Summer FunTop 10 Tasks for Yard Care: A Summer Checklist by David Beaulieu June, July and August are a time for beaches and backyard hammocks. But let this summer checklist for yard care serve as a reminder that there's still plenty of yard care to be done! Performing these 10 tasks of yard care effectively and efficiently will help ensure the safety of you and your property, save you money and free you up for the finer pursuits in life. You are not helpless against West Nile virus. Use mosquito repellents when you work outside. More importantly, gear your yard care to mosquito control: take away breeding habitats for mosquitoes. That means common-sense sanitation, plus yard care to eliminate areas where water would puddle. Read this mosquito control article for reminders of some unlikely sources of standing water.
Unfortunately, there's more than West Nile virus and mosquitoes to worry about when engaging in yard care. Lyme disease is spread by ticks, which, in turn, are spread by deer. Limit deer incursions, and you'll limit tick infestation. To achieve this, plant deer-resistant plants. If the deer don't come to eat, there's that much less chance of your being bitten by a tick. Planting deer-resistant plants also saves you money, lest your garden become deer-food. The demands of lawn maintenance can be a constant nuisance. And if your grass should die, it can be costly to replace. Learn how to achieve peace of mind by applying lawn fertilizers on a schedule. You'll also save time and energy by practicing effective weed control, having the right mower and using that mower properly. To begin, I look at selecting grass types, watering lawns and a rather unpleasant aspect of yard care: removing thatch.
But no matter how faithfully you follow the advice in Task #3, lawn maintenance will be a major hassle unless your lawn mower is running properly. Instructions are provided here for the do-it-yourselfer to perform a lawn mower tune-up. A lawn mower tune-up consists of three easy steps.
You may want a great-looking lawn, but your mole and vole neighbors may have other ideas altogether. If you want to have things your way, then you need to stop the moles and voles. A positive identification is the first step, as moles and voles look rather similar to the untrained eye. Moles can be trapped, poisoned or discouraged with repellents. Repellents include the malodorous plants described in this article.
Drought is another enemy of lawns. Some erroneously think irrigation systems are a wasteful component in lawn maintenance. But it depends on how you program them. The frugal can save money on their water bills in the long run through watering lawns with irrigation systems, if they ensure the settings are at their most efficient. And there's no question irrigation promotes easier yard care.
Of course, other plants besides your grass have water needs, too. To make your life easier, make sure that your sunny areas are planted with plants that are meant to take a lot of sun. A low-maintenance, water-wise, yet still attractive landscape plan for a sunny area calls for the use of drought-tolerant plants. This article describes perennials suitable for such a landscape plan, and a link is provided to a drawing of the landscape plan itself, showing how to arrange them. Do you have a shady spot on your property that always looks bare, because nothing you plant there seems to like all that shade? Unlike the plants in Task #7, some plants do thrive in the shade. Don't let those shady spots on your landscape go bare another year: plant them with shade-tolerant plants. Shop around this summer for shade plants you like, then plant them after the worst of the August heat has subsided. A checklist of ten reminders for hurricane preparedness. Hurricane damage can be costly to your property. Reduce the costs of potential hurricane damage through prevention. Some of these tips are simple reminders; others involve more complex projects that need to be planned well in advance of stormy weather.
Don't wait till fall to think about displaying fall color on your property. You need to plan for fall color in the summertime -- and act! As described in this article, your first act should be to get annuals on the cheap and nurse them along till fall arrives. The article also explores plant choices for fall color, as well as how to arrange the plants. | 
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