Search Results for: blog mulching leaves

What to Do with All of Those Fall Leaves

Just because something is naturally grown doesn’t mean that disposing of it can’t create a problem for the earth. While you might not have thought twice about disposing of those fall leaves in the past, here is why you should be thinking of responsible ways to get rid of fall leaves today. Thing you shouldn’t do With fall clean up, many people opt for using a leaf blower. While this might be a good choice in areas that might otherwise be dangerous (such as getting leaves off of your roof), in general, using a leaf blower is a bad thing. … Continue reading →

Turning Fall Leaves into Compost

  Compost really makes sense. If you have some fall leaves just laying around (ha, ha), why not put them to work? Don’t trash or burn those leaves when you can use them to enrich your garden. You may have been following my continued ramblings about the fall leaves. First I talked about my love/hate relationship, and then I went into some of the useful things for which leaves can be used. Now, let us look at one of the most useful things of all for leaves: compost! You can have a natural bit of compost if you have leaves … Continue reading →

Useful Things to Do with Fall Leaves (No Crafting Involved)

Sure the fall leaves can be pretty, but around this time I get overwhelmed with what to do with them all. It seems so silly to clean up nature and “toss” it away. You may have ready my earlier post about My Love/Hate Relationship with the Fall Leaves. We have two acres of property, so that is a lot of leaves. Fortunately, most of it is wooded, so at the moment, there is only a few spots where the leaves have to be collected, along with any areas near those areas, to prevent leaves from blowing back where we don’t … Continue reading →

Mulching Leaves

I know, there is an old saying, “Don’t try to tidy up nature.” Well, I actually don’t know if it is old or not, but I have been saying it for years. In this neck of the woods, it is definitely time for the Fall leaf clean up. The leaves are everywhere, much to the delight of my three children, who take the opportunity to jump in the piles as soon as they are formed. Of course, all of those colorful leaves have to be picked up eventually or disposed of in some way. Here in the Home Blog, we’ll … Continue reading →

Preparing Your Yard For Fall—Part 1: Leaves, Leaves… EVERYWHERE!

Autumn gets it’s nickname for a good reason—falling leaves are EVERYWHERE. Currently, in my region of the country, we are about two weeks away from the leaves reaching their peak color potential. Then, it’s all down hill from there. By this time next month we’ll be lucky if we can even see our trees from under the snow (I’m exaggerating–well, slightly, but such is life in Wisconsin). I recently, provided tips for getting various rooms in your home ready for autumn, so now I am moving outdoors. Yards and gardens need to be prepped for the change in season as … Continue reading →

It’s Fall – Time to Redesign Your Garden Space

What are you thankful for today? Today, I am thankful for my new garden up the road – a borrowed garden in someone else’s yard that is so much sunnier than my own. I’ve been having a lot of fun experimenting with mulching techniques and garden design. In my own small garden, I’ve had to be quite creative about space. I live in a townhouse with a tiny yard, and my tiny yard doesn’t really have room for a big garden bed. For a few years, I tried having a garden bed, but it just didn’t make sense. It was … Continue reading →

How to Tell If Your Plants Are Drought Damaged

After the heat of the summer, you may feel like wilting. Chances are that your plants are feeling the same way. After all, it’s been very hot and very dry. As you move into the fall, you’ll need to take a look at your plants and evaluate them. Have they been permanently damaged by the drought? Is your plant stressed? Some plants go dormant during the summer months. Grass turns yellow or brown. Although it can be tempting to water these it, this is normal and if the fall brings moisture, grass will tend to recover. Plants can suffer from … Continue reading →

What on earth is a hugelkultur?

I admit, I had to Google the word hugelkultur to figure out how to spell it. While I’m been saying it all spring, the spelling of this German word was a little difficult to figure out! However, hugelkultur itself is not at all difficult to figure out. If you’re out in the garden and you’re left with a whole mess of sticks, grass clippings, and leaves, you too can create a hugelkultur. Plus, you can have the fun of saying it over and over again! Many of you may have heard the term Lasagne Gardening, or the less fun-sounding term … Continue reading →

Mulch Is Delicious

Mulch is delicious: for your garden, that is. If you could take a supplement that would keep all of the vitamins you eat working hard over a longer time, you’d do it in a flash. This is the job of mulch in your garden. It adds a protective layer to your garden over the winter, so all of the soil fertility you’ve created in your garden does not go to waste in the winter snow and rain. Frost, snow, and rain can be hard on your soil. Of course you want your soil to be moist, but when torrential rains … Continue reading →

Should I hire a lawn service or not?

Some years we have a lawn service to help with the yard. Some years we don’t. This is definitely an on year. In making the decision to hire a person to mow the lawn, we considered several things. In the end, we feel the decision to pay someone else to do the job was a good one. 1. What does the yard look like? Our yard was an absolute mess. Weeds were taking over both the lawn and the flower beds. We couldn’t even keep up the two flower beds at the end of the driveway. The operative word here … Continue reading →