Simple Tips to ‘Green’ Your Yard and Your Pocket

It’s never too early to get a jumpstart on planning a more beautiful backyard. Maybe you are looking forward to inhaling the perfume of flowers wafting through the air, clipping buds from your prize-winning rose bushes, or simply enjoying the beauty of a lusher, more verdant backyard oasis this year.

Here are some tips to help you to make that dream a reality, in a “greener,” more cost-conscious way:

• Switch over to a push lawn mower or electric mower this year. Overall they’re traditionally lower in price, save you money at the gas pump and also provide you with healthy exercise.
• Use a landscape fabric like Weed-X or Weed Shield to protect your investment in expensive perennial and annual plants. Unlike other landscape fabrics or simple black plastic, these fabrics are the only products proven to prevent weed roots from penetrating the soil from above, and prevent existing weeds from growing up through the fabric. Also, since these landscape fabrics help soil retain its moisture, thereby conserving water, and eliminate the need for toxic or harmful chemical weed killers, you’ll save yourself time, money and help contribute to conserving our Earth’s resources. The fabrics are guaranteed to work for 20 years, reducing the amount of waste you create.
• Decorate your yard with carriage and porch lights, but install them on an “as needed basis” with a motion detector light system. This way you can still enjoy your landscaping after dark, but don’t need to worry about wasted electricity or unnecessarily large utility bills.
• Build or purchase a rain barrel to capture water draining from your gutters and downspouts. These barrels work to provide you with fresh water for your plants in between showers, but also prevent soil runoff from where the spouts dump water in your grass.
• If you are dealing with hungry critters in your yard, avoid using expensive toxic chemical pesticides which can be dangerous for pets and children. Instead install a scarecrow device, like Dalen’s Rotating Head Owl or their Holographic Scaretape. These scarecrows effectively and humanely deter destructive yard pests like rabbits, birds, squirrels and gophers while depending on wind and sun for movement, eliminating the need for electricity or batteries.

Visit www.dalenproducts.com for more ways to save money and keep your garden even “greener” this summer and for years to come.