Avoiding the Pitfalls of Autumn Yard Work, part 1

As the weather becomes cooler and the leaves start to turn color, many people start to do their fall outdoor cleanup. One thing you may want to consider is the number of Americans injured doing yard work every fall. Approximately 42 million people seek emergency room treatment for injuries each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Many of these injuries happen while homeowners are performing seemingly routine tasks; like fall yard work. These facts may cause you to think that "fall" is actually short for "pitfall". Fall, it seems, is becoming the season for injuries, back injuries, tumbles from ladders and lawn mower accidents.

Here are a few simple tips to avoid common injuries while in the yard this fall.

The leaves changing color is one of the charms of fall, but once they get on the ground, raking them sends thousands of people to the emergency room each year. Raking is vigorous exercise, and you should pay close attention to your arms and back to avoid injury.

So to prevent injury from raking, make sure you:

1. Warm up with some stretching and light exercise before you start to do any raking. Sometimes we think this doesn’t do anything but I work out all the time at the Y and have learned that it does make a difference.

2. Use a rake that is comfortable for you, your height and strength. There are many tools being made today that are more user-friendly.

3. Protect your hands by wearing gloves or use a rake with padded handles to prevent blisters.

4. Wear appropriate clothes. Be aware loose clothes can sometimes get caught in things. Also sometimes your hat can obstruct your vision so you miss low branches, or uneven surfaces. Wear shoes or boots with slip-resistant soles as wet leaves can be slippery.

5. Always remember when picking things up like a bag of leaves, bend at the knees, not the waist. Do not overfill leaf bags, especially if the leaves are wet as they really become heavy. You should be able to carry the bags comfortably to avoid back injury.

6. Change your movement often by alternating your arm and leg positions or switching jobs for a few minutes.

7. Beware of twisting motions as it places undue stress on your back, like throwing leaves over your shoulder or to the side.

Raking leaves is an annual chore, and many people just throw the leaves away. If you just bag your leaves and have them carted off, the nutrients they contain cannot be cycled back into the soil as they would be in a natural habitat. It’s a waste of great fertilizer. Instead run them through a shredder then they can be used as an excellent mulch for the perennial garden. Or instead of raking your leaves at all just use your mower and mulch them into your grass. It is important though to not leave a layer of leaves on your lawn or garden because it doesn’t allow proper circulation of air and water to the plants under them, and can cause irregular growth, or smother what’s below them, especially in lawns.

Raking leaves is hard work and is an unavoidable fall activity but it is a good way to get to know nature and to smell the fresh air of the outside, though jumping in the leaves can be more fun. By taking the proper steps you can avoid the injuries and muscle strains of raking.

Avoiding Pitfalls “By the yard”

Attracting beautiful birds to your yard

Bird houses and feeders are a wonderful way to decorate your yard and garden. They can add a unique touch of whimsy to your property while attracting beautiful birds that bring your yard garden to life with splashes of color and nature’s music. Attracting birds to your backyard with bird houses and feeding them is an easy way to enjoy wildlife up close and personal. Feeders, and the beautiful birds that perch upon them, can brighten up any garden or yard.

North American birds like Finches, swallows, wrens, and others make their nests in tree hollows and other sheltered environments. This makes cedar bird houses an ideal location during nesting season. Bird houses carry another great benefit: the chance for young and old alike to watch the life cycle and development of the young birds. Birdhouses are popular gifts for year round and are a natural gift for life.

Bird feeders as well are uplifting, relaxing and entertaining. There are many types of birds that have become well-adapted to taking advantage of bird feeders. In fact, according to the National Audubon Society, more than 100 species supplement their natural diets with birdseed, suet, fruit and nectar obtained from feeders. There are a wide variety of feeders to accommodate this wide variety of birds: hopper feeders, platform feeders, tube feeders, suet feeders, Hummingbird feeders; and the list goes on. The birds you desire to feed will determine the type of food you put out and that in turn helps to determine which feeder you should use.

Some feeders work well for a number of different types of food. Hopper feeders and platform feeders are big and bird-friendly. They can hold almost any size seed and a lot of it, so they have to be refilled less often. Hopper bird feeders accommodate several feeding birds at the same time and are attractive to a number of species, such as grosbeaks, cardinals, jays, woodpeckers, finches, chickadees, sparrows and nuthatches. The biggest drawback is because of their open trays, there is substantial spillage. Hopper feeders are a great choice for general feeding. The difference between this type of feeder and a platform-style is the addition of a seed hopper. Hopper feeders come in a wide range of styles and sizes. The miniature barn design is the more traditional hopper feeder style, and with this type of feeder you don’t have to refill it daily because it holds a huge store of seeds.

Tube feeders are ideal for smaller birds like finches and pine siskins because they have small perches that large perching birds like starlings can't grip. Tube feeders are extremely popular and come with feeding ports or holes where the birds access the food. These ports can vary in size in order to accommodate different types of food. A tube feeder with large holes will let sunflower seeds and fruit pieces through, while others with small holes should be used for small seeds like Nyjer.

Suet feeders, which are wire cages specifically made to hold suet, are an excellent way to offer your outdoor pets a variety of dining options. Suet is the hard, white fat on the kidneys and loins of cattle and other animals, and is a favorite of many birds. If it were up to the birds, they would take the entire piece of suet away with them. Thankfully, the suet feeder cage design only allows small chunks to be eaten at a time, which means that desirable birds such as woodpeckers, cardinals, chickadees, wrens, and nuthatches visit more often -- so you get more time to enjoy watching them.

Hummingbird feeders are available in a number of shapes and sizes and are perfect for homeowners looking to attract these cute little creatures. Hummingbird feeders, in particular, are often placed near windows because the tiny, acrobatic birds are fun to watch. Hummingbird feeders, rather than dispensing seed, supply liquid nourishment to hummingbirds, in the form of a sweet mixture often colored red to attract the birds, but this is unnecessary and the food coloring may in fact be detrimental to the health of the birds.

There are a number of helpful resources today that can help you pick out the appropriate types of food needed to attract desirable birds, and the feeders that suit them best. In fact, Web sites such as www.WildDelight.com are becoming a popular reference point for outdoor pet lovers.

Wood is the preferred material for birdhouses and feeders. Western Red cedar, known for it’s longevity in exterior applications, is a primary construction material used in these wood birdhouses and feeders. The elasticity and natural oils found in western red cedar makes it durable to variations in outside temperature and humidity which ensures they will last a lifetime.

Finally, with all the different types and styles of feeders available today, there have never been more opportunities to enjoy outdoor pets and the entertaining hobby of backyard bird feeding.

Discovering wonderful backyard landscaping ideas

A good backyard landscaping idea is one that everyone can make use of. There are millions of different backyard landscaping ideas and many of them are pretty good but to find the one that is right for you and is just what your yard needs will take some time and research.

Your backyard landscaping is going to involve many different things but the most important one of these if your well being. Most people get into backyard landscaping because they want to change the look and feel of their yard; they want to make it a wonderful place where their family can feel safe and comfortable at any time of day or night.

Backyard landscaping is a great way to add some peace to your life whether you are alone or you have a large family and tons of kids. With great ideas you will be able to create a sanctuary with your backyard landscaping that you have never had before in your life.

This article hopefully will help you to find some backyard landscaping ideas that are right for your yard.

So here are a few ideas.

1. One good backyard landscaping idea is to use evergreens for height or a living fence or an accent. The use of these fabulous trees will do a lot for any yard. They will add a stately nature to the feel of your home while keeping it welcoming and warm. Many people like to use deciduous trees in the yard and this is always a good idea but it is the evergreens that will give the yard the structure and the stability that it needs for a good backyard landscaping design.

It is always best to look for a backyard landscaping idea like the one above that will benefit you all year round. Deciduous trees will not be gorgeous in all seasons, most perhaps, but not all. Evergreens on the other hand are always fantastic and they look as beautiful in the winter as they do in the summer and this is why they make for such a great backyard landscaping solution. The key to any great landscaping design is to find an idea like this that will keep your yard interesting no matter what time of the year it is.

2. When looking for a good backyard landscaping idea you need to look for other options besides just plants. There is much more to landscaping than just plants and trees. Another good backyard landscaping idea is to use hardscape. This is the use of things like rocks, fences and walls. They can make your yard look very interesting throughout all of the seasons as well. You can have climbing plants on them in the spring and summer and different trees around them that will make them look great in the winter.

Walls and fences can frame your property beautifully and using them will just accent all of your other wonderful backyard landscaping ideas. They will frame your yard as a picture frame frames a gorgeous painting.

Look into these and other backyard landscaping ideas as well in your search for the one or ones that are right for you. There are a couple of great places for you to learn more about backyard landscaping such as in magazines and on the internet like on this blog where you can find many good ideas or on another blog that I like Ideas for Outdoor Living .com . You can also get many backyard landscaping books out of the library. These can all help you to make the best decisions as to your landscaping needs. You can also get many do it yourself tips online like at homerenewall.com

A lot of the fun is discovering what you like and then the rest of the fun is doing it. Have fun on your road of discovery.

Landscaping “by the yard”