We all want a beautiful yard and or garden, but that can take a lot of work and time. Do you ever dream of having a beautiful yard or garden that takes care of itself while you relax and enjoy the beauty? Not only can nature help take care of your yard or garden, it will save you time and money. Of course, a completely self-efficient yard or garden may not be possible, but you can cut a lot of the work out and be able to relax and actually enjoy. So cut down on your duties and allow mother nature to be your helper. We are going to tell you about five different ways you can do this.
1. Try Grass-cycling
Cutting the grass is almost always inevitable for up keep on your yard, but this can be made more simple. If you’re wasting time and energy bagging your grass clippings, stop. Instead of removing the grass clippings, leave them on the lawn. By leaving them on the lawn they’ll quickly break down and add nutrients to the existing, growing grass. This simple practice will make both mowing and fertilizing your grass easier and faster.
2. Let Nature Plant Your Flowers
Don’t spend the time and go through the trouble of replanting your flower beds every season. There are many annuals and perennials that will do the work for you. There are many flowers that will drop seeds, and these seeds will sprout and bloom the next season. These flowers will sprout and bloom all on their own, you won’t even have to lift a finger, or should we say shovel. Some flowers that will do this include; sweet alyssum, gazania, bachelor’s buttons, California poppy, cosmos, bellflowers, bleeding heart, and butterfly weed. Next time you are planting flowers, consider planting a few of those, and the following year you won’t have to worry about putting in work to plant flowers in your flower beds.
3.Attract Good Bugs
Not every insect in your garden is a “bad guy.” Many insects can be beneficial to your garden. Ladybugs, praying mantises, lacewings, and parasitic wasps are some of the good insects that will prey on “bad guys,” typically when they are in their larval or juvenile state. You can attract the “good guys” by planting flowers and plants that they consume. To attract the good bugs try planting; sweet alyssum, dill, yarrow, aster, lupine, or candytuft.
4.Get a “Pet” Toad
It might seem like a weird concept, but invite a toad to stay in your yard. These amphibians will eat snails, slugs, and the bad insects, all of which can be damaging to your plants. If you give the toad somewhere protected, cool, and shady to stay you’ll have a better chance of attracting one, and getting it to stay. An easy way to give the toad what it wants is using a terra-cotta pot. Place the pot with one side slightly propped up with a shallow container of water nearby. If you’re using pesticides, and want your toad to stay, go easy. Amphibians can be sensitive to pesticides, and you shouldn’t need much because your toad will work as your pest control.
5.Worms in Compost
Add worms to your compost to help turn your compost and add nutrition. The best worms for the job are red wigglers, this is a species of earthworms, and will work better than say night-crawlers. The worms will eat all the recycled food scraps and after they digest the food it moves through the worm and turns into compost that can be used to grow plants. This type of compost is very good for plants because the worms are eating nutrient-rich fruit and vegetable scraps, and turning them into nutrient-rich compost. Instead of creating your own compost there is always the option to buy compost.
Lawns and gardens can be very beautiful things, and letting nature help with that beauty makes it that much better. We would love to hear about how any of these things have worked for you, feel free to comment or send us an email. For gardening and lawn needs that nature can’t help, we might be able to.
