Posted on October 4th, 2007 by Tim Menk
Growing deer populations in many areas across the U.S. has led to an increasing number of problems with deer damaging and sometimes destroying home gardens and ornamental shrubs.
After several years and many damaged and lost plantings, in desperation, my sister and her husband spent several weekends installing 6-foot high fence to virtually surround their home, located in a wooded college town in Connecticut. At my property in another small Connecticut village, hordes of local deer practically denuded mature ornamental evergreen shrubs last fall and winter. It got so bad that I had to wrap all of the shrubs with fine netting and spray all of the shrubbery with an oil based cayenne pepper spray. It dried on the needles with a long lasting wax-like coating. The overall effect made the ornamental plantings look less attractive, but at least now they have a chance to recover and survive. Two seasons in succession of new growth foliage being eaten off of mature plants and shrubs can cause serious stunting and in some cases, total loss.
To add insult to injury, here in the Northeast, providing more food for the local deer population (even unintentionally) can result in many more deer. This threatens not just the health of our gardens and shrubs, but our own health, because more deer means more deer ticks and hence more chances of contracting Lyme disease.
Click here for an article from The Gardeners Network that features a variety of means to discourage and/or prevent deer from using your garden and shrubs as a smorgasbord.
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Filed under: Gardening, Landscaping, Tools, Vacation Homes | No Comments »
Posted on September 1st, 2007 by Florence Beaton
The end of the summer vacation season is here (where did the summer go?), and for many that means closing up your vacation home for the winter. Properly closing up your vacation home allows you to worry a lot less over the winter about what you’ll find there come spring.
About.com has a great article on how to winterize your vacation home. Tips include cleaning out your refrigerator completely and having your plumbing winterized by a professional.
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Posted on July 11th, 2007 by Florence Beaton
HomeFurnish.com has decorating & home improvement information sorted by room.
InteriorDesign.net is the online home of high-end Interior Design magazine.
About.com’s interior decorating portal has articles on a range of topics including decorating inspiration and holiday décor.
iVillage has tons of great interior decorating articles as well as info on related topics including entertaining and gardening.
Behr Paints has a great site about using color inside your home and is a great source for inspiration.
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Posted on July 5th, 2007 by Tim Menk
With the Summer Solstice just past, it seems a good time to take a look at what is happening with solar power for home use. New technologies and manufacturing techniques are bringing down the price of solar power generation. Even with these price reductions, the cost to produce all the power on-site for a private home is a pricey proposition. While It is technically feasible in many parts of the country to produce sufficient power from your home (within reasonable limits), it is still not cost-effective to do so.
Even if the totally solar powered home is out of reach for most of us, the use of solar power to supply part of your energy needs is beginning to be more affordable. If you want to supplement the power supplied by your electric utility, a good place to start would be in heating your domestic hot water supply. For a further update on the state of home-generated solar power, take a look at this from RealtyTimes.
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Posted on June 26th, 2007 by Tim Menk
As we head off for our vacation spots, don’t forget to make sure your home is safe and sound. There are usually more break-ins during the summer than in other seasons. In part, this is because many of us spend one or more weeks away from home at this time of year.
There are several ways you can provide greater assurance that your home will be protected while you are out of town.
The AP Wire Service has a report on the subject via the Houston Chronicle.
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