Dry summers often mean hours of with the hose or moving sprinklers 'just to keep it all alive'. It can be time consuming, counter productive and with water prices rising it can add up and put pressure on your Christmas holiday budget.
Here are three easy ways to reduce water bills and help give you your evenings back.

1. Shade
Shade is under utilized in many gardens, but it can be a great way to reduce evaporation and the moisture stress in your garden. Trees can be planted to throw shade over susceptible areas. Some varieties grow very quickly and you will see results soon. Others can be bought at an advanced stage and popped straight in to have an instant effect.
Fences can be valuable too. Consider building opaque fences on the western side of your yard, especially if you have sandy soils
Finally your house can be a valuable source of shade, Consider a dense, moisture seeking bed on the eastern side of your house.

2. Watering times
Water in the morning. Plants want it then. The soil is cooler then. The evaporation rate is lower then. Makes sense, doesn't it?

3. Mulch
Point a hairdryer at your skin. It gets hot, doesn't it? Now wrap you skin in damp (not wet) newspaper. You can hold the hairdryer there for a lot longer before it gets dried out and hot, If your skin might be seen as your soil, and your damp newspaper as your mulch you can see the incredible advantages you get. Not to mention the brilliant environment you get for soil microbes. It is easy to do and the kids and pets love it. If you use a really light mulch (like straw or sugar cane), you can give it a quick spray with the hose to help stop it blowing away.


So there you have it. Top tips for reducing water use. Have fun, learn and enjoy!

Hi guys. Everyone is always asking me how to control weeds in their lawns. One client even showed me a bag of chemical that had fertiliser and herbicide in the same pack. She was all set to go until I showed her the active ingredient list. She couldn't believe that she came within minutes of spreading a famously toxic chemical all over the lawn her grandchildren played on.
Most weeds in established lawns arise from a weakening of the lawn species. A healthy lawn will choke out competition, but a weak lawn will allow gaps to open up, encouraging competition in the yard.
A healthy lawn likes to fully recover from each mowing before it is mowed again. If you mow it too soon it will not have recovered, and will be weakened.
The solution is simple. Lift the mower up. Less grass cut means shorter recovery time and that means less opportunity for weeds to get started. Simple, right?
If you want to know more, or just want your weekend back get in touch. Text or call Clayton on 0402253178. Enjoy your garden. It might be the biggest room in your house.