walking pathways and will allow you to gain back your valuable floor. Adjustable wire shelving that uses vertical mounted track is considerably stronger than fixed shelving, and are very simple to install. The main benefit with adjustable shelving is just that – it is fully adjustable. By maximizing your distance between shelves, you can create the most efficient use of space for your items.

Another simple storage solution is to install some PVC slatwall on areas of your garage where you need to hang sports gear or garden tools. PVC slatwall is very durable and is also washable.

There are a wide variety of hooks and attachments for slatwall that hold all of your sports gear and garden tools. The proverbial “A place for everything and everything in its place” could never be more accurate. All of your items will have their own assigned spot.

You will know exactly where to find your golf clubs or garden tools and can get right into your activity without having to waste time endlessly searching under piles of disorganized clutter.

You also may want to consider a designated spot for extra coats and shoes. This seems to be a common problem in most homes, since entry closets never seem to be large enough to hold an entire families collection of outerwear. A few simple coat hooks and shoe racks by your garage door

can take the pressure off of your coat closets.

We all love and anticipate the arrival of spring, but it also heralds the unwanted return of some pesky insects. The best way to keep the unwanted flies and mosquitoes at bay, while still allowing the fresh breeze into your home is to install a retractable screen on your house doors.

Retractable screens are much more user friendly than a traditional screen door. By retracting or rolling up your screen door when not in use, they do not take away from the aesthetic curb appeal of your home. They let the cool breeze into your home so you can lower or even eliminate your costly air conditioning bill. There is nothing more refreshing than a cool crossbreeze whisping through your home, and you will feel confident that the bugs stay outside, where they belong.

Do you have a small back yard or patio but still wish to grow your own vegetables or flowers? A simple solution is to use ‘growing towers’. Growing towers are typically made of durable PVC and stack on top of each other to allow your plants to cascade down the sides. You can easily plant up to 40 strawberry plants per four tier stacking tower. What an incredible use of vertical space. Growing towers can come in a variety of colours to suit any décor and create an addition to your patio.

Terry Hollman is the president of Canadian Closet in Red Deer.

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Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Pet-friendly outdoor spaces make for ‘pawfect’ gardening With sweet summer in our midst, it’s time to gear up the green thumb and get gardening.

This season keep your pet in mind while planting your garden and create a truly enjoyable outdoor oasis that’s not only beautiful but that is also safe for your four legged friend.

Clarine Lee-Macaraig, an eco-expert with Evergreen – a national organization committed to building sustainable green cities – offers the following tips for passionate pet owners to take action in their own backyards and beyond: Planting prowess - choosing the right plants is key to a safe garden.

Avoid Lily of the Valley, Yew, Rhododendron, Oleander, Azaleas, Foxglove and Deadly Nightshade, which can be just as toxic to humans as pets.

If you prefer a green space to garden beds, consider white clover seeds instead of grass seeds.

White clover is much more tolerant of dog and cat urine.

And it can also grow in shade, sun and it fixes nitrogen back into your soil.

Roaming rover - know your pet’s personality and design accordingly.

For an energetic pup create a raised garden, which can protect some of your prized plants and keep

your pet safe.

Raised garden beds are also good solutions to pets that are chewers.

Be sure to allow plenty of space for your pet to run in and don’t forget a shaded area under which they can enjoy some rest and relaxation.

Safe solutions - keeping it organic is the safest way to garden for everyone in the family.

Avoid pesticides and fertilizers, which can be dangerous for four-legged family members.

Because pets regularly clean themselves the chemicals can irritate and harm a cat or dog.

Another tip is to know your pet.

If your pet is sensitive and has allergies even natural or organic pest and weed controls can aggravate them.

Try using companion planting for the best pest control.

Rein it in - be sure to keep your pets (cats and dogs) leashed when walking on unknown trails to protect plant life and wildlife in forests and wetlands.

Remember that cats can also be wildlife conscious too.

They can wear a leash and collar bell to alert and protect birds and other wildlife.

IN BLOOM – Rebecca Bough, employee at Dentoom’s Greenhouses, preps begonias on their opening day of the year.

Jenna Swan/Red Deer Express

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Wednesday, May 8, 2013

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You can almost hear the strains of Grieg’s Morning Mood opus floating by as you take a deep breath and leave your coat and boots at home. We have survived an endless winter and I know every one of you will be making the most of our abbreviated spring this year.

When we were small children, spring meant riding our bikes and colouring pictures of baby lambs and chicks while we begged

our moms to get our rubber boots so we could splash in puddles. My favourite thing was looking for caterpillars: we had these fuzzy green and blue caterpillars that enveloped the trees outside our home every spring. I would get out old jars and stuff them full of leaves and grass, punch holes in the lid and then go caterpillar collecting – wearing my favourite rubber boots of course.

As we get older we lose the desire to jump in puddles and our colouring usually consists of painting a room or planting a garden.

As adults we still love to get our hands dirty and play with messy paint!

This is spring fever folks, when we find ourselves checking flowerbeds for the first signs of budding and we rake our lawns in a desperate attempt to make them look green. Cobwebs are shook out, draperies are cleaned and we attack our car with the shop vac on the first nice weekend

we can park it in the driveway. All of these activities are revitalizing and necessary to swipe away any trace of this marathon winter. The importance of colour in our lives cannot be emphasized enough. As children we reveled in vivid hues and bold patterns, we painted and decorated our sidewalks with chalk and our windows and mirrors with colourful stickers.

As adults we express ourselves with accessories or perhaps a brightly coloured vehicle – does anyone else love the electric orange Jeeps on the road?

We choose colour to accent our skin tones or our eyes and we most certainly choose different shades to improve our frame of mind. Our love affair with colour has been with us since childhood and will stay with us throughout our lifetime.

Do yourself a favour and inject some happy into the month of May. This year’s vibrant green is the go-to

colour for 2013. You can use this jeweled tone in everything from your interior walls to the tips of your manicured toenails. This colour is reminiscent of the fresh buds that are just beginning to force their way out of the ground and I promise that if you use this colour in your life it will give you an instant boost.

Start small, perhaps you want some beautiful bright new towels for your guest bath or a fun and fresh spring trench coat – now is the time!

This colour may inspire you to plant some new flowers or paint a room in your home (I recommend C2-196 Fig Leaf) to bring the vibrancy of springtime into your home.

Go hunting for green!

Hunt high and low, far and wide for your favourite rites of spring in your most alluring shades as you soak up the rays of sun.

Kim Lewis is an interior designer in Red Deer with Carpet Colour Centre.

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Spring Home & Garden, Red Deer Express 7

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

A look at hot gardening trends for the spring and summer The tulips have started to poke through the ground, the robins are singing and tree buds have begun to swell- spring is here.

The advent of this year’s gardening season has brought innovative ideas and fresh perspectives to traditional horticultural methods.

In addition to new plant varieties there are some gardening trends that will be a source of novel ideas and inspiration for eager gardeners in Central Alberta.

One of the most delightful new trends in gardening is ‘fairy gardening’.

Imagine a tiny garden created with the most diminutive visitors in mind; complete with teensy garden benches, arbors and even stepping-stones.

A fairy garden can be planted as a part of a flowerbed or, if you wish to

“I HAVE A FEELING THAT 2013 IS GOING TO BE A GREAT GARDENING YEAR AND EVEN IF YOU DON’T THINK YOU HAVE A GREEN THUMB, THERE ARE LOTS OF EASY WAYS TO GET STARTED.”

TRUDY

TRUDY WATT

WATT keep it indoors any pot or basket that is plantable will work.

Fairy gardens are a neat way to introduce children to gardening and these gardens can give even apartment dwellers the chance to have their own backyard- in miniature.

As the trend of growing your own food continues, many homeowners are installing plants in their landscapes that will be a source of food.

Consider a dwarf apple tree for a small yard or even a hardy kiwi vine to clamber over an arbor or a

back fence. Fruit producing shrubs like ‘Regent’ Saskatoon, ‘Juliet’ dwarf cherry, and ‘Blue Belle’ honeyberry fit in nicely among other ornamental landscape plants.

If space is a problem, a pot of herbs or a planter filled with edible flowers will be a great start.

Even a common perennial like rhubarb can add a dramatic touch to a mixed flowerbed or switching out petunias for a hanging basket of strawberries will work nicely in a sunny spot.

Including edibles in your landscaping plans is easy.

The practice of contain-

ht, Let in the hlieg heat! block t

er gardening endures and there have been some innovative developments in this area.

The use of vertical spaces has really caught on and the creation of ‘living walls’ has allowed those gardeners with limited space to grow even more; kits for creating a vertical planter are available.

Container gardening is an ideal way to add a splash of colour and interest into a yard.

Consider planting dramatic foliage plants like ruffled heucheras, leafy banana plants, or variegated grasses into bright ceramic pots.

Even citrus and some palms will do just fine outside for the summer in a protected spot.

Organic gardening continues to be a standard practice for many gardeners and there are many options available that will help you to maintain an organic status.

Examples of organic fertilizers are composts, manures, and bone meal.

Organic fertilizers not only provide plants with nutrients needed for growth, flowering, and possible fruit set, they also encourage beneficial microorganisms to proliferate in the soil.

Although not a fertilizer, the Myke brand of growth enhancers are a beneficial fungus, used when planting, that will improve rooting, increase growth, and create an increased drought tolerance.

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If insects and disease become an issue, there are several organic products that will help. An exciting new development in organic pest management is the use of nematodes to control the larval stages of garden pests.

Commonly sold under the retail name Grub Busters these nematodes are effective in controlling birch leaf miner, fungus gnats and even ants.

I have a feeling that 2013 is going to be a great gardening year and even if you don’t think you have a green thumb, there are lots of easy ways to get started.

Nurturing a tray of newly sprouted seeds or being able to pick fruit you’ve grown yourself can be a rewarding and satisfying experience.

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