‘Solar Mowing’ In Maryland

Lyn DeWitt isn’t your typical lawn care provider, in fact there isn’t much typical about Lyn or her new business “Solar Mowing,” although more businesses like it may be cropping up soon!

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The Vienna Vegetable Orchestra:The Austrian Way To Use Extra Vegetables

The Viennese have found a new use for their spare vegetables, and they’ve been making music with these hand made instruments since 1998. The Vienna Vegetable Orchestra has gone on two world tours, and believe it or not they have two CD’s to show for it!

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The 100% Eco-Friendly Way to Green Up Your Lawn Overnight

Photo Courtesy of: respres

There’s a reason that the lawns always look so green and lush in the movies, and it’s not lens color filters either.  For special occasions from backyard weddings, to family reunions, there is a 100% environmentally safe way to give your yard a deep, dark, green color in mere hours.

Lawn professionals have been using this little trick for years on sports fields, golf courses, and movie shoots, and any reputable lawn company will be able to provide you with this service at your home just in time for Spring.  The secret to a deep healthy green yard is in an “iron treatment” applied to your lawn by a professional lawn company.  Iron treatments are liquid applications of finely ground iron shavings that are watered into your lawn, and actually absorbed by each individual blade of grass.  Once the iron is absorbed, the mineral causes a chemical reaction with the chlorophyll in the grass, and the grass begins turning a rich, dark, green within 2-4 hours.  The mineral causes no harm to the environment, and the lawn gradually fades back to it’s original color in 4-6 weeks once the iron has run it’s course.

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How to Recycle Sneakers For Use In Sports Arenas and School Tracks

I’m tough on Sneakers.  In fact I go through about three pairs per year with all the walking and gardening I do.  You might say I’m the perfect candidate to recycle my sneakers since I do more than my part to contribute to their collecting in land fills!

I recently discovered a location north of Baltimore that participates in Nike’s “Reuse-a-Shoe” program, turning 100% of any athletic brand shoe into either a running track, basketball court, tennis court, or golf surface.  The program has donation centers all around the country and describes how it creates these useful surfaces on Nike’s main website.  Most collection programs accept donations in person or via mail, and you can donate shoes from all over the country to the effort.  Since I plan on accumulating a few pairs before I make the trip to my local project collection site, I’ll add a bin in my trash container to save both my shoes and that of my family’s.

Curious as to how to recycle your own sneakers, check out this link and watch the video on how they reuse unwanted sneakers from around the country!

Photo Courtesy of: Don Hankins

Indian Strawberries; Outdoor Weeds That Make Good Interior Plants

Occasionally the best indoor accent plants can come straight from the wild.  The Indian Strawberry is a naturalized weed from India that works wonderfully as an indoor plant, and it’s free! This perennial has tiny decorative blooms, and small brightly colored berries that resemble miniature common strawberries.

Shady lawns and gardens across the United States have been sporting these misplaced plants for decades, where they attract the attention of wildlife and children everywhere.  For the lawn purist the weeds need eradication with selective spraying, or removing by hand in order to control the runners.  Instead of throwing the runners in the compost bin however, try potting them in a simple milk-glass container to brighten up a dimly lit corner of your house.

Blooms and Berries:

This ground cover sends out little yellow flowers in the late spring and early summer, which turn into tasteless miniature berries from mid summer through September.  The berries are safe and edible, so Indian Strawberry is a plant that is also kid and pet friendly.

How to Plant It:

The mature plant can be dug up and planted in an indoor container year round. To grow your own plants from start to finish, collect seeds from the berries, and plant them in February or March for spring and summer blooms and berries.  Another way to propagate the plant is to lay some of the runners on the soil line of the original container and allow them to root.  As the new runner plants establish themselves they keep the container looking lush.

Another great way to re-purpose this garden green is to use it as a  “spiller” to add to your shaded outdoor hanging baskets and containers.

Give this plant a try, and see what other common plants you can find creative uses for!

Happy Gardening.

Photos Courtesy of: fdecomite, FotoDawg, and Pomponiaarte

Review: Organic “Deer Stopper” by Messina Wildlife

Messina Wildlife has a great organic, deer repellent spray that is safe on everything from your Pansies to your veggies.  Tested and given the seal of approval by the “National Home and Garden Club,” this ready to use pump spray bottle is easily used, and comes in 1 quart containers that will cover 1,000 square feet.

The product repels Elk, Moose and Deer, and the active ingredients are Eggs, Rosemary Oil, and Mint Oils, so you will feel no guilt in the process!  I use the product myself commercially, and find that it works for the average of 30 days, making the plants inedible for grazers.  The formula takes 20 minutes to dry and leaves a light herb smell in the area that is not unpleasant, or offensive. For a moderate deer population this product will end the desruction of your garden plants, and will need to be applied about every 30 days for season long deterrence.

I picked up my trial bottles at Home Depot, but they are sold nation-wide at home and garden centers in the pest control isles.  I highly recommend this product for its “green” ingredients, and its effectiveness.  Try this product next if you have a deer problem in your neighborhood!

Legislation And Green Building In The Future

Maryland is one of several states that has passed legislation offering up to an 8% tax credit off the total cost for new construction for projects that follow specific guidelines for green construction methods. As the Environmental Protection Agency continues to influence future construction methods across the United States, legislation is moving it’s way to the top of several states priority lists that would tax newly construction roadways that are not built up to new green methods. 

Bills that will tax builders on the installation of impermeable surfaces, like pavement roads and sidewalks, may make our asphalt roads a thing of the past. Pavement roadways and sidewalks have been linked with everything from run-off and pollution issues, to the heat island effect that keeps our cities several degrees warmer than the surrounding suburbs. This new construction trend will not only impact large construction companies, but also the smaller contractors that install driveways, sidewalks and patio slabs around homes.  Pavers may soon become the standard in all home improvement projects that add to your outdoor living space, including areas around pools and garden paths.

Many landscaping companies are already making ‘paver only’ plans for homeowners seeking driveway, patio, and pool area additions as they prepare for this change in building code that they anticipate to occur in the next few years nation wide. How will this effect you?  If you are planning any home additions that will involve pavement in the next few years, always ask a contractor to get you prices for both pavement, and paver installation.  Where pavers were once more pricey than asphalt to install, new taxation on impermeable surfaces may mean that pavers come at a better price, while raising the value of your home at the same time.

Photo Courtesy of: daviddesign

Spot Treating With Natural Vinegar Weed Killer

We all want to try to reduce our impact on our local environment, and here is one way to tackle your weeds with household vinegar, and eliminate toxic run-off from your yard.

White Vinegar can be purchased cheaply at any local grocery store, and it can kill a variety of weeds in your yard.  The USDA has done experiments for several years with experimental home-remedies, in the search for cleaner herbicide solutions. Their research led them to find that early spring weeds like Dandelions, and Thistle are vulnerable to straight Vinegar solutions in their first few weeks of growth when their tissue is still soft. While the majority of store bought vinegar is effectually a diluted version of true vinegar, even the “straight from the bottle” application to broadleaf weeds, and thistles is effective in killing them quickly in the spring, root and all. Late spring and summer applications may need multiple treatments, as the plants toughen and prepare for reproduction, and hot weather, so any use of straight vinegar should be applied to your yard early for real impact.

Apple Cider Vinegar, and White Vinegar can be mixed in gallon form with a variety of other household items like soap, table salt, water, and alcoholic beverages to make a more potent and environmentally safe weed killer for late season weeds.  Adding a cup of salt to a gallon of vinegar, and a small squirt of dish soap can create a valuable spray weed killer.  Not all vinegar recipes will kill the tough roots of a plant, but most will, and this DIY approach to weed killing has the effectiveness of Round-UP, killing anything it is sprayed on.  Use Vinegar carefully around turf grass, and plants that you want to keep.

Looking for more DIY Vinegar weed control recipes?  Read The Garden Counselor website for lawn and garden advice, and pick up a few great ideas of your own!

Photo courtesy of:mollypop

Refurbished Tools Make A Great Green Gift For Spring Projects

Earth Day is over, but buying refurbished tools for your lawn and garden project list is a great green way to aquire the tools you need, recycled and as good as new, right from the factory!

Whether you are looking for a new drill and bit set to help you put together your own raised garden bed walls, or want a new set of hedge trimmers, the folks over at “One Project Closer” have been helping DYI-ers around the house and yard for about a year now, and they have a great go-to list of manufacturer refurbished tool sales around the internet.  Many of the tools come with a full warranty, and are up to 50% less than what you would pay for a brand new tool, which helps your wallet, and is a more eco-friendly way to purchase your tools.  

Check out their article, and see if you can’t find the tools you need to complete your spring projects for a steal.

Photo Courtesy of: Robert S. Donovan 

My Native Plant Spring Project

I’ve been a little antsy for warm weather to start for some time, and this year I’ve converted a baker’s rack in my office at work into a greenhouse nursery for native plants to help me get a jump start on some habitat restoration goals I set for myself! This spring and summer I’m growing five varieties of Maryland native wildflowers from seed to begin a new wave of improvements in naturalized spots that I safeguard – many of which are in desperate need of beneficial plants, and a few aesthetic points!

The two Maryland counties that I work in require all developing properties under construction to set aside a fraction of their land as either virgin woodland, or designated  Reforestation Area.  Most of these Reforestation Areas in the suburbs happen around the borders of communities, or around sewer water retention ponds, and walking paths. At the initial time of construction, landscape architects develop these areas and fill them with native trees, shrubs, wildflowers and grasses, and after a few years of healthy growth many of them take on a rather scruffy natural patina that many people enjoy as a contrast to the manicured lawns and gardens nearby. Like other areas after construction, Reforestation Areas are sometimes stripped of topsoil in the building and creation phases of a neighborhood, and little other than grasses end up surviving in the fill-dirt left behind. I’ve been working on and around several pockets of protected reforestation land for several years, and trying to strike a balance the desires of homeowners who want to visually improve the areas with their own garden plants, and the state law, which requires zero human interference here, and it can be a difficult balance to strike.

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