Steve Boulden our expert of the day, writes:

Sloped and hillside lawns and landscapes tend to develop dry dead spots during the hot part of the season. This is primarily due to water run off before it has a chance to saturate into the soil. Deep saturation is a key to a healthy lawns and plants. Deep watering helps establish deeper roots that can handle Summer heat stress. Water that runs off or just barely breaks the surface, obviously does the lawn or landscape very little good. So how do you give landscaping and lawn on a slope better saturation? Split your water cycle duration into two or three short cycles. If your water cycle is 30 minutes, you might split the cycle into three 10 minute cycles. So on watering days, you’ll run the system for the specified amount of time, let it soak for a few hours, then repeat this for the number of times needed. To determine the exact amount of time needed, turn on the lawn sprinkler and watch for how long it takes for runoff to begin. This is the maximum of how long each cycle should be. Don’t just split your cycles into different days. You need deep saturation for healthier plants. Plants and lawns like infrequent deep waterings much more than frequent shallow waterings. Landscaping and specimen plants on a hillside will also benefit from better saturation. Plants should be planted in larger holes filled with good soil that absorbs water easily. Also, dams and water wells should be built on the downhill side of the plant. This will help give the water time to soak straight down to the root zone before it runs off.

Brian Jenkins our expert of the day, writes:

Proper watering of the lawn is one of the most important aspects of achieving that bright green color, and for maintaining overall lawn health. For owners of larger lawns, it can be an enormously time-consuming chore to do by hand. Fortunately, the right lawn system will take care of that problem.

Choosing the right sprinkler system, however, is more involved than just making sure the system covers your entire lawn. You’ll first need to choose the overall system type, select appropriate sprinkler heads, and then program the system to make sure each section of your lawn receives enough water during all seasons.

Underground or Above Ground?

In general, you’ll make this decision based on the size of your lawn, how much time you want to invest in maintaining the system, and how much money you want to spend.

Underground systems are more expensive, but if you have a large lawn, it’s going to be easier by far to keep it maintained, since you won’t have to worry about removing the sprinklers when mowing and maintaining your lawn. This is particularly true if you live in a hot climate that makes frequent watering necessary.

Vicki Duong our expert of the day, writes:

Before you start on your first composting project of the year, have you thought about what you were going to place your compost in? I don’t mean, “In my garden,” or even, “In my houseplant’s soil,” those are all moot points. I mean, have you considered whether you were going to compost out in the open for anything and everyone to see, or perhaps in a compost bin or compost tumbler? After all, these are important points to consider and they may hold the key to a successful composting project.

There are quite a few methods when it comes to composting; some use the open composting method by building a pile of compost out in the woods or yard, others use compost tumblers and bins. I prefer the compost tumbler method out of all of them mainly because I lead quite a busy life and can’t commit to watering down my compost constantly if it’s out in the open in addition to turning the pile on a regular basis. However, that’s not to say that a compost tumbler is better than open composting; both methods produce the same amount of compost in the same amount of time so long as you keep your compost heaps aerated.

Richard Gilliland our expert of the day, writes:

Most homeowners - in Orlando and elsewhere - would rather trust decisions concerning their sprinkler system and sprinkler heads to a landscape professional. Good idea. But it’s also a good idea for you - as a home or business owner to know what type of sprinkler heads are available when planning the sprinkler system for your landscape. Let’s discuss the two most common types of sprinkler heads…spray and rotor. Some spray lawn sprinkler heads are designed to pop up out of the ground when the sprinkler system is activated, while others rest on pipes that remain aboveground at all times. Spray lawn sprinkler heads discharge a large volume of water in a relatively short amount of time, giving them a “high application rate.” For this reason, sprinkler systems with spray lawn sprinkler heads are most suitable for even surfaces, not slopes. If you do have to use a spray head on a slope, you will need to program your sprinkler system so that water is discharged over several shorter periods of time to avoid wasteful run-off.

Chanaka Dunuwila our expert of the day, writes:

Home owners with large yards probably find normal lawn care equipment to be inadequate to meet their needs. Large yards are one of the primary reasons why people upgraded from push mowers to riding lawn mowers, as they could cut the same area of yard in a much shorter timespan. If you’re a lawn care professional or simply like to take care of your yard, then commercial lawn care products are perfect for getting the job done quickly. Professionals will find this equipment absolutely necessary for their job, although home owners may wish to save some money on the products they buy.

Durability is the Key
Commercial lawn care products are generally much larger and more durable than their consumer counterparts. They are designed for professionals who need to do a lot of work in a reasonable amount of time, and they need to last so businesses don’t spend too much time or money repairing them. Also, you can find more targeted approaches to taking care of problems. Consumer products generally tend to have broad focuses, like generic “pest control” products. Professional lawn care products have entire lines of tools dedicated to pest control, and they generally target specific types of pests, like termites, Japanese beetles, or grubs. Commercial lawn care products are marketed on quality and not the brand producing them.

Vicki Duong our expert of the day, writes:

If you’re a Gene Kelly fan like me, you relish the days and nights when it rains and run to find your old yellow rain slicker and umbrella and head to the closest light post to do your rain dance. But if you live in Southern California (again like me) where it doesn’t really rain all that often, your Gene Kelly moments are quite limited. However, there are a couple creative ways for you to get your “Singin’ in the Rain” moments on no matter what season it is.

The first method and probably one of the funnier ones is to suit up in your rain slicker and umbrella on a hot summer day and set off your neighborhood’s local fire hydrant. Even though you may be looked upon strangely for dancing around in the middle of the street in front of the fire hydrant, wearing a rain slicker, the neighborhood kids might appreciate the strong spray of water. As fun as this method may sound, you should consider it a temporary method because someone is surely bound to call the fire department to shut off the water.

Jason Hobbs our expert of the day, writes:

The orchid is one of the most ancient known genuses of the plants and its flowers are also quite admirable in the current era. Hence, every individual needs to take care of orchids properly. The orchids are of great use, as they can be forwarded as a thanksgiving compliment of love, or can be nurtured and promoted in ones indoors greenhouse. These magnificent blooms are capable enough to thrash away the dullness of the rooms with their dual features of attractiveness and fragrance. However, for keeping their aspects in the utmost standard, an individual is required to get familiar with the details of how to take care of orchids in a pracised manner. With the availability of loads of variety in the species of orchids, it is advised to ensure the detailed caring requirements. Proper caring of orchids demands a healthy amount of time, specifically at the time of autumn, when the nurturing terms of the orchids is on the row. The month of blooming is the most crucial period in the maintenance of orchids due to the inactiveness of the plants, due to the scorching summery months.

Jason Hobbs our expert of the day, writes:

An individual is advised to carefully administer the process of orchid identification, prior to nurturing certain species of extracts of orchid. At the time of sorting the pracised species of orchids from certain orchid nursery or other sources, it is essential to spot the tag applied upon them. The internet search machine such as the Google and other various sites are also quite useful in the classification of the perfect orchid species. A majority of internet search engine’s spotlight of orchid identification stratum is on the flowers of orchid. Every first-timer, desiring to nurture orchids needs to devote ample amount of time for essaying, that would greatly assist an individual in classifying the finest species of orchid extracts, along with all the facilities and skills to spot the genuine orchid genus. The beginner is further also advised for not touching the font of the extracts at the time of identifying the orchids, without proper acquaintance and suggestions.

Classification of Orchids without Flowers: