Jerry’s recipe for a weed free lawn.

Jerry’s recipe for a weed free lawn.

At this time of year, broad leaf weeds or flat weeds in lawns can be a real nuisance. Many years ago, when I was living in London, my grandfather came up with a secret lawn sand recipe. It’s simple, cheap, effective and safe to use. 

Buy the ingredients for Grandad's lawn sand at any hardware store or garden centre. The ingredients include: dry washed sand, sulphate of potash and iron sulphate. Use a plastic bucket and a plastic measuring container because these can be washed after use. Simply mix the ingredients in equal proportions. So put in one cup of washed sand, one cup of sulphate of potash or sulphate of ammonia and one cup of the iron sulphate, and mix these up immediately. 

It's important to use exactly what you make because it doesn't store well. If it soaks up any humidity, it will become rock solid. Also wear gloves because the iron sulphate can make your hands rusty. 

Grandad's lawn sand is fantastic for controlling a variety of weeds in the lawn. It's especially good for attackingcudweed, bindii, white clover, cats ear and plantain. Sprinkle by hand aiming directly at the weeds. There's no need to cover the entire lawn. It's best to apply just before sunset so that dew fall will activate the mix, or lightly sprinkle the treated weeds to damp them down to start the process. To control all weeds repeat this operation every other week. 

Remember lawn sand won't kill narrow leaf weeds like onion weed or winter grass, or waxy leaf weeds like some types of oxalis. If the mix comes in contact with flowers or footpaths, wash it off with water immediately. Keep a watering can nearby when applying.

If pets or children want to use the garden, water the lawn sand in the following morning. As soon as it's dry, it's safe for them to go into the garden. Iron sulphate can stain clothes and skin, so always wash hands after use. The sulphate of ammonia is basically a nitrogen fertiliser and the iron sulphate is a tonic that provides iron to plants. Both are chemical fertilisers that in this case are used as herbicides. 

The objective is to complete the task in mid-winter, particularly in eastern and southern Australia. This prevents the weeds setting seed and starting another generation. The end result to aim for is a lush, thick sward of grass that helps to suppress weeds.


http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s1366394.htm

All Purpose Insecticide Recipe

Ingredients

• 4 large onion
• 4 chillies
• 2 garlic
• Bi-carb soda - (optional)
• Molasses (optional)
• Permanganate (optional)

How to make it? 

Take all the above ingredients and chop into small pieces. Put it in a container and cover it with warm soppy water.  Soak this overnight and next day morning strain the liquid. Add 5 litters of water to it and spray it on all the pants. This will kill all insects.

To improve this further, I have also added molasses and 3 teaspoon bi-carb soda to make a fungicide also. Molasses and soap will help to stick the content to the leaves. If you have permanganate of potash or Condy's crystals add 1 pinch to this liquid.

Egg-Lime plant growth promoter

Ingredients

• 2 lime
• 1 egg
• 50 gm - Jaggery (You can get this from any Indian grocery store)            

NOTE:  You can also use molasses if you can’t get Jaggery

 

Preparation:

Take juice from 2 large lime in a container. Now place one egg in the lime juice (do not break it and make sure the egg is fully immersed in the lime juice. If it’s not, change the size of the container or increase the egg- lime(EL) portion. For example use two egg in 4 juiced limes.  close the lid. Leave this mixture for a day so that the egg shell get dissolved in the lime juice. Next day mix 25gm jaggery in 200ml water. Now add this to the egg- lime emulsion. Set it aside in a dark place for 10 days. Make sure you release all the gas from the container time to time.  By this time the egg shell will be dissolved in the lime and will become rubbery and swollen. Now thoroughly mix this egg in the lime. Add another 25 gm of Jaggery solution and mix it well. Keep this aside for another 10 days. on the 20th day the formulation is ready to use.

To spray on the plants add 10ml (1 tablespoon) EL in 1 litre water and spray on the leaves either early morning or late evening. If its new seedlings dilute it in 2 litter of water.

You can keep the concentrate emulsion upto  six months.

Scales in my Rose plant

Today I noticed my Rose plant is infested by scales. The whole branch is covered now.. Not sure how I missed to check this.. Anyway I have been told that this can be easily fixed by applying soap and oil concoction.. So I made one by myself. The details about the recipe is as below.


For smaller batch

1 tablespoon or 15ml dishwashing liquid
1/4th cup/60 ml vegetable oil
mix this well
and add 1 part concoction with 20 part water and spray..

This will suffocate the scales and kill it..

Try to do this after sunset...



 

Leaves Mould

How to make Leaves Mould

Collect leaves by running your mower over the dried leaves.. Make sure you remove all the small branches if any in the ground before you start to mowe. Otherwise it will damage the mower blade. There are two advantages using the mower for collecting the dried leaves. It will quicken the composting process and other is the leaves gets compacted so that we can accommodate more leaves in the compost bin.

If you do not have a compost bin, you can also store it in a garbage bag. Please make sure to make some holes for aeration. Spray some water into the bag.. Don’t make it too soggy..   Leave it in a shady location.. Check the humidity once a while and add water if required..  After 6 months to 1 year your Leaves mould is ready.

To make the composting even faster I repeat mowing the partly composted leaf mould every month by emptying all the garbage bag in one corner. Then mowe on top of the partly composted leafs again so that it will be compacted and shredded further down. It also aerate the leaf mould. Now you can reduce the total size by almost half.

Happy gardening..

 

Lawn Mowing

Every Australian home will not be complete without a lawn. This is an extension to their living area where they like to relax and have a BBQ or throw a party. More and more Australians prefer to have a backyard in their home. Some of the council regulation requires to maintain a lawn in every new house. Check with your local council to know more about this. When you have a lawn there are certain additional maintenance work comes with it. One of them is mowing the lawn.

Certain variety of grass require more frequent mowing and some comparatively less. So you have to choose the correct variety to suite your lifestyle. Nowadays you can even get synthetic turf which requires less maintenance. But nothing beats the look and feel of a natural grass.

There are number of things to be considered when it comes to lawn maintenance. Some of the key points are listed below

·         Trees and shady area in the backyard

·         The frequency of mowing

·         The height of the grass

·         The type of mower to mow the lawn

The above topics will be discussed in this article.

 

Trees and shady area in the backyard.

It is always better to choose a shade tolerant grass if you have trees in your backyard which cast lot of shadow in your lawn. When mowing, keep your lawn slightly longer side. This will help the grass to do photosynthesis with little light. This will also be useful during winter to keep the lawn in a better shape. Never cut back more than one third of the leaf. It will also be beneficial to leave few clippings. When putting new lawn under the tree, make sure you level the lawn correctly. Otherwise the mower will damage the tree roots while cutting. It will also damage the mower blades. If there are lot of uneven surface then it will be difficult to maintain the same height for all the grass.

If you are using whipper snipper around the trunks of the tree, please make sure not to damage the bark around the base of the tree. If it’s damaged, it may even kill the tree itself. To avoid this, it is recommended to mulch the base of the tree so that unnecessary weeds and mowing can be avoided.

 

 

 

Weed Control

I hate spending time removing weeds between the pavers. I checked in the local Bunnings and they suggested using Roundup. It’s about $17 for 1 litre. I have sprayed it on the weeds and it did the work.  But I find it too expensive and hence I started searching the net. Finally I found some other alternatives and found it very effective and cheap.

I mix 1 litre vinegar with 1 cup common salt in my bottle sprayer and spray it on top of the weeds. That’s the end of my weed problem. I have cleaned the sprayer after the use. Vinegar tend to corrode the rubber parts inside the sprayer. Hence do not leave it uncleaned overnight.

Another alternative is to use Baking Soda. Baking soda neutralizes the pH in the soil. This soil will not be good for any plants to grow. Do this after the rain as it may wash it down to the gutter. So I brushed Baking soda between the pavers. I normally repeat this treatment twice a year.