DIY Yards and Health

DIY Yards and Health
Helping the Do It Yourself home owner in making themselves and surroundings healthy

Friday, December 11, 2015

Gardening into Fall and Winter


Hoop style garden covers do several things for us. One is they protect the plant from the desiccating fall winds. The second is that each cover will actually move your zone down one level south.

If you want to extend your garden time, this is an essential way to cover your plants.


So how can you do it inexpensively? It's actually pretty simple. Take electrical conduit and bend it into half hoops. To get the right bends this is the tool you will need.

http://www.johnnyseeds.com/search.aspx?searchterm=pipe+bender&isusersearch=1

http://quickhoops.net/

http://www.buildmyowngreenhouse.com/mh-3-low-tunnel-hoop-bender.aspx

Thursday, December 3, 2015

Firewood contamination

Firewood can be very harmful to your landscape trees.

Last year I watched my neighbor across the street unload several cords of wood. The next day I was greeted by a long horn Asian invader, which I promptly disposed of but knew it was just one of probably many...

Your firewood can be a real problem in that it can bring in bores and invaders that can attack your trees and even your home.

Here is a video I took of an actual larvae caught while splitting fire wood. Click Here

The state wants to encourage us to get our firewood locally so we do not bring in invaders but sometimes that is not possible or you may already have wood that has been brought in.

Another option is to create a wood shed containment area and then spray the inside with a band as directed on the label of the product you chose, as you would for spiders, so a hatching larvae that flies out may be intercepted by the spray band. This includes Carpenter Ants, Termites etc., however with Termites you may need to do a ground application around the containment shed as directed on the label. Screens can be implemented in the shed as well to contain insects that may have crawled out of the wood.
Do not spray the actual wood with an insecticide in that you could release the active ingredient when you burn the wood affecting yourself.

Again, always follow the label and remember that the bore shown in the video will actual pupate into a flying insect which will lay eggs on your landscape trees so your containment area needs to control crawling as well as flying insects.