Liquid Lawn

Poorly maintained furniture is the last thing you want in the home. A stained furniture piece is an eyesore not only for your guests but also for the family members. Indoor furniture is quite easy to maintain in comparison with the outdoor lawn furniture. Your lawn furniture is exposed to all kind of weather vagaries, which make it look worn out. Good lawn furniture specially made with the all-weather finish can last a considerable period of time, but soon or later it will also require maintenance.

The periodicity of maintenance will depend upon the kind of weather your lawn furniture is exposed to. A hot and humid weather demands maintenance every month, while the cooler climate means less frequent renovation schedule. It also depends on the quality of lawn furniture. For instance, good quality Amish furniture with weatherproof coating can last for a substantial period before demanding a renovation. This is because Amish made furniture articles are crafted with special skills that made them strong, sturdy and elegant at the same time. For authentic Amish lawn furniture, always rely on a trusted wholesale Amish furniture dealer.

Ideally, renovating the lawn furniture should not be an expensive venture, both financially as well as time-wise. Redecorating and renovating the lawn furniture should be a weekend job that can be easily managed without any help from the professional agencies. All you require is proper tools and materials for cleaning, de-glossing, spraying and glossing jobs. So, rags, sandpaper, brush, sprayer and other scrap materials are an absolute must for the job. Besides those, liquid de-glosser, a metal primer and high-gloss enamel spray for treating the weather-beaten lawn furniture are also helpful.

After settling down in a comfortable area, use the wire brush and sandpaper to remove loose and protruding paint. Remove dirt or grease with a wet cloth. Make sure that the furniture looks ready to get a fresh finishing. Next in line is the application of liquid de-glosser. The de-glosser will make the surface dull and cleans off any unwanted material or stain stuck on the surface. After giving it some time to dry, spray metal primer to prepare your furniture to fight rust. Lastly, give a couple of coats of high-gloss enamel spray to give it just the desired finish.

While this renovation job would give your lawn furniture a new look, if you are looking for refurbishing the furniture, you must choose a professional for the job. Refurbishing may involve dismantling, making over and assembling the existing furniture pieces to give it an entirely new shape. This is the job of professionals and you should avoid toying with such a complicated task.

The importance of renovating lawn furniture can never be under-estimated. Lawn furniture is a reflection of the indoor furniture and if the first impression of your home furniture is not good, then the effort of maintaining a well furnished home seems wasted. Therefore, firstly, buy exquisite lawn furniture from reputed furniture dealers and then, make sure that this furniture receives adequate attention in the form of regular cleaning and dusting and periodic maintenance.

Originally published here.

The author finds Amish furniture very good for her home and office. Amish handcrafted furniture makes for beautiful interiors for any room. For great prices be sure to check out some wholesale Amish oak furniture dealers online.

People with large lawns would do well to consider purchasing a lawn tractor, which in addition to simply mowing the lawn can dig and haul. But with any powerful piece of machinery, care and attention must be paid to its use.

If you have a large lawn, and need to do a lot of hauling or digging, it may be time to move up from a small riding mower to a more powerful lawn tractor. You’ll save a great deal of time in mowing your lawn that you can then spend doing something a bit more enjoyable.

Of course, lots of people enjoy the feeling of power that mowing a lawn gives them. Richard Widmark, in an article in Architectural Digest way back in 1991, said, “Mowing is very satisfying. It’s all about wanting everything to be neat and under control.”

Large lawns take a lot of water, and a lot of fertilizer, to look their best all year round, unless you are careful to choose those types of grasses that don’t need a lot of water, and typically don’t need a lot of fertilizer. Native grasses are growing in popularity, as opposed to importing “exotics” from other climate regions, and then forcing them to grow where they don’t normally grow. However, that’s an issue for another time. Let’s get back to lawn tractors.

Buying A Lawn Tractor
Treat your purchase of a lawn tractor as you would that of buying a car or any other means of transport. It is after all a major investment. Visit the showrooms of various manufacturers (or look at their sites on the web) to see what kind of features each model has, and what their quality and reliability ratings are from such independent consumer groups as Consumer Reports. If possible, test drive the tractor.

Engines
There are three types of engines on a tractor – air-cooled and liquid-cooled gasoline engines, or liquid-cooled diesel engines. Each one has its advantages…and its attendant costs.

Accessories
The basic cost of a tractor usually does look quite attractive…and then you learn the costs of those add-ons, or accessories. Just like a car, the nicer the accessories, the more expensive the model will turn out to be.

Accessories consist of such things as canopies over the driving cockpit to keep you protected from the sun on hot days, and grass collection bags. Cutting decks are considered accessories. They vary in width. A smaller cutting deck will come standard on the tractor, but you can replace it with a larger deck, for a fee.

Safety
Lawn tractors have a low center of gravity. This makes it possible for them to mow on slopes – there’s less chance of them tipping over. However, most accidents with lawn tractors do happen on slopes – no matter how low the center of gravity a steep slope will have the last laugh. The best thing to do is plant ground cover on the slope which will prevent erosion – and yet never need mowing.

Always wear ear protectors and safety glasses and sturdy shoes. Never have a “lawn mower race” – if you like to get some speed out of your tractor do it on a track in a recognized event – not on your own lawn.

Never mow with an audience. Kids may become distracted and run in front or behind you and be hit by flying rocks. Never mow with passengers.

If your mower jams, turn everything off. Clear any jam with a tool – not with your bare hand.

A manual will come with your lawn tractor. Read it, and keep it in a safe place so you can refer to it when needed.

Originally published here.

Andrew Caxton is the editor of http://www.lawn-mowers-and-garden-tractors.com . You can find more information and resources on lawn tractors at his website.

In order to have a beautiful lawn, provide adequate food, protection, and water, and keep it well manicured! Fertilizers are the primary source of supplying a lawn with its first two basic needs.

It’s necessary to use fertilizer before any problems are obvious. Once disease, weeds or insects are noticeable; the lawn’s health has already been seriously compromised. Even without these annoyances, lawns need fertilizer to grow; if they don’t get it, blades will turn yellow, thin, and fail to thrive. Grass then becomes susceptible to any number of unattractive and unhealthy conditions. Lawns need fertilizers just as much as humans need food!

Many factors play a part in determining which fertilizer is best. All grass requires more fertilizer during its growing seasons, but some fertilizers should not be used during rainy periods, such as those with a high nitrogen level and no time-release mechanism. If the lawn owner will not be able to keep up his fertilization schedule of every 2 weeks or so due to personal scheduling, that will also determine the kind of fertilizer timing that may be needed. (Slower-acting fertilizers only need to be applied about every 6-8 weeks, but are usually more expensive.) The lawn owner should even consider whether sprayer or spreader application would be most effective for his physical limitations and size of lawn. (It may be confusing to determine the varying amounts needed for liquid instead of granular fertilizers, and using liquid fertilizers with sprayers may be logistically difficult for those with very large lawn areas. But, it does prevent the homeowners from having to store large bags of granular fertilizer and purchase, then store, a spreader.)

Most fertilizers use a mixture of approximately 30% nutrients (stated as a series of 3 numbers on the product bag) and 70% “fillers” or chemical agents. Lawn owners should have an idea of what type of grass his lawn contains and how large the square footage is before purchasing any type of fertilizer. Fertilizer requirement is based on a calculation of one pound of nitrogen per 1,000 square feet of grass for “average” Centipede grass.

The amount of nitrogen chemicals, which encourage the green color, is the first of the first 3 fertilizer numbers on the product bag, such as 29 in the series 29-3-4. To figure out how many bags to buy, divide the first number, 29 by 100; the result is 3.5 pounds for every 1000 square feet of grass. Once the amount to be applied has been reached, application should stop, and any remaining fertilizer stored for future use. This is important to remember, because just as too little fertilizer will keep a lawn from growing into a lush and thick green carpet, too much fertilizer will burn and kill it. (It’s also good to remember that applying fertilizer with higher nitrogen levels too frequently can cause grass to grow more quickly and need additional mowing!)

Using the above calculation, some grasses will require more than one pound per 1000 square feet: Buffalo and Blue Gramma may need up to 2 pounds, fine Fescue, Bahia, St. Augustine, Ryegrass, Zoysia should have 2 to 4 pounds, and Bermuda, Kentucky, Bentgrass, and tall Fescue must be given 3 to 6 pounds. (All of these estimates can be based on the lower range for cooler temperature areas and shorter growing seasons.)

Buyers should not be concerned only about the nitrogen amounts. The second number represents phosphorous, which affects growth of the grass roots. The third number reflects the fertilizer’s level of potassium, which builds the lawns’ resistance to stress. Many experts believe that any nitrogen numbers below 12 don’t provide enough nutrients and are not worth their low prices. But, Zoysiagrass, Fescue and Bermudagrass will normally respond well to all fertilizers, so price can be a deciding factor for those varieties.

Regarding organic fertilizers: they may not be high in all of the nutrients that lawns require, and there may be adverse reactions. Cottonseed meal results in acidity, so it’s better for certain plants than for grass. Blood meal is so rich in nitrogen, it may cause burning. Fish emulsion has a very strong odor that takes a few days to fade. Manure, although nutritionally balanced (based on what the animal is eating) may be low in all of those nutrients. Plus, manure is most rich in nutrients when fresh (but not too fresh or the high salts will burn roots) and acquiring it may not be always easy for the lawn owner, who probably does not want to apply 70 pounds for every 1000 feet of lawn area!

For optimum results, professional lawn care consultants can recommend specific amounts and blends of nutrients to ensure that the lawn owner gets the most out his fertilizer and lawn enjoyment!

Originally published here.

Craig Elliott is a freelance writer who writes about topics pertaining to home maintenance such as Lawn Service | Lawn Services