While some people like to consume the leaves of a Dandelion plant (Taraxacum officinale) and others enjoy making tea from the flowers, the majority of home owners struggle with these weeds year after year. The problem with hand removal is fairly straight forward, the plant has a very long root and its extremely fragile. Trying to pull it by hand normally results in missing a piece, and any missed pieces can easily regrow into a full plant. I once tried to hand pull a single Dandelion and ended up with 2 new sprouts a couple weeks later.

While there are a number of chemical’s available at your local garden supply store that claim to get rid of Dandelions what they do not mention is how poisonous they are to your other plants, some types of grass have adverse effects from them as well. So if hand pulling is out, and chemicals can potentially cause more harm than good what is a gardener to do?

Easy, buy some Vinegar. I know it sounds crazy but let me explain. The Dandelion plant pulls nutrients from its leaves down into the root. So its weakest point is right there at lawn level ready to be exploited. Vinegar is a fairly acidic liquid and will cause all kinds of problems for plants. However, the normal vinegar you buy at the grocery store has a 5% acidity level. Enough for cooking purposes but not quite enough to do much harm to healthy plants.

So, to get the Vinegar ready to be used, boil it. Doing so will increase the acidity and as a side effect also increase its potency as a Dandelion killer. This is going to be a rather smelly deal, so if possible I recommend using a gas/charcoal grill outside to avoid having your entire house smelling of vinegar. As a bonus, if you have anything with hard water stains this is a great time to clean them as well. Just let them soak in the vinegar as it boils.

Application

There are some things to consider when applying your boiled vinegar. Any green leaf that comes in contact with the vinegar is going to die. So be sparing when applying it, and try to apply it directly to the dandelion plant. A small misting bottle works wonders and keeps you from getting vinegar everywhere.

The vinegar will need time to soak into the plant, which means no mowing. I like to apply the vinegar roughly 3 days before I intend to mow. I think reapply after the mowing, and of course avoid watering the lawn during the entire process.

When mowed your lawn, and the dandelions will go through a little growth spurt as they continue to take in the same amount of nutrients but have less greenery to use it up. What happens is you apply the vinegar and let it soak for a few days, mow reapply and use the plants defense to being trimmed against it.

The best times to use this method are the very beginning of your growing season and in the fall. I try to time the fall one with the last mowing. These are the two best times, during the fall the plant starts moving a large quantity of energy from the leaves to the root so it can survive the winter. And during the early spring they are going through a very large growth spurt and will soak up much more nutrients from the leaves than normal.

For other lawn care tips and tricks stop by My Back Yard Adventures blog over on blogger.

http://mybyadventures.blogspot.com

Originally invented in the 1950′s, the leaf blower was improved to its currently recognizable form in the early 1970′s by Japanese gardening engineers. It was embraced as a simple time-saving device for households of most income brackets, and though they have been involved in various environmental controversies involving their notorious emissions, have now settled down into being an accepted part of modern consumer gardening society.

Leaf blowers were occasionally frowned upon by some neighborhoods. In general they were seen as not contributing to the solution of the problem of tidying one’s property, but instead just blowing the problem away, and making it someone else’s. However, in most places the simple machines were welcomed. Due to prolonged droughts in many areas at that time, the use of water for everyday garden clean-up tasks was often prohibited, and this contributed to the leaf blower’s growing popularity. It added to the pleasing effect of a clean, well-kept yard and neighborhood without using any water. Once the drought periods were over, the homeowners continued to use their new yard power tools.

The number of gardening consumers using the machine has risen to the tune of 3 million yearly buyers who insist that the time- and labor-saving benefits of blowers are well worth their value. Many garden owners do not have huge chunks of time in which they can dedicate focused attention to the maintenance of their gardens. If they were limited to the traditional methods of using hand rakes and brooms, garden owners who spend several hundred dollars yearly on these machines might say, their gardens would otherwise wither and decay. Without these machines, their yards would become a general eyesore to their respective neighborhoods, due to a simple lack of quality time to invest.

Manufacturers of the blowers have proven to be an environmentally-aware and neighborhood-friendly crowd, with continued and significant reductions in emissions and noise levels included in every new model created. There is now a great variety of electric leaf blowers, which have proven to be much more environmentally friendly than their gasoline powered counterparts, while offering amazingly comparable levels of power and wind.

Since their inception 50 years ago, today’s generations of blowers have cut harmful hydrocarbon release levels up to 90%, making them essentially an environmental non-issue. They are an accepted means of yard clean-up in almost every US city. In addition, noise levels have been reduced over the years up to 75%, or in general down to 65 db, keeping them well under most cities’ noise level ordinances.

Author is a freelance writer. For more information on leaf blowers please visit http://www.echo-usa.com.

Several years ago if you asked me if an electric log splitter was better than a gas splitter I would have probably fallen over laughing. But I have to admit, after trying several recent electric ones I’m very impressed. In fact, there are several distinct advantages that an electric wood splitter has over a gas wood splitter.

Think about the home pressure washer that you use to clean your driveway or car. If you’re like me the first one you bought was a cheap electric version that wasn’t particularly powerful but it got the job done and it wasn’t very expensive. The pressure hose was short, and you always had to drag a long extension cord around with you. Eventually, you went and bought a brand new gas power washer with maximum pressure ratings and fancy fittings. Sure, it could peel the paint off your neighbor’s car 50 feet away, but it also went through gas like a Hummer. It was also very noisy. To tell you the truth sometimes I wish I had my “cheap” old electric washer back.

OK, back to log splitters. But I think you get the point. Power, size, and fancy features don’t always turn out to be the best machine for your particular style or needs. The same can be said for wood splitters. Sometimes that extra power comes with the downside of extra weight and noise. You want to take your shiny new gas splitter over to your brother-in-laws house and you need to rent a double axle trailer compared to some of the electric models.

Most electric models are quieter than their gas counterparts. They still have hydraulic pistons so the hydraulic pump will make some noise, but you don’t have the 10 hp motor roaring away in the background. Definitely an advantage for the casual handyman, or even for professional use if you’re running one all day long.

One disadvantage of an electric log splitter is that it needs electrical power nearby. If you’re in your backyard or on a farm that’s usually not a problem. If you’re in the back forty you can always bring along a small portable “suitcase” generator. On the other hand, you don’t have to continually stop and fill up the gas tank while your working.

If you’re using an electric splitter in the 4 ton to 20 ton range you can get away with 110 volt power. Once you get into the bigger machines above 20 tons you’ll either need a 30 amp circuit on 110 volts, or you may even need 240 volt power.

Some people claim that electric splitters are safer than gas wood splitters. I’m not so sure about that. In most cases the hydraulic cycle time is similar, so they both have the piston moving at similar speeds. Safety really comes down to operator carelessness, and fundamental machine design. A machine that is designed to have both hands on the controls before it will move forward is definitely safer – regardless of whether the power is electric or gas.

You can buy an electric log splitter as big as 34 tons, so you can have just as much power at your disposal as with any gas log splitter. It really comes down to the type of work you’re going to do, where you’ll be using it most of the time, and your particular style.

Get honest, practical advice about the best electric log splitter at American Log Splitter. This information packed site provides solid information for a wide variety of log splitter and commercial firewood processing equipment.

Having a yard you can be proud of is a great feeling. What’s not a great feeling is the dread of all the work that it takes to keep it looking great. Something as small as a lawnmower can make a world of difference in keeping your yard ship shape without taking all your time and energy. Deciding to invest in a lawn mower is a big decision, mostly since we are not talking about a push variety. It’s time to get to choosing the best riding lawn mower to make your life easier and the yard work a breeze.

Where do you begin when you are out choosing the best riding lawnmower? There are lots of options on the market, from used to brand new, and each model you come across has it’s own set of options and features that make it as unique as your yard. First you need to consider the type of lawn you have. If it is large and hilly then it’s a good idea to make sure your machine can handle it since a rollover is not likely a good idea. Another thing to think about is the size of your yard.

Size can make a difference in the size of lawn mower you need. Choosing the best riding lawn tractor doesn’t necessarily mean needing the biggest and best, it more means needing something that will fit comfortably in your yard and get the job done with the least amount of effort. Smaller lawns could really do well with a zero turn capacity. Going around small corners requires better maneuverability in the machine. One item you may want to be aware of is whether or not the lawn mower has bagging capability and or mulching capability. This way you have an option of how you want to handle the cut grass.

Small things can make a big difference in choosing the best riding lawn mower. A simple thing like an adjustable seat can make the difference between enjoying the work and hating the machine. Sometimes it can get pretty warm while getting the lawn mowed, so a feature as simple as a cup holder can also make a difference. The overall size of the lawn mower may also make a difference if you have a garage or shed it needs to fit into. It can be quite frustrating to spend money on a lawn mower only to have to find another place to put it.

Jason Whitney writes about choosing the best riding lawn mower at http://www.squidoo.com/ridinglawnmowerexpert