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Posts Tagged ‘gardening virginia beach’

Healthy Living…as close as your backyard. By Kregg Deur, owner K&J Lawn and Garden Service LLC, Chesapeake, VA

Posted in Garden Tips, tagged , , , , , on March 27, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

Good morning Hampton Roads, Kregg here, from K&J Lawn and Garden Service, with your Garden Tip of the Week.

 It’s that time of the year when I start preparing my vegetable garden, so thought I would share some tips on growing a favorite vegetable………or is it a fruit? 

The tomato

Now, before you run out to your local nursery or garden center to pick up some plants, I recommend you preheat the soil by covering the planting area with black plastic a couple of weeks before you intend to plant.  Preheating first will result in an earlier crop of tomatoes.

 

So once you’ve preheated your garden, bury the plants deep, about two thirds of it should be in the ground.  Tomato plants are able to develop roots all along their stems, so bury them for stronger, healthier and more fruitful plants.

 And here are just a few of the many benefits from both tomatoes and gardening:

  • Eating tomatoes can help improve skin texture and color,
  • protect your liver and dissolve gallstones
  • The Tomato is a natural antiseptic and gives you vitamin K, which helps to prevent hemorrhages
  • Tomatoes contain Lycopene, a powerful antioxidant that can fight cancer.

 Gardening is also a great way to relieve stress, get some physical exercise and be rewarded with healthy food. 

So get outside this weekend and start your own garden.

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Dirt – by Kregg Deur, owner of K&J Lawn and Garden Service, Chesapeake, VA

Posted in Lawn Care, tagged , , , , , on February 9, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

Good afternoon Chesapeake, Kregg here, from K&J Lawn and Garden Service LLC, with your Garden Tip of the Week.

Today, I’d like cover dirt, a fundamental part of gardening and lawn care.  The problem with dirt in this area is one of two things, either too much sand, which means you live at the beach in Norfolk or Virginia Beach and need to truck-in topsoil so you have a depth of 3 to 5 inches.  The other problem is clay and is common in most of Chesapeake and inland Virginia Beach.

There are a few ways to beat clay.  When it comes to gardens, if you can’t dig through it, go over it.  Avoid the whole clay issue by installing raised beds.  There are a variety of materials available at your local hardware store or home center that can be used to build raised beds. Design plans can be found on the internet, or you could contract a local landscaping professional to install the new beds for you.

Now, clay in your lawn is another problem.  The big issue is drainage.  Too much rain or irrigation and your yard turns into a big mud hole and not enough, it is hard as a rock. 

The simplest, most economical, solution is to aerate your yard and apply gypsum.  Use a core aerator, this will pull plug of dirt out of the lawn.  Spike aerators tend to compact the yard more.  Proper aeration will open up the ground and the gypsum will help break down the clay, making your yard healthier.

Proper lawn care is one of the keys to a healthy lawn and having a healthy lawn greatly contributes to improving our environment. 

  • Did you know that a 2500 square foot lawn can provide enough Oxygen for a family of 4 or a couple with 2 dogs?
  • Dense, healthy grass helps slow water runoff, removing contaminants and trapping soil. Fresh, filtered water returns to the underground water supply.
  •  Healthy lawns also help battle global warming.  Eight healthy lawns have the cooling effect of 70 tons of air conditioning, which is enough for 16 average homes.

 

So if you want to keep cool this summer, keep your lawn and landscape healthy.  Just call K&J Lawn and Garden Service, where we are improving the landscape of Hampton Roads, one yard at a time.

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