Posts Tagged ‘nature’

How To Keep Cats Out Of Your Garden

Thursday, July 7th, 2011

It is very difficult to keep cats out of your garden, but do not give up, it can be managed. Cat owners may not understand why gardeners want to prevent cats gaining access to their gardens, but there are justifiable reasons, it is not always that gardeners hate cats. Cats are ferocious hunters and can also be very destructive.

For example, my next door neighbour had a cat, but felt lonely when her daughter moved away, so she allowed the cat to breed. Now she has six cats. But cats are not like dogs. My dog stays in my garden not bothering anyone apart from by barking if a stranger walks past the house However, that is his job and he is not only warning me but the neighbours as well. These six cats do not stay in their own garden though, so we have all acquired six cats whether we want them or not.

The first issue I noticed was that birds stopped coming to pick my dog’s bowl clean in the afternoon. Then I saw a cat killing a lizard, a beautiful nine inch adult and then I remembered not seeing many lizards recently. There is one lizard, the Tokay, that they have totally wiped out – I used to listen to them calling at night, but no longer.

Cats also dig up plants when they defecate and use furniture as scratching boards, so I do not want these destructive animals in my garden. But how do you keep cats out of your garden?

Walls are rarely protection against cats, but cats will often prowl along the bottom of walls and if they come across a gap, they will probably go in out of inquisitiveness, so repair all low-level opennings in your fences. There is not much you can do about the top of your wall short of putting broken glass or electrified wiring up there, but that is not a nice idea.

Some dogs are good at keeping cats away, but not all. My dog got a nasty and completely unexpected swipe of claws across his nose one day. He used to chase them when they were kittens, but now they have grown up, he only growls to tell me a cat is on the premises. I cannot blame him.

In Australia, many gardeners reckon that transparent bottles full of water confuse cats, so they stay away, but in my experience, only Australian cats react in that way.

A row of prickly bushes or flowers along the base of a wall where cats regularly come in works. At the base of high walls too, where the cat cannot see them until he is on top of the wall. I often see cats mewing (in frustration, I hope) on the top of one of my walls. The only route down is to go back.

If you still cannot keep cats out, then you will need to train them not to come in. This is easiest accomplished by using a few methods. If cats are using your flower pots are conveniences, try smearing the pots with pepper, lavender, lemon, mustard, or tobacco. Or you could leave a mothball in each pot. Some of these will have the desired result for you, others will not.

Then there are industrial repellents, but I do not want to resort to them. However, if you have a big garden and a big problem, it might be the only way. There are also high frequency sound emitters. Humans cannot hear them, but almost all animals can, so I think that that is deplorable as well.

At night, motion-activated exterior lighting is a huge upset to cats. Cats have very sensitive night vision so a sudden flash from a floodlamp really puts them off a garden.

The best disincentive is water. You can get motion-activated sprinklers, which are excellent at keeping cats out of your garden, but I like to sit in my office or in the garden with a powerful water pistol and squirt them by hand. The lizards have not come back yet, but nor do the cats quite so often either.

Owen Jones, the author of this article writes on quite a few topics, but is at present involved with visual comfort lighting. If you would like to know more or check out some great offers, please go to our website at Outdoor Wall Lamps.

how To Get Rid Of Garden Pests

Monday, June 27th, 2011

Gardening would be a lot easier without interference from garden pests. The majority of garden pests are small, but they sure are a big hassle. The most common garden pests are insects, of course and it is a funny thing that these insects are apt to prosper in conditions that are not quite correct for flowers. Most garden pests do not actually live on the plants themselves, they live in rotting rubbish nearby or in sodden soil and go to the plant to feed. Some insects live in the roots if the earth is too wet.

So, one of the first things to do is to try to reduce the number of harmful insects in your garden. You can go a long way down this route by clearing away any old decaying rubbish and decayed wood. Make sure that your soil is well drained and keep cats out of your garden by squirting them with a water pistol until they get the message. Cats discourage birds and many birds eat insects.

You should also encourage insects and other animals that eat garden pests. Ants can be a pain, but they do eat a lot of insects. Ladybirds do too and so do spiders. Larger animals such as frogs, toads and lizards eat loads of insects, so a small open-ended garden pond could be used to breed frogs and toads. Lizards will appear on their own, if the conditions are perfect.

It is worth taking active steps to encourage the right sort of garden animals. Never use strong insecticides on your garden as you will destroy all the insects that are on your side too and the spray may kill the earthworms that are helping to aerate and dry out your top soil.

A small pond will encourage birds, frogs and toads, but frogs and toads also like a nice rock to shelter under during the day. Place a few rocks the size of a loaf of bread around your garden in the shadow of trees or bushes. Erect a bird table. Birds that eat bread and nuts do not usually feed on insects, but some do. However, the sight of other birds in your garden may encourage insectivores to come in and have a look.

There are basically two types of garden pests: the ones that actually eat the plant and the ones that extract the sap out of it. Caterpillars can be picked off and destroyed of or you can spray the leaves that are being eaten with a poison for the caterpillars to feed on. Many of the sap-suckers can be seen with no trouble, others cannot. A solution of washing-up liquid and water such as you use to wash dishes will kill the majority of of these including greenfly (aphids).

Slugs and snails do a lot of harm, but some birds including chickens and thrushes find them a delicacy. Chickens can be helpful allies in a garden, but they can be destructive too with all their scratching. Otherwise, you can reduce the population of slugs and snails by killing their eggs.

They tend to lay their eggs in rotting leaves or rotting compost, but not in compost heaps which are normally too hot for them, so a good clean up will eliminate a lot of the next generation.

You can exterminate the adults by placing a few low containers of beer by your plants. The slugs will drink the beer and drown. It is extremely effective. Slug pellets should finish the t-totallers off. Taking these actions will greatly reduce the number of garden pests attacking your plants.

Owen Jones, the author of this article writes on quite a few subjects, but is at present concerned with exterior wall lighting. If you would like to know more or check out some great offers, please go to our website at Outdoor Wall Lamps.

Finding Affordable Camping Equipment

Friday, June 17th, 2011

Camping is a very popular activity among the under Forties. People like to go hunting, fishing, hiking, walking or simply camping with their friends, family or lover. The outdoors is delightful and can be romantic. Lots of people want to get a little closer to nature and the easiest way of doing this is sleeping under canvas, or nylon or something man-made like that. Another benefit for the young is that it is inexpensive.

However, it is not merely inexpensive, it is healthy and instructive. All children should go camping either with their parents or the scouts in order to learn something of nature before they get locked into a career to pay the mortgage and forget that there is life outside the city. You know, there are inner city kids that do not know that milk comes from cows? How ridiculous is that?

So, if you are going to take an education in nature by the horns, you will have to have some camping equipment. Inexpensive though camping equipment is relative to the equipment required for other activities, most people still have to be a bit careful how much they spend.

If you fall into that bracket, then this article is for you. Before we get into the nitty-gritty, it is worth pointing out that if you have the money, you can do worse than simply going down to the local sports shop or camping shop and purchasing all your kit from them. Buy everything you need in one go and ask for a discount. if anything ever goes wrong they will remember you as a big spender and fix it for you straight away.

However, the remainder of have to be a bit more careful with the cheque book. If you know a bit concerning camping equipment from your parents or from the scouts and do not mind second-hand, then car boot sales and garage sales can be just the thing.

Frequently people are selling things because their kids have left home and they are having a clear out or perhaps they have had more children and the pup tent is no longer any use to them.

I sold a lovely tent not so long ago for peanuts because I knew that I would never need it again. The beauty of these sales is that you can put the tent up or get the seller to put it up for a closer inspection. Look for rot, sniff for mildew, check the number of pegs and guide lines et cetera, but do not get carried away with perfection, you can buy extra pegs, lanyard and a mallet, but you do not want to have to sew up holes or replace zips or fly screen.

Classified ads are another good source of equipment, but pick the item up yourself so that you know where to take it back if you do not have the opportunity to inspect it properly before handing over the money.

EBay and Amazon are also pretty decent, but you have to do some research on the manufacturers’ names and the standard retail prices otherwise you might end up buying a costly copy, a kiddies’ toy tent or simply junk.

One of my favourite stores to browse is the Army and Navy Surplus store. Try going into an A&N and coming out empty-handed. If the equipment in there is good enough for our troops to risk their lives with, it’s decent enough for a week in the Poconos.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on a number of topics, but is now involved with the egg crate foam mattress pad. If you would like to know more, please visit our website at Egg Crate Mattress Pad For Sale.

Choosing Your Patio Garden Furniture

Friday, June 10th, 2011

Once you have finished making your patio, your deck or your lawn, you will unquestionably start thinking about how you can enjoy more time in the garden. Therefore, you will need some garden furniture. Many places sell garden furniture. You can try home improvement centres, large department stores and garden centres. There are also companies on line that will deliver. The hard job is picking your garden furniture.

There is a very broad choice of designs of garden furniture – a style to suit every person and complement every garden. So, before rushing down to the garden centre, it is worth considering for a while what you would like to accomplish with your open-air seating area. Do you want a theme? Do you want to entertain or dine there? Or do you just want to sit peacefully, take pleasure in your garden and read a magazine?

Indeed, the answer may well be a permutation of all those things. If you simply want to sit there with a drink and a book, you may be satisfied to just buy a couple of chairs and a small table, but if you want to have guests or eat family meals outside, you may prefer a more substantial table. A large oak table would be quite costly, but it would look magnificent and last for a ten years or more.

If you choose a table, you will have to have chairs to match, but do you want loungers as well? They could be of plastic and kept in the shed until wanted.

You will probably need some type of shade. This can be given by folding, even removable umbrellas or by overhanging trees or shrubs. Wisteria or clematis can do the task as well and cost you next to nothing.

Do you intend cooking in this space? If you do, what and how? Do you fancy a barbecue pit or a proper hob and oven? A lot of people in regions where the climate permits are doing a great deal of cooking outside in a carbon copy of an indoor kitchen, but without all the walls.. If you plan the outdoor kitchen carefully, you will be able to use it in the rain too. I find it lovely not to have kitchen smells in the house and cooking out of doors is a good experience as well.

If it gets nippy in the evenings then you can consider getting some patio heaters. They are not expensive to buy or to run and one standard patio heater can keep quite a crowd of people warm. (By the word ‘standard’ here, I mean upright, like a lamp post).

Lighting is the last major consideration in the list when deciding on garden furniture. There are actually two sorts of garden lighting to mull over: lighting to see by and lighting to lure insects away. Again, you could use standard lamps to light up your patio. They cast their light far enough so that you can still look at your garden after dusk or you could have individual wall light on dimmers.

The one light I would definitely have is a mosquito lantern. Hang this away from where you sit, because they do draw insects to them which they then electrocute with a pleasing zap.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article writes on quite a few subjects, but is at present involved with visual comfort lighting. If you would like to know more or check out some great offers, please go to our website at Outdoor Wall Lamps.

Hiking And Camping

Monday, May 9th, 2011

Are you interested in getting closer to nature? Do you like hiking and sleeping under the stars – or under canvas at least? If you do, then a walking or hiking and camping holiday may be just the thing for you. A hiking and camping holiday will get you out in the fresh air, allow you to observe nature first hand and cost you very little to boot. In short, hiking and camping are the perfect blend, if you are looking for a healthy, inexpensive break outdoors.

Not just that but you can either go alone with a couple of good books, take a lover, take a friend or take the family with you. All in all, you have many alternatives available to you if you want to trek off into the wild blue yonder by foot.

There are a few of ways of approaching a vacation of this sort. You can either book into a hiking and camping site or you can literally just head off. If you have children with you then the camping ground is a necessity, but otherwise the decision is yours, although it has to be kept in mind, that camping off site is or can be illegal. Trespass is definitely illegal as is causing a nuisance of yourself, putting wild animals under duress for no decent reason, damaging trees or property and littering.

So, if you are new to hiking and camping, you will probably be better off going to a hiking and camping site or park. Do not be put off by this idea, some of them are truly immense. Check out the Poconos and other national parks for instance.

There is no doubt that cost is a factor in the choice of a camping holiday for many young people, but it is rarely the sole reason why people like to get away and sleep under the stars. Getting back to nature and bird- and animal-watching are other everyday reasons.

If you are interested in this type of vacation, it is worth remembering that hiking and camping have become highly popular pastimes of late. They always were well-liked, it is a fact, but they waned in the Eighties and Nineties, and are seeing a renaissance now. Therefore, do your homework, see where you would like to go, get some brochures or look on line and book up early. Yes, nowadays you have to book up early to get into the best hiking and camping sites again.

A final note of warning, if you decide to go off into the wilderness outside a park, let people know where you are. Take your mobile phone and a couple of fully-charged extra batteries and say when you are going to phone in that you are safe and make sure that you abide by it. It is very costly if Air-Sea Rescue get called out on unnecessarily.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on a number of topics, but is now involved with the egg crate foam mattress pad. If you would like to know more, please visit our website at Egg Crate Mattress Pad For Sale.

How To Extend The Life Of Your Summer Garden

Thursday, May 5th, 2011

The overwhelming majority of gardens look their best in the summer whether they produce flowers, fruit or vegetables, the same is probably true of your garden. When the garden looks so good and the weather is fine, it is nice to spend more time outside.

There are two means of approaching this: you can try to extend the growing life of your garden by say a few weeks or a month or / and you can extend the number of hours you can sit in the garden every day. By taking both routes you will get the greatest pleasure from your summer garden.

The first thing you can do to extend the life of your summer garden is construct some raised growing beds. Raised growing beds heat up more quickly and cool down more slowly than a growing bed in the soil. This is because the brick walls of the raised beds will soak up and hold the sun’s heat, warming the soil faster and retaining it.

It will also chill down more slowly as winter approaches because frost comes up from the ground and your raised beds will be that much higher so the chill will have to travel further. You can also try to heat these raised beds artificially if the first frost has not yet arrived. Apply the heat to the walls of the beds.

You may find that the cost of heating the flower beds is not worth the money, but if you have a special occasion on just at that period of the year when the weather usually takes a change for the worse, you may believe the cost worth it to have a nice floral display for that special day.

Raised growing beds are definitely the best route to take, but if for some reason you cannot construct some raised beds, you could give your plants a head start by planting them in pots ahead of when the first frost is predicted for. if you have a greenhouse, you will be able to get even flowers commenced in this manner. Then, you could transplant more mature plants outside when the weather allows. This will extend the life of your summer garden to the fore a little.

Another way of prolonging the garden’s summer life a little is to cover the plants over at night. However, you have to keep an eye on the plants, because these covers are very efficient. You must be able to remove them before the sun warms up or your plants may cook. You cannot go to work in the morning and leave your plants covered over all day.

The second way to get more pleasure from your summer garden is to stretch the number of hours per day that you can spend outside. This is easily achieved with exterior lighting. You can either run electric wiring to your garden and have lighting installed or you can use solar powered lighting, which will save you money on installation and electricity costs.

Once you have enough light, the only other things you might have to have to extend the life of your summer garden are a mosquito trap and a patio heater.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece writes on quite a few subjects, but is currently concerned with exterior lighting fixtures. If you would like to know more or check out some great offers, please go to our website at Outdoor Wall Lamps.

Where To Buy Your Camping Equipment From

Thursday, November 11th, 2010

Do you like to go camping? Do you go with friends or family and do you help with the planning? If so, then you almost certainly already have a lot of the items you require, but as you doubtless already know, there is always something you have to purchase for each trip. If you are planning your first trip, then it is to be hoped that this short piece will give you some tips.

In fact, there are quite a few sources of camping gear. Some offer better value for money than others, some offer low quality gear and others offer high quality at high prices. The trick is to be somewhere in the middle, where you can get good quality equipment which is fit for purpose at the correct price and this is what we will help you to do.

One of the first points to comprehend, and it is very useful to understand this , is that a camper needs camping gear, ie the tent, sleeping bag, et cetera and camping supplies, ie food, insect repellent et cetera. It is helpful to realize the difference because some camping shops sell both gear and supplies, whereas others just sell one or the other.

Starting with camping gear. You can buy camping gear on line at dedicated camping stores, at department shops and at eBay and Amazon. The trick here is to do some research first to find out what is the best of what you need and how much it costs and then to go searching on line for that particular item manufactured by that particular manufacturer. You will certainly save money by buying on line, but you have to be more wary of imitations.

Army and Navy Surplus stores are pretty decent too. After all, if it is decent enough for our fighting forces it is not going to fall apart the first time it rains or blows a bit. I have always found it difficult to come out of an army and navy store without buying anything, even if they did not have what I went in there for. I always end up buying a new compass or a knife or some other gizmo.

Department shops are next and you can pick up decent deals out of season, otherwise they tend to be costly and you have to be cautious of not buying ‘kiddies gear’ meant for use in the back garden by mistake. Sports shops and dedicated camping stores are usually very reliable, selling the best gear at the top prices.

Now on to camping supplies. To be honest, what do you eat while camping that you do not eat at home each week? Moose, squirrel, possum, deer? Well, you are not going to take that with you anyway, are you, so you may as well get your camping supplies from your favourite supermarket.

Or you can go to the camping shop and pay over the odds for ‘specialist foods’ and ‘survival rations’, but again, to be honest, you would be better off acquiring items like that either on line or at the Army and Navy store again. If you want to try out some of these army rations, it can be fun, but get them at bargain prices from the A&N.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on a variety of topics, but is now concerned with the egg crate foam mattress pad. If you would like to know more, please visit our website at Egg Crate Mattress Pad For Sale.

Pheasant Farms Provide A Fantastic Resource For Hunters & Birds

Sunday, July 25th, 2010

Pheasants are located in numerous places around the world with numerous different colorations. These creatures demand good habitat for survival. There are a number of places were the birds will survive, in other areas in which they’re not going to do as good. This actually is often due to predation more than a lack of food. Bigger predators like hungry wild cats certainly adore the taste of pheasant meat in their everyday diet.

It is becoming more common to find pheasant hunting farms across the United States. Pheasant reserve farms will make sure to harvest the eggs and take care of Those eggs until the young birds are ready to be released out in the wild. This early intervention protects their future generations of pheasants. Sometimes they order eggs from other locations which ensures genetic diversity.

Good hunting dogs are imperative to being successful on the hunting range. A good dog will not only find the bird, but also scare and retrieve it for you. Labrador retrievers are the most sought after dogs for hunting pheasant. Some hunters prefer pointers for flushing out and locating shot birds.

Water is a commonplace to find pheasants during the hot times of the summer. This can be a good way to make sure that the local population is strong. Water is a vital element to all wildlife not just birds. I know that in Wisconsin that you can only hunt pheasant from mid-October to the end of the year, so it pays to scout for birds during the warmer parts of the year. When it is time to hunt, you can expect to find the best hunting in the mornings and afternoons of the day. The morning seems to the best time to hunt as pheasant tend to be feeding in the open fields.

It is always a good practice to wait for the birds to settle back down. When you and the dogs arrive they will retreat and hide and come back out after things calm back down. Always looks for signs of crowing and tracks to make sure you have pheasant in the area. On a pheasant farm you don’t have to worry about finding birds as they are often releases just hours prior to your hunt.

For more on pheasant hunting and Bird hunting lodges. Get your bird dog ready for a hunt of a lifetime.

More information on hunting pheasant and Pheasant hunting lodge. Get your bird dog ready for the bird hunt of a lifetime.

Background Information On The Famous Pheasant

Saturday, July 3rd, 2010

Pheasant hunting on a Saturday afternoon is an American tradition and a way of life for hunters. In the United States, the common pheasant (Phasianus Colchicus) is a game bird prized by hunters and sometimes referred to as English Pheasant or simply plain pheasant.

You’ll find pheasants mostly in woodland areas but they are also in grasslands. They like to feed on stuff like spiders, grasshoppers, worms, slugs, and centipedes or millipedes. These soft animals and insects make for a tasty treat for these amazing creatures. They like to also feed on a number of grains and berries. At night, these gorgeous fowl will roost up in the trees and at daybreak they will peck the ground for some tasty treats.

Pheasants can also be a phrase used for quail, ruffed grouse, or partridge. The ring-necked pheasant was released in North America in 1857 and has become well established in locations out West such as around the Rocky Mountains, Midwest, and the Great Plains. They have also populated parts of both Canada and Mexico. The male, known as the cock, has brilliant brown plumage with a green, purple marking with a white ring across the neck. Female pheasants are called hens and have a duller looking brownish plumage. The male and female both have strong yellowish beaks and short rounded wings. The male can have a tail over 20 inches long and it often has long sharp spurs that often protects it from other wild animals.

It’s getting harder and harder to find good wild populations of pheasant due to environmental issues such as pollution and the reduction suitable habitat due to things like clear cutting and urbanization. In many regions in the United States pheasant farming seems to be a good solution for guaranteeing future generations. Pheasant farms guarantee a better solution for the pheasants to survive and flourish so that future generations can enjoy the bounty of the land.

Out west on the Great Plains, you will find that there are an abundance of pheasants in the open fields and around old farm houses. The birds absolutely love to peck around on the grasses for grains and insects in the fields and roost around old homeplaces and farming implements. In the US there are about 10 million birds compared to about 35 million in the United Kingdom.

Males do a strutting movement in the spring of the year to entice a female into courting. The head on the male will become bright red and engorged with.feathers puffed out as the male begins strutting in a courtship dance. Males will fight each other to the end for breeding rights with the females.

Being polygamous, the males will mate with more than one female and are often seen with a group of females following him. When the females lay their eggs they will do it in a nest of about 10 eggs. The eggs will be incubated by 23 to 26 days before hatching. Usually this occurs in the late spring and early summer starting in April through June.

For more on pheasant hunting and Bird hunting lodges. Get your bird dog ready for a hunt of a lifetime.

Fishing Destinations And Guides

Sunday, May 23rd, 2010

Ever since mankind walked this earth, he has been enjoying one of nature’s elusive goodies, fish. Fish nourish a lot of cultures from around the world; in spite of this catching them can be a enjoyable and tricky process. A number of fisherman make use of baskets and some utilize hooks. Other folks may utilize spears and some use their bare hands.

Fly fishing is becoming more popular and can an adventurous means to find your trophy. You can find trout in the mountain streams and the best way to get to them is wading in the cool mountain water. Do not forget bears love yummy trout too! Fly fishing started out using a stick or a cane pole with a string tied to it with a fly baited hook. As opposed to reeling the fly in, you just throw it back & pitch it once again. Popping on the surface of the slow moving water is tempting for a hungry fish. Modern fly rods use reels and allow for more control for reeling in that monster.

Most big lakes have a good number of fish species. In the United States, you can find fresh water populations of largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, spotted bass, quadalupe bass, black bass, white bass, yellow bass, striped bass, blue catfish, channel catfish, flathead catfish, black catfish, yellow bullhead, black crappie, white crappie, bluegill, green sunfish, longear sunfish, redbreast sunfish, redear sunfish, warmouth, common carp, grass carp, Texas shiner, golden shiner, blacktail shiner, red shiner, alligator gar, longnose gar, shortnose gar, spotted gar, bigmouth buffalo, smallmouth buffalo, Trout, walleye, shad paddlefish, bowfin, pickerel, American eel.

If you keep your ears open, you could get fortunate and hear of a hot fishing hole locally. Look on message boards, blogs, websites and your local paper for good insights. Many people will give out the details online of where they catch their trophy fish. Look for this sort of information.

If you do not have a bass boat no problem, fishing from shore is easy and efficient. If its not enough excitement from land, a raft or kayak might be what you need. Imagine floating in the deep Alabama backwater searching for that huge bass. Kayak fishing is quickly becoming a popular past time for serious adventure seekers.

Indians had their own strategies such as utilizing a spear which is easier said than done. They frequently would utilize holes in creeks and channel the fish into the holes. Once inside, the fish cannot escape and eventually they could have a good deal of fish waiting for the fire.

Many cultures around the world often catch fish by feeling for them around rocks. This seems to be popular among fisherman searching for big river catfish. They use hands and their arms to catch these monster cats. Feeling through the muddy water doesn’t come without risk! In some areas you might find a big mean water moccasin or even a gator, so watch where you stick your hands. Good luck on your next fishing adventure.

For more information on Alabama fishing guide or fishing destination!