Blog posts of '2012' 'July'

Stop! Don't throw out the leftowvers just yet. Did you know that you can use your left over fruits and vegetables to grow more fruitd and vegetables? In this blog I will name a few of thes vegetables.  I will tell you how to regrow Celery, Sweet Potatoes and Pineapple from the pieces that you might usually toss in the trash.

Celery:  Take the bottom of the celery you cut off and soak it in warm water for about 24 hours. Next plant it in fertile soil with the cut side up. Water Daily. in about 1-2 weeks you should start to see the tops of baby celery.

Sweet Potatoes:  To grow a sweet potato is all you need is the end of one of your old sweet potatoes. Cut off the end of the potato, place toothpicks around the outside of the potato and submerge the tip in water allowing the toothpicks to support the remainder of the piece of patato above the water. Palce the potato in a nice sunny spot near the window and watch the roots start to grow in about three weeks.  Once the roots form it is ready to plant in the ground.

Pineapple:  You can grow a pineapple by planting the top of your scrap pineapple.  Once you have removed the top you need to peel away about 1/2 in. of the leaves at the bottom of the stalk. Next you need to trim the bottom and sides of the stalk till you see little brown dots around the rim. This is where your roots will come from. Now you need to let the pineapple dry for two days to prevent it from rotting.  Then place the pineapp.e top into a bowl of plain water. Remember to change the water every 2 days. Once you see lots of roots growing it's time to plant the top in a pot that drains well with about 9 inches of soil. They grow slow, but soon you will have a healthy pinapple bush that one day, a couple of years from now, will produce a pinapple.

I hope you have enjoyed our blog.  Good luck growing your scraps. We would love to hear about your experience on our Mister Landscaper Facebook Page. If you enjoyed this blog and want to learn about other scraps you can grow do a search on google.com for "plants you can plant from scraps".  And as always, Mister Landscaper the best way to irrigate all of you fruits and vegetables.

Thanks for reading, and have an awesome week.

July is Smart Irrigation Month, which reminds us that to be wise in how we irrigate our Landscapes and Gardens areas. Water is our most precious resource. It is very important to conserve our water during the hot summer months and when in drought areas of the country. Conserving your water will save you money as the price of water continues to rise.

Here are some smart ways to water your garden or landscape:

You don't need to water your lawn every day. During the summer months you only need to water every five to seven days. Your lawn only needs about one inch of water a week. You can buy a rain gauge to help keep track of how much water your grass is getting. The best time to water your lawn and plants is early in the morning or at night when the temperature is lower.

Mister Landscaper sells a timer that you can set to water your landscapes & garden beds when you want to. This will make smart watering very easy and avoid over or underwatering your plants. Mister Landscaper also sells a DIY easy to install low-flow Micro and Drip Irrigation kits that will use 50% to 70% less water then standerd irrigation. This will help keep the green in your garden as well as in your wallet! In the long run you will save water, time and money. Using mulch or graound cover also helps to retain moisture in the soil which means you have to water less overall.

For Smart Irrigation Month Mister Landscaper created a coloring book as a fun way to help teach kids about how to water wisely.  You can download it by clicking this link.

Some other simple tips to save water and re-use it in the garden are...

If you are going to take a bath use the water after you are done to water your plants.

If you take a shower put a bucket in the shower to catch the water. When you are done use it to water your plants.

Rain Barrels, we have all heard of them.  Getting one set up is not that hard, and you can use Micro and Drip Irrigation with them. Companies like Aqua Barrel make small pumps that cary the water in the barrel's to attached hoses for easy use.  Check them out at http://www.aquabarrel.com

If you have any other smart watering tips you can join us on Facebook. We would love to hear from you.

http://www.facebook.com/MisterLandscaper

I want to wish all of you a smart watering day.

This is the week when we celebrate the birthday of America, July 4th. Wow! What an awesome opportunity to think about how great our nation is - and how blessed we have been as a nation.
 
I wanted to consider some of the things that make America great. As I thought about this, it occurred to me that many of the things that make America a great nation start with the word "freedom." This is not a word to take lightly. Many people have fought and even given their very lives to preserve, maintain, and continue to allow our country that privilege. Here are just a few of the freedoms we have that make us unique in the world:

1. We are free to have an opinion - and voice it. No matter if people like it or not.

2. We are free to invent, create, and build a business in the hope that we have something to offer that others will be able to use and enjoy.
 
3. We are free to better ourselves. A person who starts off as a fast-food restaurant employee does not have to remain that way. They can choose to be better, work to improve, and, if they want, find a better place in life.
 
4. We are free to choose. We have the freedom to choose what we do, what we want, and how we act and react to those choices.
 
5. We are free to find fault with our leaders. No matter your political persuasion, that's a big one because no man or group of people is perfect. Being able to shine light on the wrongdoings of leadership without fear of being sent to prison - or worse - has helped to keep those that would be tyrants at bay.
 
6. We have freedom to build a future. Our course is not set. We can make ourselves better, make our nation better, and build families, companies, gardens, and lives that are marked by a continued movement toward greatness.
 
Mister Landscaper invents, develops, and manufactures quality products in America - instead of the alternative - because we believe that by providing Americans with the opportunity to work we are not just making better products. We are improving ourselves and giving others the opportunity to better themselves.
 
Our products are of the highest quality. We oversee production from start to finish, and we check them consistently. We can guarantee they work because we made them here - in America. We know what went into them, and we know the quality our customers expect to get out of them.
 
Thank you to our customers for allowing us to continue to make the highest-quality Micro and Drip Irrigation products on the market today.
 
Happy Birthday, America. Have a wonderful 4th of July!