We all live our lives day to day thinking that nothing bad will happen. We never think that we will be the ones dealing with the cleanup of a house fire. Unfortunately, there are many, many families that suffer the impact of house fires each year. Last year, a close friend of mine was a victim of a house fire and since then, my life has been different. I have spent many hours researching fire prevention, causes, and teaching children about fire prevention and what to do in the case of a fire. It is my hope that my research can help those of you concerned about house fires make the necessary changes in your home and teach your kids what they need to know about fire.
Are you planning a flower or vegetable garden for next year? Are you tired of dealing with weeds that grow on your property? Dealing with weeds can be extremely frustrating. Just when you think you've got all of them removed, you notice ten more. Fortunately, there are a number of ways to combat weeds. If one method doesn't give you 100% weed control, then you can always use another method in addition to or instead of the one you tried originally. Here are some of the ways that you may be able to prevent weeds from growing:
Repeated tilling: Disturbing the ground to add your plants or seeds will help to plant any nearly invisible weed seeds that are lurking on the surface. As a result, you may see a weed explosion shortly after you finish planting. To prevent this, till the ground every 3-5 days for about a month before you begin planting. Doing this will allow weed seeds to begin to grow, but you will till those sprouts under and allow different weed seeds to sprout. After a few rounds of this, any weed seeds in the ground will either have sprouted or be dead. This method of weed control can require a lot of time and patience but may be a good choice for a very large area that hasn't been planted before.
Physical barriers: If you don't want to take the time to till the ground, another method of weed control is to use physical barriers. This can take the form of a porous weed fabric or a non-porous tarp or plastic sheet. Sometimes, mulch is used instead of or in addition to either of these methods. Each type of barrier has different merits and drawbacks, depending on the type of weeds that you're trying to eliminate. For an area that already has small weeds starting to grow, an opaque plastic sheet or tarp may be best. However, this may have a tendency to bake the roots of good plants, in addition to not letting much moisture through. As a result, a good weed fabric may be your best choice.
Chemical sprays: When you're trying to grow other plants, chemical sprays may not be the best method of weed control. Most weed sprays will kill both flowers and weeds, something that is less than ideal if you're trying to keep weeds away from your prized petunias. However, weed control sprays can still be extremely useful and have their place in a gardener's repertoire. If you want to keep weeds out of the lawn around your flower beds, look for a weed spray that only kills weeds and not grasses. Just make sure to protect any nearby flowers so that they aren't accidentally killed as well.
For more information, visit http://snydersweedcontrol.com/ or a similar website.
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