Gardening
I start writing this page with a fair bit of hesitation. I have a habit of starting to write these nice web pages which never seem to make it on to the internet. But I will give this yet another try…. So without further ado welcome to my gardening tips and experiences web pages.
Background
My wife (Mariam) and I moved into a new house in September 2008 with a fairly decent size backyard. Soon after winter came and we forgot about our backyard until very recently (May 2009). With the coming of spring came the every day issues of cutting grass, controlling weeds and this desire to plant and grow some colourful flowers. Now it turns out both of us have never really had any actual hands-on experience with gardening. But then where there is a will there is a way. All thanks to the Internet. There really isn't much you cannot find online these days. From customer reviews to personal web pages of people sharing their gardening experiences (much like this one) you can find pretty much everything about anything. In keeping with this I have dedicated the following few pages to useful tips and research that I did online. I might even add some details about personal projects that I plan to undertake.
Research Summaries and Misc Gardening Tips
Lawn Mowers
When it comes to lawn mowers the majority of online resources suggest that a gas powered lawn mower is the way to go. The pros include having more power, no need to watch out for the dangling electric cord (when comparing with a corded lawn mower), no need to wait for a battery to charge (comparing with cordless lawn mowers). However, proponents of other lawn mower varieties also have their advantages at hand. For electric vs Gas the biggest advantage seems to be that electric is more eco-friendly than gas. Closely followed are: starting gas lawn mowers is a pain, you will run out of gas in the middle of the job, who wants to worry about spark plug maintenance, electric is so quiet etc. Oh there is also one other type of mower: the old-fashioned reel type push mower. It is ideal for very small lots, requires regular cutting, gives you quite a work out and is truly eco-friendly.
Garden Hose
Turns out it is not a good idea to rely on rain for your garden and flowerbed watering needs. Especially since:
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-newly laid out sod needs water regularly (JustSodIt.com insists on watering your new sod within 15 minutes of laying it down!).
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-Planting bulbs and plant/grass seeds need consistent moisture levels
Last year (2009) when I took up the reins of maintaining my own garden I figured I needed a garden hose. So like many thrifty (and self-proclaimed smart) buyers I jumped at the chance of getting two 50 feet hoses from Walmart when they were on sale. I probably paid less than 10 bucks a hose. Good deal you say! No, it was not. The first year, apart from the kinks that would appear, the hose worked well. However, the second year I have been having all sorts of problems: the hose seems to have developed permanent kinks. And a couple of days ago one of the pipes actually developed a leak. Now I am in the market to buy a new garden hose. (Read More )
Rain Barrels
I recently discovered that many people use rain barrels to collect water to use in their garden. Previously, I had assumed that mostly people in rural areas (especially where water is scarce) collect their own water for their non-drinking use. This, it turns out, is not the case.
In fact surprisingly I just discovered that the Region of Waterloo has a Water Efficiency Program where they distribute 200 litre water barrels to the residents of the region. Unfortunately, this is done one day in a year (and without much advertisement). This year’s distribution was April 24th, 2010 and therefore I missed it. I plan to go get my own rain barrels next year. (Read More )
Completed and In-progress Gardening Projects
