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Improving Acidic Soil

Most native soils in the eastern United States are naturally acidic. Alaska, Hawaii and parts of the Pacific Northwest tend towards acidic soil as well. Acidic soil is a good environment for thatch, weeds and diseases and also reduces the effectiveness of your fertilizer or herbicide.

Garden lime, or limestone, is the soil amendment usually recommended for reducing soil acidity. Lime also is a natural source of calcium and magnesium—elements necessary for healthy plant growth. Correction of an overly-acidic soil is a long-term project that takes time to complete. Fall is the best time to apply garden lime, but it can be applied any time of year.

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Best time to water

If You Water, Do It in the Morning, between 6AM and 10AM, is the most efficient time to water your lawn. Less is lost to evaporation and your lawn has time to dry off before nightfall. Watering in the afternoon is throwing water away to evaporation. Watering at night invites disease. Half an inch twice a week or 1 inch a week should keep your lawn refreshed.

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Soil Types

Take a minute to consider your garden's soil conditions before selecting a mulch. Most vegetable plants perform poorly in heavy, wet soil. This type of soil will usually dry out a bit as the season progresses, so don't cover it up with a thick, moisture-retentive mulch. Nor should a dry, sandy soil be covered with plastic mulch, because it would prevent rain and irrigation water from seeping down to the roots.

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Think Gravity

Heat rises. During those hot summer months, the heat in your home will rise to the ceiling or the second floor of your home. Either ceiling fans or standing fans help move the air around the room, creating a cooler environment for your family. Good air circulation helps your home maintain an even temperature, giving your HVAC a chance to work less.

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Methods of Lawn Watering

Portable sprinklers offer a reasonably-priced method for watering grass. Since sprinklers have a variety of distribution and range methods, select a sprinkler according to the size and the shape of your lawn watering zone. Rotary and impact sprinklers are intended for circular watering zones on large to medium lawns. Irrigation systems can also help conserve water.

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Trust the experts.
Contact the ones that know at 360 HVAC.
803-984-8881

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June Week 3 View More Summer Tips

How to Lay a Flagstone Pathway

1. Excavate Area
2. Plot Pathway
3. Install Border
4. Add Weed Block
5. Add Sand
6. Install Border

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June Week 2 View More Summer Tips

Walled in

Use it as a backdrop. Although most enclosed backyards have fencing rather than walls, both walls and fencing don’t have to be dead ends. Use them as backdrops for your outdoor living space. Build an adjacent patio or barbecue pit against the wall. Cover a wall or fence with a running vine such as ivy and build a water feature in front of it to create a quiet sitting area.

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Mulch Basics

• Keep mulch at least an inch away from plant stems to avoid rot and fungus problems.

• Leave at least half your grass clippings on the lawn. They are an important source of nutrients.

• Clippings used as garden mulch should be sun-dried for a day or so. Do not use clippings from lawns treated with herbicides or toxic pest controls.

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Water Wisely

• Lawns need at least one inch of water per week, and more when the heat is severe. Use a rain gauge or straight-sided can to keep track of the amount of water received from rainfall and irrigation. Water deeply and less frequently to encourage drought-tolerant roots. Water early in the day to reduce evaporation and fungal growth.

• Either water your lawn regularly and deeply, or don’t water at all. Don’t let your lawn go brown and dormant, then try to “water it back to life.” If your lawn goes dormant in summer, it should stay that way until fall – don’t worry, it should recover once the weather changes.

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Trying to make the perfect outdoor living environment?
Contact the ones that know at 360 Hardscapes.
803-984-8881

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June Week 2 View More Summer Tips

Soak 6 Inches

Soak 6 Inches Into the Soil. Water long enough to moisten the soil about 6 inches down, which is the depth of a healthy grass root system. To see how far the moisture seeps down, check the soil every 15 minutes during the first watering.

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June Week 1 View More Summer Tips

The Right Mulch for your Crop

Not all vegetable plants like the same growing conditions. Heat-loving peppers, tomatoes, eggplant and melons are great candidates for black plastic mulch. Applied in early spring, the plastic will raise soil temperatures and help warm the air around the plants. But most plastic mulches are not water-permeable, which means that as the season progresses, your plants may go thirsty. Inadequate moisture can stress your plants, lead to blossom-end rot problems on tomatoes, and diminish your overall harvest.

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Need help getting your lawn in perfect condition for this Summmer?
Contact the Professionals at 360 Irrigation.
803-984-8881

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June Week 1 View More Summer Tips

A 'blah' backyard

Go sleek and minimal. If you backyard is a flat, empty rectangle, don’t worry about filling it up with expensive trees and high maintenance plants. Use geometry and divide it into squares or zones. Vamp up a blah backyard by turning it into a concrete or brick courtyard complete with a sleek sitting area, a play zone, and a backyard garden. You don’t have to forego all plant life, just make sure whatever you choose has clean lines and requires little maintenance. Install manageable areas of grass or groundcovers and low maintenance perennial flowers and shrubs for maximum effect with minimal output.

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