Walgreens 50% OFF Photoprints
There is a good sale going around in walgreens this week. Its called the HALFPRICE SALE where you get to enjoy 50% off of all your photoprint orders.
This offer will be available now thro this saturday. All you need to do is enter the coupon code HALFPRICE at checkout.They limit 5 copies per account.
I’m following up with walgreens photo offers for quite a few months and this is the best of all so far this year.
Did Deer Eat The Tulips?
I got a call from one of my dearest ones saying her tulips vanished overnight. Both of us started to spy the neighborhood believing someone should have stolen the plant. She complained to the Home Owners Association regarding the sudden disappearance of her plant.
After doing some ground work in the internet we came to know that Tulips can be easily destroyed by animals like deer, rabbits, mice ect. So safeguarding the plant is as important as planting them. Here are some tips to protect your tulips.
- Spraying animal repellent spray.
- Protecting them with chicken wire.
- Building some sort of barrier from the animals or pets.
- Dipping the bulbs in some kind of repellent before planting
- Planting them in a pot and storing indoors.
If the above tips does not work out and still you are in the pain of those critters still destroying your tulips here is a good idea. Forget tulips think about planting Daffodils as they are are toxic and unattractive to animals.
How I Planted Tulips Last Fall
It was last fall, walking into Sams and Lowes all I could see was boxes with beautiful pictures of tulips. When I looked into the boxes I saw small onion kind called Tulip Bulbs.
Attracted by the picture I brought the box not knowing what to do next, the picture of the beautiful tulips still running in my mind.
After watching some DIY videos and reading articles I planted the Tulips Bulbs . ( Picture of Tulips that I planted on your right)
So here is the method I followed to plant the Tulips Bulbs
Materials Required for Tulips Planting
You will need the following
- Hand Trowel
- Hand Gloves
- Tulip Bulbs
- Compost and
- Potting Soil
When to Plant The Tulips Bulbs
The best season to plant the Tulip Bulbs is early fall, 6 weeks before the first frost. When the evening temperature drops 50F to 60F is the best time to start planting them.
Where to Plant The Bulbs
Choose the area that gets the maximum sun in your yard. Amount of Sunlight required depends on the types of Tulips you plant. Some need morning sun, some need the noon sun or some may need partial sunlight. So make sure to read the instruction before you choose the area.
How to prepare the Soil
Make sure the soil is not damp because the bulb may get rotten, the extra water should drain away from the soil. The soil should be rich in nutrients if not you can add compost and manure.
Method to plant :
- After choosing the best area and getting the soil ready dig a hole about 7 to 15 inches.
- Mix the compost and with potting soil.
- Planting ateast 5-6 bulbs in a single hole will grow into a bunch of tulips looking more beautiful than planting a single one in each hole.
- Place each bulb 3-4 inches apart as per the instructions in the package
- Its always best to plant the bulbs with its tip pointing upwards, though they tend to grow even if they are planted upside down but it can stress them.
- Water them regularly but make sure the excess water drains and the soil is not damp.
Hope this is helpful and keep looking fwd for my next article on how the beautiful tulips that bloomed in Spring vanished away over night.
8 Steps to Repair Tall Fescue Lawn
After spending (wasting) $400 with TruGreen, I decided to take the project on my own. After spending 2 days online, I realized the amount of effort and work required to repair the lawn. But, I decided to take a crack at it.
Steps to Fix the Lawn
After watchig few DIY project vodeos from Lawn Care experts, this is what I would need to do to repair my lawn
- Dethatch using garden rake
- Remove the thatch
- Pull the weeds out
- Again use Rake the ground loosen up the soil
- Apply Lawn seeding soil
- Apply Tall Fescue Grass seeds
- Mix the seeds with soil ( using same rake)
- Water the lawn regularly ( atleast twice daily)
Above 8 steps doesn’t take lot of time, but I need to fix about 3500 sq ft of brown spots and lawn weeds.
So, I made few phone calls to Landscape suppliers to find about amount of soil required to cover 3500 Sq Ft of area with 1 inch thick. I found out some good and bad news. More details in next article. My ultimate aim to get lush green looking lawn.
Image Credit – hufse
Review – TruGreen Lawn Care, Raleigh
Alright, I have to agree that I hate to do gardening and lawn maintenance work. Being First time home owner, there are so many things we had to learn over last 2.5 years about Home Ownership. So, far we are enjoying our home.
2 Summers back, I had to go out of town for over 4 weeks and when I came back, almost entire lawn 4000 Sq Ft was brown. I had the Water Sprinklers set to 7 Minutes ( 3 times a weeks), but that didn’t help.
So, we decided to go with Tru Green Lawn Care service, hoping they will take care of the lawn and get that lush green back to our backyard.
TruGreen Lawn Care – Review
It would cost $35 per application for 7 times in a year and $180 for Aertaion and Re-seeding. This was cheaper than Scotts Lawn Care program. So, we signed up with them last year around September.
Manager who came onsite said it will take about 1 year to get the Lawn back into healthy condition. We were all excited and after 10 months condition of lawn is still the same with weeds.
- 2 Weeks back, they had come for applying Fertilizer and there were so many weeds. If they were good company, they should have applied the weed control without even asking us. We had to call them to apply weed control.
- TruGreen re-seeded the lawn in September last year, and there was not improvement after 4 months. So, they re-seeded in February again and that didn’t help. In March, carbgrass and weed control was applied. Right after that, they lawn was re-seeded again. My understanding is that, re-seeding has to be done only after 3 months of applying weed control to the Lawn.
- Now, they claim that it’s hard to grow the grass in red soil. I would expect them to know this when they first analyzed the law while providing the rate quote. They should have know it was red soil and made treatments from the beginning of the program accordingly. Not after we spent money for 4 to 5 applications.
- Also, they are suggesting that there is Fungus infection and it would cost additional $35 to control that. Why would you guarantee that lawn will be healthy, and then keep adding reasons later. I just don’t get that.
Overall, Trugreen is just another company that wants your money and promises are words to get your business. Stay away from them if possible.
Plan of Action
We are going to report to BBB of Raleigh, North Carolina and send this article to our account manager. If things doesn’t work, we will cancel the service and spread this article to as many neighbors as possible. I really feel for the 2 of my friends who signed up for the service after I referred them. Even though I got referral credit, I feel bad for their money they wasted.
Update 1 (July 28) – I called TruGreen to cancel the service. Customer Rep said, she will ask the Manager to give me a call to see if there is something that can be done to compensate the service we had.
After 3 Weeks manager came to check the lawn condition and decided to send the soil for pH test. We are waiting for the test results. In mean time I discovered lot of other things that should have been done to fix the lawn.
So, I decided to take up the lawn repair project to fix around 3500 Sq ft of brown patches and weed filled lawn. I will write about the things learned about growing a green lawn and how I’m implementing it in my own backyard.
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