Tag: Your Garden

5 Tips to Keeping Animals Away From Your Garden

Animals might be cute, furry, and very pleasing to look at but they can seriously be destructive to your field, some of us may enjoy their company, others might want to kill them instantly! Either way, if you do not take care of who enters your garden, your plants may not thank you. Check out the rest of the article to understand what kind of animals can spoil your garden and how to restrict their movement. Who are these animals? Some of the most common garden animals include chipmunks, squirrels, skunks, mice, moles, rats, and opossums. To learn more about possums, click get rid of possum. These animals dig holes into the ground, eat your fruits and vegetables, multiply or lay eggs in your garden, and generally wreak havoc. Other larger animals include dogs, deer, birds, snakes, etc. Just having them run around the garden can cause large-scale destruction. Ways to get rid of animals in your garden There are several ways to control the entry of animals in your garden. Some are more effective than others. To learn more about these methods, read on. 1. Identify the creature : The best way to control animals is to identify them first. This way you would know exactly how to deal with them by understanding their behavior and ways of living or multiplying. You can then target the animal with exactly the right technique that is needed to get rid of them. It is necessary to identify the animal to learn about its habitat, control them, and devise an effective solution. 2. Make your garden animal proof : By making your garden attractive to animals, you will invite more pests into it. Therefore, certain methods need to be adopted to make sure that the animals stay away. One such method is to cut down on places that can house such animals, like tall grass, bushes, or a pile of leaves. Some animals can even crawl under your deck or porch. Minimize any food sources, like birdbaths and seed booths, where animals like squirrels may come to feed. Moreover, you should cover your compost pile that attracts raccoons and fruit and vegetable patches with nets to avoid dogs, cats, deer, etc. 3. Fences, nets, and traps : Fences are a great option to help minimize the entry of animals. For smaller animals, like rats, squirrels, rabbits, and more, small fences around your garden are enough. But for larger animals, like dogs and deer, larger and taller fences are required. Putting up taller fences can go a little heavy on your pocket, so securing plants is probably a better option. Nets are a great way to prevent animals from actually feeding on your produce, like fruits and vegetables. Just adding a mesh or net around your patches can make a huge difference. Traps can be placed throughout the garden to catch animals with the help of baits. Use some food, like cheese, crackers, or biscuits, to lure animals into the trap, which then slams shut. Animals are also not harmed this way. It’s easy to catch possums, rats, squirrels, etc. with the help of traps. 4. Repellents : Some animals can be repelled using auditory techniques, like certain sounds, and repellents that smell a certain way, thus driving or scaring away the animal out of your garden. Some examples of repellents are - predatory urine, garlic clips, and castor oil. But these repellants need to be applied and monitored on a regular basis to make sure they are effective. Some of these repellents, however, can be toxic to humans, so be careful, which repellents you choose. Auditory repellents include motion-sensitive water sprayers, ultrasonic repellers, and visual scare devices, such as reflective tape. The only problem with these repellents is that pests may become immune to these methods, and therefore they may decrease in effectiveness over time. Make sure you read all the directions given on any repellants or products before using them. 5. Do on the spot management : For example, when moles create boroughs in your garden, you can place mothballs in the holes to repel them. Moles don’t eat your garden produce but their tunnels can cause your plants to die since plants may not find space to grow underneath the ground with enough nutrients. If certain animals have entered your garden, immediately introduce the predator species into your gardens, such as cats and dogs, to scare away the pests. Cats and dogs prey on animals, like mice and rats. In some cases, you can hand aluminum foils with strings in your garden. The shiny material can scare away the animals. Again, the effectiveness of this method may die with time. Pests are destructive to your garden and should definitely be identified and eradicated. However, there’s no need to kill these animals in order to get rid of them. You can also use humane ways to get animals out of your garden. Use the methods given above in order to get rid of animals, including possums, from your garden. This will help you get a more secure and flourishing garden in no time! Read Also : 5 Summer Garden Maintenance Tips And Tactics You Have To Know Grow These Flowering Plants In Your Home Garden To Remove Vastu Related Problems

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How to Prevent Root Damage to Sewer Line and Save Your Garden

Having a beautiful garden with big majestic trees is a dream come true for many. However, that’s until the roots of those trees don’t damage your sewer line. There’s nothing majestic about that except the royally high bills repairs and damage can add up to. The average cost for a main sewer line repair is nearly $2,500, according to HomeAdvisor. And your insurance won’t cover it if the problem is caused by wayward root growth, because this is classed as a ‘preventable cause’. Therefore, it’s essential that you do your best to prevent roots from damaging your sewer line. If all fails, you also need to use the most effective strategies for fixing the damage as fast as possible. How to Prevent Root Damage to Your Sewer Line and What to Do If You Fail : The most important thing to understand is that roots are naturally growing towards sewer lines seeking moisture and nutrients. Not having any trees directly on your property doesn’t guarantee the safety of your pipes either, because they grow for many feet underground and can get to you from the neighbors. The first thing to do in order to prevent costly damage is creating a map of sewer lines running through your property. Next, you need to get them examined for leaks and replace any places with even the smallest crack. Even a tiny leak ‘attracts’ roots, which can grow into the pipe and wreak havoc on it and your lawn. To minimize the costs you can use modern trenchless methods of drain replacement. This approach allows replacing whole sections of sewer lines by digging only a few small holes. Therefore, you save money on landscaping restoration. This method of repair and replacement is also faster than digging a trench, so you can minimize the damage. Now that you’ve ensured your sewer line system is perfectly fine and know exactly where the pipes are, you can move on to the ‘active’ prevention state. This starts with installing barriers that won’t allow roots to get to your pipes. Like with drain replacement, you can choose between methods that will require digging up your lawn and ‘non-invasive’ options. The latter is chemical growth inhibitors, like potassium hydroxide or copper sulfate. Bear in mind that the vegetation in the area where you spread these chemicals can suffer to some extent. The other option is to plant metal or wooden barriers directly into the ground so they run along the pipes. If you are only starting your garden, you have a chance to prevent root damage to sewer lines by designing it so the larger trees and shrubs are as far as possible from the pipes. You also need to choose the species with small root ball systems. Be sure to water them well so the plants don’t have to seek out additional moisture through the ground. Root Damage to Sewer Line: How to Tell If You Aren’t Too Late? One of the worst things about root damage to the pipes is that it’s very difficult to spot right away. And by the time it gets severe enough to be obvious, the repairs will cost a small fortune. Regular inspections by professionals will help avoid this, but you also need to know warning signs to look out for. These include drain clogs, wet patches on your lawn, and slow-flowing drains. In case of any of these, contact a professional plumber to find the reason as fast as possible. Read Also : Grow These Flowering Plants In Your Home Garden To Remove Vastu Related Problems Smart Fun Gardening: How To Take Care Of A Money Tree How To Choose The Right Containers For Your Container Garden

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