Page 34 2024 Spring Home and Garden LINCOLN DAILY NEWS April 2024 As spring approaches many are dreaming of how and what they are going to grow in their yard with the hopes of drowning out the leftovers from the dreary months past. Everywhere you go, retail stores have doorways full of flats of bright flowers, ground cover, trees, shrubs, and vegetable bins. So where do you start? One has to take into consideration how much shade or sun, drainage options, kids, dogs, maintenance, funds, and location. Not necessarily the location of where are you going to plant in the yard, planters, or garden, but what type is best for your geographic location and what type of insects do you want to attract or deter? Certain insects and critters will flock to whatever they can to survive and multiply, even to the most carefully cultivated gardens. It can be one of the most frustrating ventures to put long hours into a flower bed or vegetable garden only to have it infested by pests. Knowing that every garden will always have some form of enemy, one must realize it will also have some form of adversary. One way to control the ‘pesty’ side effect of a beautiful yard is to use a multitude of poisonous chemicals on and around your lawn, which can become costly, time-consuming and some will argue not safe for kids, animals, or the environment. Some will say to use floodlights or noisemakers, but returning intruders are Flowers, shrubs, and bugs, OH MY! smart and in time will grow wise and not see those as a threat. Regardless of what you want your home to reflect using flowers, shrubs, trees, or mulch, your choices will be a huge factor in whether pests end up in your home and take flight around your patio. A couple of considerations to keep in mind: 1. Place all plants and mulch two to three feet away from the foundation and use crushed stone or pebbles between the foundation and plants. 2. Don’t go deeper than two inches for mulch. Deeper mulch will result in a damp, moldy wood that invites pests like sowbugs, earwigs, millipedes, and springtails. 3. Don’t use thick ground covers or dense low shrubbery and plant shrubs singularly and not in dense grouping. Choose shrubs that are wine glass shaped to keep the base of the shrub off the ground and open. This will help prevent rodents from hiding and making burrows. 4. Keep fruit, berry, and nut trees far from the house. The ripe and rotten produce will attract rodents, flies, and bees. Keep all other tree branches no closer than four feet from the house. Continued --
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