Camping is a great way to get your family out of the house for some fresh air, relaxation, and bonding. Whether you are in a tent or Airstream, staying in the great outdoors will provide a rejuvenation to mind your body. It’s a great way to get in touch with nature, but you don’t have to miss out on the little luxuries of life while camping. Portable grills allow you to cook gourmet meals on any type of outdoor excursion. With gas and charcoal models available, you can be sure that you’ll find exactly what you are looking for. Portable hammocks make luxurious relaxation possible. With a portable hammock, you don’t need trees or hardware. Everything you need is wrapped up in one portable package. They are cozy, comfy, and easy to take on all your camping excursions. Another great item to take with you on camping trips is family games. You or your children may miss your everyday electronic devices, such as video games and computers, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t have a great time. The Murbles Game is a great source of family entertainment for camping trips. It is easy to play with no setup. The Murbles set is color customizable and easy to take along. With great food, a relaxing environment, and family entertainment, your next camping trip will be a home away from home that allows you to get in touch with nature in the most comfortable way possible.
Know When to Start Your Spring Vegetable Garden
Are you planting a garden this spring? Vegetable gardens are a great way to utilize space in your backyard. If you are new to vegetable gardening, you are probably wondering when you should start. Below, you will find a handy guide to help you understand when you should plant in your area of the country. When you start your plants, you can either start them indoors or use a cold frame greenhouse to start them outdoors. Cold frames act as a protective barrier, creating the perfect amount of sunlight and ventilation. This allows you to start your plants outdoors earlier than normal. Whether starting your gardening indoors or out, use the handy guide below to get started now!
Vegetable Growing Guide
You base when to start your plants (indoors or in a cold frame) on the date of the expected last frost in your growing zone. A “growing zone”, also known as a hardiness zone, is determined by the climatic conditions of the location where you live. It factors temperatures, rainfall, humidity, general soil conditions, and other factors to give you zone number. Your zone can also be used to help you determine which plants will thrive best where you live. The approximate date ranges for the last freeze in your zone is below.
- Zone 1 June 1 – June 30
- Zone 2 May 1 – May 31
- Zone 3 May 1 – May 31
- Zone 4 May 1 – May 31
- Zone 5 March 30 – April 30
- Zone 6 March 30 – April 30
- Zone 7 March 30 – April 30
- Zone 8 February 28 – March 30
- Zone 9 January 30 – February 28
- Zone 10 January 1 – January 31
- Zone 11 Frost Free Year Round
Below is a list of commonly grown vegetables and how many weeks before the last frost you should start your plants.
Vegetable Number of Weeks Before Frost to Start
Okra 2-4 Weeks
Cucumbers 3-4 Weeks
Squash 3-4 Weeks
Broccoli 5-7 Weeks
Cabbage 5-7 Weeks
Lettuce 5-7 Weeks
Eggplant 6-8 Weeks
Tomatoes 6-8 Weeks
Spinach 6-8 Weeks
Peppers 8-10 Weeks
Onion 10-12 Weeks
Happy gardening!
Spruce Up Your Garden for Early Spring
Spring has sprung early in many parts of the country. Plants and flowers are blooming weeks earlier than expected and many have already started tending their gardens. Now is a great time to add some fun and decorative touches. Here are a few ideas for adding color, whimsy, and function to your garden or backyard area.
- Flutterby Solar Garden Accessories use solar power to give the impression of colorful insects in flight. Direct sunlight on the Flutterby solar panels make the colorful butterfly and dragonflies flit around your flowers and shrubs. Each insect measure 3.1 inches from wing to wing and they come in red, purple, yellow, blue, and green.
- Solar Chameleon Gazing Ball adds a touch of beauty and style to your garden. It has a solar panel hidden discreetly within that gives its dual light settings their bright light. The White Mode features 2 bright white LEDs, and the Chameleon Mode cycles through a spectrum of colors. It comes on automatically during dark periods of the day and offers up to 8 hours of light each night when fully charged. There is no wiring required – only the power of the sun!
4 Easy Steps to a Safe and Healthy Sandbox
With spring just around the corner, the kids will soon be anxious to get outside and engage in some seriously fun backyard play time. Have you had a chance yet to spruce up the sandbox? Before the kids are allowed to start digging and shoveling, make sure the sandbox is ready for another season of active play. The following four easy steps will help you ensure that the sandbox is clean, safe, and inviting for your kids.
1. Replace the sand.
Over time, the sand in outdoor sandboxes gets dirty and should be completely replaced periodically. Generally speaking, replacing sand every year or two should be adequate, but more frequent changes might be needed depending on how often children play in the box and whether a sandbox cover is used consistently. Play sand, rather than building sand, is the best choice for children’s play areas because it is cleaner and free of materials, like clay, that are likely to stain clothing and skin.
2. Inspect sand toys.
Shovels, rakes, and other toys intended for sand play are not always the most durable of tools. Consequently, they don’t often last for more than a season or two. When sand toys or other tools used in the sandbox break, they can have sharp edges or pointy parts that can cause injuries. Before allowing kids to play in the sandbox this spring, check the condition of their sand toys. Toss out any broken or worn out tools, and replace them with tools made from more durable materials.
3. Check sand on a regular basis.
Don’t assume that the sandbox will stay in good condition over the course of the spring and summer. Sharp sticks, rocks, and other debris find their way into play sand quite easily. What’s more, sand toys may not be able to survive an entire season of active play. Checking the sand on a weekly basis allows you to discover and remove any potentially harmful debris and broken toys. You may also need to replenish play sand during these weekly check-ups, especially if kids have spent any time shoveling it out of the box.
4. Use a sandbox cover.
Sandbox covers are not used as extensively or as frequently as they should be, but they are one of the easiest and most important ways to maintain a safe and healthy sandbox. When used properly, sandbox covers prevent excess debris, like leaves, sticks, and rocks, from getting into the sand and creating a potential danger to children. Sandbox covers also protect sand from blowing away in strong breezes, and they keep insects from burrowing and nesting in the sand. Most importantly, sandbox covers prevent play sand from being contaminated by animals who would like to use the sandbox as their toilet.
The only way to use sandbox covers successfully, of course, is to use them regularly when children are not playing in the box. Use sandbox covers that are made to fit your sandbox. Tarps and other makeshift covers can be easily dislodged or removed by animals or strong winds, making them unreliable and ineffective.
Overall, maintaining the backyard sandbox is a simple task that requires little time and few supplies. Keeping all play areas safe and healthy for your kids will give you peace of mind, and will provide your kids and their imaginations with hours of good, clean, simple fun.
Composting Guidelines: Not Everything Can Go in the Compost Bin
Composting food and yard wastes is easy, especially when using a purchased compost bin. Building a compost structure on your own is certainly an option, but compost bins on the market come in a variety of shapes and sizes, and often make the process of composting much simpler. No matter how you choose to compost your organic wastes, the advantages of composting are undeniable. Composting helps the environment by reducing greenhouse gases and other air pollutants that would be generated as a result of simply throwing organic wastes into the local landfill or incinerator. Composting also saves money by providing you with free fertilizer for your garden. Finally, compost puts nutrients back into the soil, making your garden soil richer and plants healthier.
What Goes In?
Once you have selected your compost bin, it’s time to begin filling it with organic matter. But can you put any kind of organic matter into a compost bin? Unfortunately, no. The general recommendation is to fill your compost bin with a mixture of 50 percent “browns,” and 50 percent “greens.”
The Browns
The “browns” add carbon to the compost bin mix and include some of the following items:
- Dried leaves
- Straw
- Chopped cornstalks — Shred or chop into very small pieces first
- Shredded paper
- Shredded cardboard
- Paper towels
The Greens
“Greens” add nitrogen to the compost bin mix and include some of the following items:
- Grass clippings
- Garden trimmings
- Most kitchen wastes (see list below for exceptions)
- Fresh hay
- Poop from non-meat eating animals — Your pet bunny or bird, for example
What Can Go In After Some Preparation?
Some organic matter shouldn’t go into a compost pile as is. Here are some examples of items that need to be prepared properly before they can become part of your compost heap:
- Diseased plants
- Grass clippings with chemicals
- Hedge trimmings
- Nut shells
- Peat moss
- Pine Cones
- Pine needles
- Sawdust
- Sod
- Soil
- Weeds
- Wood ashes
- Wood chips
For information about how to prepare these types of organic matter for composting, visit the website of your local agricultural extension office.
Don’t Even Think About Tossing This Stuff In
Some organic matter should never find its way into compost bins. Here are the main offenders:
- Bones
- Cat litter
- Charcoal and briquettes
- Cooked food waste
- Dairy products — (butter, cheese, mayonnaise, salad dressing, milk, yogurt, sour cream)
- Dishwater
- Fatty, oily, greasy foods
- Fish scraps
- Meat
- Glossy, colored paper
- Peanut butter
- Pet poop
- Human poop
- Sludge (biosolids)
Maintaining your compost pile depends on the type of compost bin you have chosen. With some compost bins, you need to mix the pile periodically, but some compost bins require no mixing. Refer to the compost bin manufacturer’s instructions for details.
By purchasing or building your own compost bin that meets your specific needs, and by following a few simple guidelines, you can create your own money saving, earth friendly, plant loving compost.