My Yard Care Tips!

I'm not even sure that anyone will read this or for tha matter care, but as I take my initial steps in yard maintenace, I thought I'd share. I take pride in my lawn. I don;t hire a firm to do the work as I really enjoy it. I want the outside of my house to look good. It enhances the home and my neighborhood. As I said, I work at it myself, but it's not a lot of work. I've learned a few things over the years and those practices have worked well for me.

For starters, I fertilize in the fall 3 times ( around 9/15, 10/15 and 11/15) and once in the spring. I tend to go with a light touch on the fertilizer so the 3 times method over 3 months ensures that I get good application without overdoing it and contributing to the runoff problem. What doesn't soak into the ground will runoff into streams and creeks and could have very negative impacts on area waterways.

I also mow high and mulch. (separate from mulching around plants and shrubs, I mean mulching the grass itself) By mowing high, the grass is not only more drought resistant, but it blocks the sunlight from getting down to the ground and that makes it much more difficult for any weed seeds to germinate. Mulching is just easier and better than bagging. The grass clippings break down and the nutrients return to the soil. It's a big waste of time to bag the clippings and it's not environmentally friendly. What a waste of fuel and landfill space to haul grass clippings. I would love to see the government agencies that are in charge of garbage collection refuse to take grass clippings and force all homeowners to mulch. This is an easy way to save some money and live "green" in these lean times.

Lets talk about watering. Many "experts" recommend 1 inch per week. Well, I have to admit that I hardly ever water, especially during the summer. I let the lawn go dormant for July and August. When the weather cools in September, the lawn "wakes up". Last year, we were terribly dry, so I did water, but not until mid September. Once the lawn gave me the signal that it was "waking up", I knew that it was still too dry, so I watered The lawn responded to the watering in September and October and is already growing here in early April and will need to be cut real soon.

Finally, I have to recommend fertilizer spikes and a soaker hose with a timer. The fertilizer spikes make feeding your trees and shrubs easy and they last a couple of months. The soaker hose, I believe, is the single biggest reason that my front landscaping looks as good as it does. For my yard(slope and soil type), I found that 1 hour of watering every 3 days is just right. Less than that and too dry, more than that, too wet. It took a little trial and error, but once you get it down, it's that easy.

Happy gardening!!

Green Driving

I recently took a long trip from MD to Alabama and then back with a stop in the Pisgah National Forest in North Carolina. (The ride on I-40 across the NC border to Asheville is gorgeous. I also will be trying the I-26 route from TN to Asheville in the next year as I hear that it is a great ride also.)

I pulled and changed the plugs on my 2002 ODY at 89,209 and I also made sure the tires were over inflated to 39 PSI. The plug removal went pretty well, the plugs came out with just a tiny bit of nudging and I used anti-seize and di-electric on installation of the new ones. Driving around 80 on the way down, I got about 22 MPG, but I then tried a slower speed on the way back.

From Knoxville to Asheville, I got 28.0 mpg as I set the cruise around 70. RPM was between 1900 and 2000. I believe that this RPM is the "sweet spot" for this engine. I suppose if I had it hooked up to a fancy diagnostic computer that I could fine an exact spot, but this worked well. Wondering if this was a fluke, I tried it again. From the spot where I-77 comes into I-81 to Winchester, VA, again driving around 70, I calculated 27.77 mpg. At this point I was around 91,000 miles on the engine. These 2 stretches are the highest MPG I have ever observed and pretty damn good if you ask me!

I also have slowed my 2005 Civic LX down below 60 (it's my commuter car) even though everyone passes me, and a combination of highway and local driving, 2/3 highway, and I got 36+ mpg.

Beside from making sure that your car is in good mechanical condition, slowing down and not accelerating like a rabbit from a dead stop, seems to be the single biggest thing you can do to save fuel.

A Few Pictures

Monday evening I was at a nice event at Bren Mar Park elementary school in Springfield by Landmark Mall. The event, called "Litter to Glitter" was sponsored by Boy Scout Troop 678.

The emphasis for the children was on recycling and to raise awareness about trash and how we can reduce our waste. One of the Scout Masters, Bill Wilson, is in the picture with me. I'm sitting in a Go-Kart made from recycled materials including the wheels from a Baby Carriage.

I was one of four judges and the kids were very creative in their use of materials.

Wednesday morning I was in Crystal City at the staging area for the Crystal Flight. It's a Celebration of Art & Air and 50 decorated planes will hit the streets of Crystal City next week.

In the picture with me are 3/4 of the members of the Crystal City Business Improvement District. They do many functions in order to attract visitors to Crystal City and help local businesses. I have a story and video blog at wusa9.com about the event.