Image via WikipediaIn the hot summer months it is difficult to keep your lawn looking fresh and green. This is because the hotter and drier it gets the more your lawn and plants need to be watered. If you don’t have an irrigation system already installed then you probably have to use a hose to water your lawn and plants.

Constantly watering your lawn this way is not possible. This is where having a DIY lawn irrigation system in place can help you out. With such a system in place you don’t have to worry about taking out the old hose and can be assured of having the best lawn in the neighborhood.

Economics

Using a DIY lawn irrigation system saves you the money that would otherwise be spent on hiring a contractor. In the long term an irrigation system will also help you to conserve water and better irrigate your plants.

Simple Installation

Typically a sprinkler system needs professional installation that involves excavation. With a DIY lawn irrigation system you can install the system on your own. The ease of installation is a big plus as it cuts down on the cost of having an irrigation system installed. Too much of the cost of an irrigation system comes from the labor and installation when in fact the actual system does not cost all that much.

You shouldn’t need any experience to install a DIY lawn irrigation system. You want a system that will be installed quickly and easily, look for one that you can manage to install in an afternoon or day at most. Something that hooks up to a spigot in your yard is what you’re looking for.

You should be able to customize your DIY lawn irrigation system otherwise you will be stuck with a system that only covers a small part of your lawn or neglects hard to reach places. Check that the DIY lawn irrigation kit you buy can be set up to fit your lawn properly.

The kit that you buy should come with extensive instructions to help you along and if possible look for a product that comes with ‘tech support’. This could be a website that answers questions or a hotline number that you can use to talk to someone about your kit. Have someone help you out; even though you should be able to do it on your own it’s always good to have an extra pair of hands helping you out.

Image by …Tim via FlickrIf by chance you are using a weed killer and it accidentally gets on to your plants you should hose it off immediately. The sooner you can do this the less chance of damage affecting the condition of your plant.

Sometimes while we are spraying elsewhere a wind can carry the spray to other plants and it won’t be until sometime later that the damage from this appears.

This damage will appear as leaves that have become smaller, narrowed and twisted.

Once this damage is seen there is nothing that can be done other than to remove the damaged portions of the plant and hope that more damage will not occur over the following days. Often a plant will recover if it has only received a light residual amount of weed killer that has blown over from a breeze.

It really depends on how much weed killer it was exposed to and how big, or how durable the plant it.
Some plants are a lot more susceptible to weed killer than others and only a small amount of exposure to this will be enough to kill the plant.

You really need to take care when using weed killer to ensure that none of it drifts to areas where it shouldn’t be.
Only use weed killer when there is no wind and hold the sprayer close to the weeds so it will only go on them and nowhere else.

It is also wise to have dedicated containers for weed killer and other sprays in the garden as residual weed killer left in a container that you would use for other things in the garden could ruin your plants. f it is not possible to have more than one container for poison and another for other garden sprays then you should always ensure that you clean it thoroughly after use to remove all the poison.

This being our 4th summer here we are hoping we have the time to plan a theme. The yard was bare the first year because the owners just mowed every thing down and sold the place.

The second year was a treat because we saw what we didn’t even know was there. A yard full of various flowers. But it’s not what we want but my health wouldn’t let me do any work at all for the past four years.

This year I have more energy and will be able to take longer walks to build my strenght in the next few weeks. So it’s looking like we just might start building a theme. It will take a few years to complete the entire property but it’ll be worth it.

I have a digital camera and will be taking pictures of what emerges from the ground as the snow disappears and life returns to our yard.

There are definitely plants we want to keep but they won’t be staying in the same place.

We would also love to get rid of the fence around our property and put up a nice wooden fence with nice gates. The existing fence is like what you would see around a swimming pool and has a vine covering it that grabs anyone that walks by it.

We have a lot of work to do and some landscape design that will help our property look nicer. And then we will work on some lawn care. It’s kinda dangerous to try and run across our property.

There is nothing quite like a good condition, well maintained lawn to set off your garden. It’s the finishing touch, just like a frame around a painting.

Preparation when the lawn is first laid can make maintenance a whole lot easier and the finished result will look better too.

Simple things like making sure the ground is even will make mowing and walking on it easier. Irrigation and drainage are also of vital importance and will extend the time during the year when you will be able to enjoy your lawn.

In the winter a poorly drained lawn can get muddy and pond with water which will mean you won’t be able to walk on it, or worse still, it could stop you from gaining easy access to parts of your garden.

The lie of the land will also affect the runoff from the lawn that could cause damage to the plants in your garden.

Good drainage can make all the difference to both your lawn and the surrounding garden and as these drainage systems are relatively cheap it is a wise investment to take the time to install them.

With the various different systems that are available, there will be something to suit almost any lawn whether it is prior to getting laid or improving a lawn that is already established.

In particularly hot and dry climates the lawn will need to be irrigated to remain looking good when there is a shortage of rainfall.

Sprinkler systems are available for a few dollars, up to expensive, hidden, automated systems that are virtually set and forget.

Regular sprinkling over the summer months can make the difference been a lush green lawn and brown patches that will greet a shortage of water.

And who wants prickles on their lawn?

In summer there is nothing better than to wander around your lawn in bare feet and feel the soft grass beneath you. On the other hand, there is nothing worse than walking off the grass to find that you have a few dozen prickles in your feet.

Now that is one area that every lawn owner should concentrate on.

Ant hills can ruin a yard pretty quickly if not taken care of. The remedy for ant hills in gardens and lawns is to deal with them immediately upon finding them. Easy to say but if you don’t know what you are doing it can be a real challenge.

About 15 years ago my wife and I bought a duplex thinking the we would make lots of money and pay off our mortgage quickly. We didn’t realize the problems we were buying into as the previous owners were experts at deception. Not to go into too much detail I will only talk about the yard, it was a mess and needed plenty of love and care.

When we bought the place the yard looked great because they had laid new sod and planted lots of flowers. All of this was done to cover up the nightmare just below the sod. Lawn and garden pests galore. We thought the yard had a nice slope to the side walk but it turned out the it was not a slope but a hill, one big huge ant hill.

It took a lot of work to get rid of the pests in our garden and lawn, not just ants but also earwigs, which gross me out. If I could have done something to get even with the previous owners I think I would have taken all the ants and earwigs and move them directly to their new property, but then again I am an honest person and couldn’t do that.

We tried a home remedy for ant hills in gardens and lawns that a friend told us about but we ended up going to our local lawn and garden store to get real advice from a professional and in just a few weeks they stopped coming around and now our lawn and the slope to the side walk is all landscaping and not a big ant hill. We have since sold that place and moved into our dream home where we hired a professional to check out new property before we signed the dotted lines, although today we have protection against crooks like those people that sold us that place.