Tips to Clean Up the Outdoor Areas of Your Home
Your backyard is a great place to hold gatherings for friends, neighbors and family. Therefore, it is important to maintain your backyard to ensure that your guests want to keep coming back. The yard can be one of the most difficult parts of any home to keep clean and organized. There are, however, great ways available to make your own personal outdoor space look amazing. Whether it is the lawn, garden, or play areas, the entire space should look attractive and clean. Debris and other messes can quickly turn into safety hazards for your family and friends and it is important to find a way to get outdoor areas of the home properly clean and to maintain it that way.
When it comes to lawns, the goal is usually to make the grass soft, green and free of stones and other debris. The easiest way to clean up debris is to use a mulch-making machine. If you cannot afford that, a simple tool, such as a rolling trash bag stand, can make your work with a rake much simpler.
The task of properly growing grass can often be a bit more complicated. If you have a large budget to work with, new sod is the best way to ensure a beautiful lawn. When laying down sod, it is wise to employ a professional service. However, if you are handy and want to do your own lawn work, there are a few rules of thumb that will help you in the process.
The first tip you should know is that sod should be laid out in the fall. The moderate temperatures of the season allow the sod to safety settle into the soil, and prepare for the winter months. By the time frost begins to come around, the sod is safe and set as it protects your lawn. While the winter cold is not as deadly to many types of grass as summer heat, if you remember to lay the sod relatively early in the fall, it should easily survive the season.
You should also try to help yourself out and do a little bit of research regarding the types of grass that will grow well in your region. While Bermuda grass may look gorgeous, if you plant it too far north, it will die out fast. A good sod company can usually make quality suggestions for you, but it is important to have some idea for yourself.
For many people, sod will not fit into their budget. Seed, on the other hand, is much more affordable. Products such as Canada Green can provide an excellent way to liven up an otherwise dying lawn, and often will grow very fast. Again, fall is the best season to use seed. Canada Green is capable of growing in a wide variety of climates, and is hardy enough to handle any kind of use.
A third way clean up the look of your lawn is with products such as Perfect Patch Grass. Products like these are made up of seed that is covered and protected by resilient, fast growing fertilizer. This fertilizer can protect the seeds from sun, cold and all other threats from mother-nature, allowing the grass to grow quickly even in the harshest of conditions. Either of these products can do wonders to your lawn, making it look clean and attractive.
Having your garden look neat and organized is a little bit harder than your lawn. When it comes to getting plants in good order, try to grow them in common shape and color. Try using fun products such as Topsy Turvy Planters, to make your garden stand out a bit. Use small bushes and shrubs to provide bordering while allowing you to be creative.
Products such as picket fence dividers can do wonders to accent your garden while giving it a crisp look. Use a small electronic pest repelling device, and you will no longer need to employ unsightly chicken wire. These devices can sense motion when an animal is near, and let out a slight, high frequency sound that repels that animal. The sound is inaudible to human ears, and keeps the pests away. These simple tools will help make your garden look neater with very little financial commitment.
Getting play areas in your yard neat and clean is essential. Debris can go from unsightly to dangerous when children are around. This is another area where a mulcher can come in handy. Those leaves and fallen branches that once littered your yard can now be turned into woodchips to provide a safe, padded playing surface for your children. Splurge a little to purchase a toy box that is designed to handle the rigors of outdoor storage. With this, your children will also be able to keep their toys safely packed away when they are not being used. Be sure to cover any outdoor furniture for children with vinyl covers when the weather is bad. Children like to climb on things, and wet furniture can quickly turn into an accident. With these few tips, you are well on your way to a clean and safe outdoor area.
Splitting your yard space into three categories is a great way to manage the process of cleaning and maintaining it. Focus on keeping your lawn green, soft and free of debris, and you will have a neat and attractive lawn for years to come. Make your gardens neat and structured with Topsy Turvy Planters, dividers, or well placed shrubbery. It is important to also maintain play areas so that they are clean and in order to keep your children out of harms way. Once these three areas are covered, your outdoors will provide a great time for all.
Nick Kakolowski is a freelance writer who writes about organization often focusing on a specific area such as home organization.