[00:00:00] Eric Goranson: It's around the house. Now, if you're going to be putting in a new system, now, this is a little bit more expensive, but I tell you what, it saves you a ton of water and will really control where you put that water. And that is a system called Irrigreen. And it's a different kind of system that you want to do this from the beginning when you set it out, because here's the thing where a normal backyard, you might have 15, 20, 30 sprinkler heads, whether you've got a little shrub run, shrub runs around the outside for the Basically your landscaping shrubs that go around the outside to trees to the grass.

[00:00:39] Eric Goranson: The cool thing with this is instead of putting in that sprinkler timer, and then you've got your solenoid that goes out to those sprinklers. What you do is you run the pipe all the way out to the sprinkler heads and you run a wire when you do this. So this is why this is something that's hard to retrofit.

[00:00:55] Eric Goranson: When it comes to remodeling and renovating your home, there is a lot to [00:01:00] know, but we've got you covered. Best is around the house. Welcome to the round the house show. The next generation of home improvement. I'm Eric G. Thanks for joining us today. We're going to be taking things outside in the show today.

[00:01:15] Eric Goranson: Thought we'd talk about lawn care tips outside, trying to get that yard and garden all dialed in and ready for summertime. And there's so many things that you can do to make life a little bit easier. Before we get into that, if you have a home improvement question, feel free to give us a call at 8 3 3.

[00:01:33] Eric Goranson: 239 4144. That number again is 833 239 4144. And of course, if you want to track us down, head over to Around the House. Online. com. You can find us everything there about the radio show, the podcast, and of course the television show, which airs every week for one hour. And you can catch that over there at around the house, online.

[00:01:57] Eric Goranson: com. We have all those segments. We've [00:02:00] got coming up on 400 YouTube segments. And if you head over to around the house, online. com, you can find over there. We talk about everything from new products. To great interviews to DIY projects and everything in between. So we have a lot of fun over there today. I wanted to talk about basically everything outside getting care of lawn, because here's one thing, a lot of my friends, because of the way the economy is out there and things getting super expensive for everybody, people have had to cut back in certain areas.

[00:02:32] Eric Goranson: One of them being that fertilizer service, the lawn care people coming over. They're like, I just can't afford to get that done anymore. And so that's one of the low hanging fruit places people have been cutting back, which is unfortunate for those companies. But I thought today, Hey, we've had some requests.

[00:02:49] Eric Goranson: More about lawn care stuff. We haven't covered it for a while since last year. So it's time to jump into that today. So let's talk about our grass. When most places in the [00:03:00] country, of course, we get into the Southern states like Arizona and Nevada and California over there, where water is such an issue. Of course, many governments are paying people to get rid of that, to put in artificial turf.

[00:03:11] Eric Goranson: So, Which we'll talk about later in the show. But here I wanted to talk about basic lawn care and what you can do, and there's a lot of different ways to do it. We've all seen it. Our grandfathers, our parents, and we have, we go down to the home improvement store, the big box retailer or your corner store, and you grab that bag of fertilizer you, that you think might solve the problem.

[00:03:32] Eric Goranson: You go home. Throw it across the grass and hope for the best. And maybe you even followed the directions on what to do. The problem with this formula is you might've gotten the timing wrong. You might've got the wrong fertilizer or you're not doing it enough or doing it too often. And that's really where the rub is that you need to be really careful with because if we get too much fertilizer on the lawns that can end up down into a storm [00:04:00] drain system when you over a lot of the wall over water the lawn and then it shows up indoor streams and then we have problems with our water quality in those rivers.

[00:04:09] Eric Goranson: So you need to be a little bit careful. So what I recommend is doing the first thing you do is get a soil test and see what you're working with. You could be fertilizing the heck out of something, trying to get that grass to grow great and your pH is off. And all of a sudden if you fix the pH or the iron or some of the other things in the soil, you don't need to have all that fertilizer.

[00:04:35] Eric Goranson: And so what you can do is take a, get a sample and you can mail it off. You can go to your local extension agency. If you've got one close by, you can Google that. And a lot of times you can pay a small fee and they will do a test. Okay. And tell you what that sample looks like. And if you're going to do one, I would do a couple of different areas because you can have different soil tests, especially if somebody brought in soil at some point, you know, closer to the house could have [00:05:00] more filled dirt in it versus farther away from the house.

[00:05:03] Eric Goranson: So your lawn better, if you've got two areas that look different, make sure you get samples out of both of those areas. That way you can figure out what you have going on. Now there is an easy button for this. And this is somebody that I had on the show last year. And I think I'll invite them on again this year, not a paid sponsorship by any means, but I just think it's smart.

[00:05:23] Eric Goranson: It's a company called get lawn brights. com. And what they do is they basically send you a kit. And what you do is you actually send in your soil to them. And they will do a test for you. So you know what you're getting. And then they use organic ingredients in this. And what's cool with this is a subscription plan.

[00:05:48] Eric Goranson: So they will send it to you when you need it. So they're going to build you a custom lawn care plan, and then you're going to get natural products every six to eight weeks, [00:06:00] and you basically just spray it on and enjoy your lawn. And so what they do is they take that and they have their lawn care packs.

[00:06:09] Eric Goranson: They tell you when to do it. So they know your zip code. They know the area and their experts will tell you when to do it. And I tell you what it for the price of what you're looking at out there for people that are paying for fertilizer, not too bad price wise, but it's not too bad. If you think about what a bag of fertilizer costs, you, these guys are pretty in the ballpark, especially when you're talking about organic stuff.

[00:06:33] Eric Goranson: And I'm not talking about the chemical stuff you buy from the major brands. I'm talking about the organic stuff. These guys are in the ballpark. So, and it's customized for your lawn. So that's how they do it. And it's makes a lot of sense. And what I like too about it is that they have a lot of different things they can do to you for you for that lawn care.

[00:06:54] Eric Goranson: So they have an organic mosquito and tick control. They have pre emergent weed control for all of us, pet [00:07:00] owners out there, pet spot repair. They have a broadleaf weed control. They have a boost pack. They even have their own grass seed. They have a fall fortify pack and a starter fertilizer, the whole thing.

[00:07:14] Eric Goranson: So it's really cool and they will get you dialed in. So for that, I don't want this to sound like a commercial cause it's not, I just think it's smart for people out there that are truly trying to understand lawn care instead of going down to your home improvement store, try doing this. Go to get. com and I'll get them back on the show again here to talk about how they do it.

[00:07:34] Eric Goranson: But it's a super trick way to do it. And so it's all about testing that soil and fertilizing on those test results. Now, really the next thing to talk about here outside of fertilizer is another one of those big variables, and that's going to be the sunlight that hits this grass. Do you have the right grass seed for that area?

[00:07:56] Eric Goranson: For instance, if I go out and this happened at my house, and so that means it can happen at [00:08:00] your house as well. I went out and got the finest sod I could find pre grown grass, ready to roll down from my backyard. Now, what I didn't properly take into account is the amount of shade that I get back there.

[00:08:14] Eric Goranson: And they warned me cause they had seen pictures of it. And they saw the segment that I did for my around the house, Northwest television show. But they saw it and went, don't be surprised if this spring you have a 50 percent die off of that sod because you just don't have full sun there, which is going to be a challenge.

[00:08:33] Eric Goranson: And so what I did, Is I overseeded and I'm going to do this a couple of times this year. I'm going to keep overseeding with a sun and shade mix or a shade mix that will be able to be held up and the grass seeds are getting better and better as they develop them, but I'm getting a durable shade mix out there.

[00:08:54] Eric Goranson: That's going to be better in the mixed sun. It will get sun, but it is not full sun all [00:09:00] day long. It's probably closer to full sun a half day long if at best. And it's depending on how crazy this is, how well my neighbors keep their trees trimmed up because I live in a forest. And so with these big, massive 300 year old fir trees, They do let some light in between them and around them and morning and evening because the sun is under the canopy.

[00:09:22] Eric Goranson: But these are things that you need to keep in mind. And so, even with the best of everything, you need to have the right grass mix in there to do the job. Otherwise, you're trying to take a, a grass that is not designed for that sun, and it's just not going to get enough energy out of that sun to keep it happy, which means it's going to die back.

[00:09:42] Eric Goranson: When we come back, we're going to talk about some of the better ways to water and how you can save money. We'll do that just as soon as around the house returns. Don't go away.[00:10:00]

[00:10:09] Eric Goranson: What's up? This is sticks it in you and satchel from steel Panther. And you are listening to around the house with Eric G yeah, we love Eric G and you should too.

[00:10:30] Eric Goranson: This is your next generation of home improvement. I'm Eric G. Thanks for tuning in today. It doesn't matter if you're catching us here on the podcast or on the talk media network on the national radio show, we are here to help you with your home improvement projects every single week. And thanks for joining us today.

[00:10:47] Eric Goranson: We've been talking today about spring lawn care and outside tips for making sure that your lawn and garden is looking in tip top shape. Last segment here, we were talking about tips with deep and getting that grass [00:11:00] dialed in, right? Keep getting that. Looking good. So you have that greenest lawn in the neighborhood.

[00:11:06] Eric Goranson: And the next thing I wanted to talk about right here was going to be really diving in and talking about. Smart watering for all you people out there that are paying for water. Now you've got a city municipality or County or water district, wherever you're getting your water from that they're charging you by the gallon.

[00:11:25] Eric Goranson: There are some great ways that will pay for themselves really quickly. And some water companies are even paying you with rebates to do this. So this can be a great savings for you. So I started out using the ratio sprinkler timer, Eight years ago, seven or eight years ago when it first came out and how you spell it is R a C H I O.

[00:11:51] Eric Goranson: And if you have that old dial sprinkler timer that is out there or just one of those old ones that's been around for a number of years, [00:12:00] that's not smart. This is a way that will change how you water. And here's why this sprinkler timer, when you hook it up, you're basically going to remove your old one, hook the new wires up inside, and then you're going to hook it up into the web and you can put the app on your phone and don't get over intimidated by this because it actually goes in really easy, but here's what these new sprinkler timers do.

[00:12:24] Eric Goranson: You put in your zip code and your address and it watches your weather. So you'll never have to worry about coming home in a pouring rainstorm and seeing your sprinklers going, dang it, I'm paying for that water. I should have turned them off knowing that I knew what the water weather was going to be.

[00:12:41] Eric Goranson: And vice versa. If you've got a day that it's going to be 90, a hundred degrees, and it's going to be baking your lawn, it knows to maybe add a little bit more to keep that green. And then it goes farther from there. As you set it up and say, okay, zone one is grass, clay, soil [00:13:00] on a hill. It says, Hey, you have grass, clay, soil in a hill.

[00:13:05] Eric Goranson: And it sits there. It actually runs the sprinklers in shorter segments. Let it go. Hit it again. Give it a break. That way you're not just like running water down to the street or off the end of your property. On that grass on a hill. So it gives shorter bursts of water and gives it a break. So it actually can soak into the soil instead of just running down the hill, like grass and clay soil does.

[00:13:30] Eric Goranson: So it will know that if you, when you program it, you can put in, Oh, it's landscaping, it's my vegetable garden. It's a grass on sandy soil. You can go through and figure this out as you set it up for each one of these. And then you can pretty much set it and forget it all season long, because like I said, it's watching it and you can make a couple adjustments to it whenever you need to, but you really don't.

[00:13:55] Eric Goranson: You might go, I could use a little more water or maybe I could dial it back a little bit. [00:14:00] You can change it just at the tip of your buttons. You can be across the country on our business trip and you could be changing that cycle going. I forgot to do that last week. Let me dial that back or add a little more water.

[00:14:11] Eric Goranson: It will save you a ton of water because it's going to put the water in the right amount down and you can keep track of that. Once you get it set, you can just leave it alone and it will adjust for the temperature out there, which is really cool. Now, if you're going to be putting in a new system, now this is a little bit more expensive, but I tell you what, it saves you a ton of water.

[00:14:32] Eric Goranson: And we'll really control where you put that water. And that is a system called Irrigreen. And it's a different kind of system that you want to do this from the beginning when you set it out, because here's the thing where a normal backyard, you might have 15, 20, 30 sprinkler heads, whether you got a little shrub run, shrub runs around the outside for those, basically your landscaping shrubs that go around the outside to trees, to the grass.

[00:14:58] Eric Goranson: The cool thing with this [00:15:00] is instead of putting in that sprinkler timer, and then you've got your solenoid that goes out to those sprinklers. What you do is you run the pipe all the way out to the sprinkler heads and you run a wire when you do this. So this is why this is something that's hard to retrofit.

[00:15:15] Eric Goranson: But when you put this in, there's a control wire that goes out to it. So that sprinkler line is pressurized all the time. So what it is, they use ink jet printer technology. So when that turns on, it actually, you have the control via the app where you set it up via the app, and you could point with little points around your yard, where you want it to go.

[00:15:39] Eric Goranson: So this sprinkler is not just a spray head. It is a computerized spray head. So when it shoots it out, you put all the points around the yard. So if you had a grass that was 12 point star that you said, okay, I got this crazy 12 point star in my backyard. That is my grass. I don't know why anybody would do that.

[00:15:58] Eric Goranson: That's what it [00:16:00] is. You can sit there and put the points on it and it's going to put the water exactly where you are. So no longer are you watering gravel walkways or your sidewalk or anywhere else you can control where that sprinkler head goes. And so. Where you might have 25 or 30 sprinkler heads in the background in the backyard there.

[00:16:20] Eric Goranson: Instead of that, you might have two. And it's really cool how this works. It is a brilliant way to do it. And it can save you a ton of money. It is an investment going in and you can spend a few thousand bucks on this system, but it is a system that will put water where you want it. And it saves a ton of water because you don't have to worry about all those little heads being adjusted.

[00:16:41] Eric Goranson: It's super easy, especially when plants get bigger. Maybe you do a revision. This is a system that's really cool. And I tell you what, if you're putting in a new one, This is the way to go. Cause you really get to control how much water. And of course, where that water goes. And I've never seen a sprinkler head that I can change the [00:17:00] distance and the circle around it.

[00:17:03] Eric Goranson: So I literally, I can do a square yard with a sprinkler head. And I can make sure that those corners get hit at the same rate as everything else. So it's a really brilliant system. Take a look at that. It is a great way to go and it's something that's really impressive and how it works. And so that's one of those things that take a look at it.

[00:17:23] Eric Goranson: Now, when it comes to watering, it's one thing I want to take a look at here as well, there are people out there that are on a well. Which water is just the electricity, not as big a deal. There's people on a municipal water system, and then there's people using irrigation and irrigation can be somewhat sensitive.

[00:17:41] Eric Goranson: And this is something that I want to make sure that you're thinking about irrigation and Mary in many areas, especially out here in the West coast, if you have it in your area, I'd love to hear from you over at around the house, online. com. But primarily in the West coast, these are open pits. The go down through the farmland and they run river [00:18:00] water, basically down through the divert via a dam.

[00:18:03] Eric Goranson: And this goes out to the farmland and to homes. To irrigate their lawns with, or the farms and the pastures or whatever else. The crazy thing with this is that as it goes along, the farther down the line you are, there's more grasses and junk and dirt in the line. And the other problem is you have more chemicals as well.

[00:18:25] Eric Goranson: So I would do some tests every once in a while to see what the water quality is there, because here's what I'm worried about. I don't like to have kids out there playing in the grass. And you just dumped a bunch of unknown chemicals on top of it. All right, everybody. When we come back, we're going to be talking more about lawn care.

[00:18:44] Eric Goranson: And we're going to get into weeds and taking care of those out of the lawn and some of the problems that we see out there. We'll do that just as soon as Around the House returns.[00:19:00]

[00:19:00] Eric Goranson: Hey, this is Ron Keel, the metal cowboy from Keel, the Ron Keel Band and Steeler. We are rocking Around the House with Eric G. Welcome back to the Around the House show. This is the next generation of Home Improvement. Thanks for joining us. I'm Eric G, your host. If you have any questions for me, head over to around the house, online.

[00:19:23] Eric Goranson: com, and you can email me there, or you can also find a bunch of our YouTube videos and stuff over there as well. That is your one stop shop for that. Or you can give us a call here in the studio at 833 239 4144. Feel free to leave a message here. If you miss us, don't worry. I will personally call you back and answer that question for you.

[00:19:43] Eric Goranson: We've been talking about exterior lawn care, garden care, trying to make that place beautiful. And livable for you. So we were talking about first segment about grass, making sure you get that dialed in and of course, smart watering last time in the last segment. But this one here, I [00:20:00] wanted to talk about weed care and prevention.

[00:20:02] Eric Goranson: And this is one of those things that depends. Weeds can get out of control, crazy. Some people enjoy them like clover and they like to do clover gardens. And stuff like that. So this is a T each their own kind of thing. For me, I use clover when I need to have a natural ground cover in an area that I'm remodeling.

[00:20:22] Eric Goranson: For instance, I was been redoing my front yard when I initially cleaned all the brush garbage. Junk out of there. I had raw dirt and I knew I wasn't ready to put lawn in because I needed to do a lot of soil amendments and really get things dialed in. So I planted some wild clover out there to really get it in there and get it.

[00:20:41] Eric Goranson: It's just so I don't have a mud pit all year round and it's worked really well for that. Some people like to do it in their lawns, but for a lot of us, when we have grass, we like to really get it dialed in. And that was one of the problems I have with the clover because it has expanded it out. And I have to keep fighting it in the [00:21:00] lawn now with that.

[00:21:00] Eric Goranson: So that is something that was cool, but I tell you what, it ended up getting over there and I had to fight that a little bit, but here's some of the things that people do. So a lot of people will jump out and myself, I've done it this way in the past. I get the weed and feed. I spread the fertilizer out and I let the weed and feed nuke everything.

[00:21:19] Eric Goranson: This last probably year and a half, I've changed that where I just hit with a simple organic fertilizer. But what I'm doing now is I'm taking my spray bottle around with the weed killer for lawns. Now, here's the thing. If you get in there with Roundup or one of those things, you spray it, it's going to die, period.

[00:21:40] Eric Goranson: And that's not great for your grass. But if you get some of the stuff that's meant to kill the weeds out of there or the nauseous weeds. That's something that you can get in there and get after it and get after those weeds Without having to hit the whole thing with weed killer So that's a key right there to i've changed over to that [00:22:00] and it's worked really well I just keep a spray bottle of it right next to the lawnmower when i'm mowing And sometimes i'll even sit there and take that with me and I can just stop real quick And hit something as I go and over a few weeks You pretty much get them knocked out because that stuff works so well.

[00:22:16] Eric Goranson: It just kills it. It works so well. So it's awesome. So that's just an easy way to do it. And quite frankly, it's a little cheaper than buying the weed and feed if you're just buying regular fertilizer. So that's just one of those things that can save you a ton of headaches. And I like that. So I do that.

[00:22:33] Eric Goranson: It reduces the chemicals on my lawn and it's just one less thing out there. Now, of course, with any kind of the weed and feed stuff for any of these weed killers, make sure that you're careful in your waterways. And follow the directions on the bottle, because that's one of those things that can really get you in trouble by doing that, because we don't want to be polluting waterways or anything else or getting kids sick.

[00:22:54] Eric Goranson: So just be careful with what you're using out there. And we've all heard about the stuff with [00:23:00] Roundup and you're killing weeds, maybe out in a gravel driveway, something like that. This is where you need to be really careful. And many of us have become really sick. I have not, but I have plenty of friends that have worked in the agriculture industry that have gotten really sick from some of these chemicals.

[00:23:17] Eric Goranson: So be really careful of how you do it. Put a mask on, glove up. And if you're just doing spot stuff, it's not that big a deal, but say, if you're going to be out there spraying a gravel lot or doing a bigger area, throw a Tyvek suit on, they're cheap. You can buy them at your paint store. You can buy them at home improvement store.

[00:23:36] Eric Goranson: Throw that on, glove up, mask up, make sure you're not getting it in there. And play it safe because that stuff can be I don't know what the rules are with that I don't know how much it takes and I don't want to get sued by one of these chemical companies But i'm just going to say Be careful out there with that stuff and use it accordingly And pay attention to those warnings because they are not joking when they mean it Some [00:24:00] of this stuff can make you really sick.

[00:24:01] Eric Goranson: So just be very careful out there my friends Want to see you around for a while. So just make sure that you're handling that To the directions and make sure that you're playing it safer than less safe with that. And I have changed my purchases on the chemicals and how I do it over the last probably five years after knowing people that have gone through this.

[00:24:21] Eric Goranson: So be careful and just follow the directions and use it accordingly. Now, another thing that we see out there that is a big problem are pests, and this could be anything from ticks to mosquitoes to everything else, and this can be a controversial subject out there. I'll tell you what I have done with mosquitoes.

[00:24:44] Eric Goranson: And I used to have this canal that went behind my house at a previous house. I had a couple of two houses ago and I had a canal that came by that certain months of the year at work, it had great flowing water. Other times it was fairly stagnant because they used it from the [00:25:00] river to fill the lake to make sure it was even.

[00:25:02] Eric Goranson: So they would open it up and move it. But generally in the summer months, it could sit there and be pretty full and not move a lot. So it could get into kind of stagnant water, which means. Yeah, we had a lot of mosquitoes and a lot of bats. Now the bats were great because they were feeding off the mosquitoes.

[00:25:19] Eric Goranson: But I needed to control them. And so there's a non toxic way to do this. And if you head down to your home improvement store, they have these little discs that are inch and a half around or so that you can throw into a body of water, whether it's a puddle or a pond or anything else, and they're not an insecticide, but what they do is they keep the mosquito larvae from hatching.

[00:25:43] Eric Goranson: And so it stops that process, which means. Those mosquitoes can't replicate. So take a look at that. That is a great way to do this, to control it without having to spray your yard, without having to spray a bunch out there and put a bunch of chemicals out there. It is a great, [00:26:00] easy way. It cut down my mosquito stuff by 70%.

[00:26:05] Eric Goranson: And I didn't do it down the whole canal. I just did it in my area and it cut it down significantly around there. If I had to went down behind the neighbor's houses and did it along the way, or if we'd have got together, I bet you, I would have reduced those by 80 or 90%. So what didn't get killed was great bad food for them, but it made it manageable.

[00:26:25] Eric Goranson: Otherwise it was like, I was up in Alaska. And these things would have lifted me off and carried me away because they were just out of control, but it's a great way to control that and to keep it really safe. Now, if you're in an area that gets ticks in my area, it is not as common unless I'm up in the deep woods where my house is located.

[00:26:46] Eric Goranson: But I tell you what, if I go out here an hour to the West, out to the coast and go like hiking through the grasses, yeah, they've got some big problems this year with it already. And so I would recommend making sure there's a lot of different [00:27:00] green ways to do it, but this might be one of those things that you spray the lawn a couple times a year with the tick killer.

[00:27:05] Eric Goranson: To get it down and, uh, follow the directions on that. You might need to go nuclear with that and get those down, especially with that. And then of course, I had a really bad experience with wasps and hornets last year and actually yellow jackets. And that is something that I'm going to be a lot more diligent with this year.

[00:27:24] Eric Goranson: I was out, if you heard it on, I talked about it on the show last fall, but I was digging a post hole and didn't realize that the little. Fern in the natural landscape next to my house, a couple of feet away had a massive yellow jackets nest. So I got hit about 20 times at that. And that put me in the ER getting checked out and getting a bunch of shots and getting that under control.

[00:27:44] Eric Goranson: Cause that turned into a very dangerous situation really quickly. So making sure that you set the traps for all of those, that's going to be a good deal. And if you've got flies that are flying around in the backyard, here's the cool Rescue makes these new fly traps that just [00:28:00] came out. And what they are is they are a pad that you could put to the inside of your trash can, or you could put them in discreet areas, but they have an attractant to the flies, but they don't stick to you.

[00:28:10] Eric Goranson: And they grab the flies that are flying around. And so this is a great non toxic way to get those flies and not using that nasty fly paper. This is actually something that'll work really well for you. So again, that's something that if you're trying to keep those flies down out there, this could be a great way to do it.

[00:28:28] Eric Goranson: All right, guys, we come back. I've got more for you. We're going to be talking about landscaping and dealing with that. We'll do that just as soon as around the house returns. If you need more information about this show around the house. Head to AroundTheHouseOnline. com. We'll be right back. It's[00:29:00]

[00:29:02] Eric Goranson: the end of the show. Now drinkin down people, it's time to go. It's that time again. It's Last Call. Welcome back to the Around the House show, the next generation of home improvement. Thanks for joining us. If you're listening to us on the Talk Media Network, on the radio, or on the podcast, I'm here to help you.

[00:29:20] Eric Goranson: To find out more information about the show, head over to AroundTheHouseOnline. com. Online. com. And if you want to hear the show early on the podcast, make sure and be a member. You can find out more over there on the website. And then if you have a question, 833 239 4144, that number again is 833 239 4144.

[00:29:42] Eric Goranson: I'm here to help you with that. So we've been talking on spring lawn care tips today, and I wanted to talk a little bit about preventing weeds in landscaping. And this is one of those things that can be really tough. Depending on where you're located and what part of the country, because there are so many weeds out there that can come in, [00:30:00] especially if you're up against anything from a nature area to a neighbor that doesn't take control of their property.

[00:30:06] Eric Goranson: And so that can blow in and you can create a weed nightmare for you. One of the things that I have not been successful with, especially in flower beds, is the weed fabric out there. It seems that trying to rely on that, it has caused me more issues along the way that it seems like weeds, no matter what brand I've gotten, they tend to grow into that.

[00:30:31] Eric Goranson: And then when you pull it out, it takes the weed fabric with it. Which is counterintuitive. I don't need another place for the weeds to grow. If you have a brand that you like out there, I'd love to hear it. Head over to around the house, online. com or hit one of the social media channels for around the house show and send me a message because so far I have not found one that works to my liking.

[00:30:52] Eric Goranson: That's worth the mix. And especially when I put a bark mulch or something on top of it, it seems that those. Weeds just grow right in the middle of it. So [00:31:00] for me, that's out. Now, another one that has worked well for me is preen. And that is a kind of fertilizer looking granule that you put out on this area and it keeps the weeds from growing.

[00:31:14] Eric Goranson: So it's a preventative. It doesn't let them sprout and grow up into that. Preen has worked well for me. And it's something I'm putting in a bunch of new flower beds right now. And it's something after I get them all completed, I'm going to hit it with, because it does work. And that is something that follow the directions on it.

[00:31:30] Eric Goranson: But again, that can be a great preventative maintenance. Now, one of the things that you need to be careful with is there are, depending on the area of the country you're in. There are a ton of invasive or nauseous weeds out there. And half of these things were brought in by certain groups because, Hey, it's going to be land control or whatever.

[00:31:53] Eric Goranson: And all of a sudden this stuff came in in the Pacific Northwest here. There's a Scotch broom or whatever [00:32:00] that comes in. I'm super allergic to it. And about this time of year, you start seeing it along the freeways that are yellow, beautiful, yellow, bright yellow blooms. And I tell you what, that stuff, when they brought it in here for weed, for control of dirt and keeping things growing and not letting hillsides fall down onto a highway or something.

[00:32:22] Eric Goranson: Or things like that, where you're just trying to keep soil erosion down. That stuff was one of the biggest mistakes of them bringing that into the Pacific Northwest, because it just takes over and it can grow like trees out there. It gets huge and it's obnoxious. So any of these things from the different Ivies or even bamboo.

[00:32:46] Eric Goranson: And that's the one thing with some of these things that you plant out there, they can take over an area like old growth strawberries. When they start getting more and more of those things, they just keep going and going. If you don't maintain them and bamboo can [00:33:00] be that same way. I love a cool looking bamboo hedge.

[00:33:04] Eric Goranson: But the problem is that can get out of control. Now I've heard plant experts tell me that if you go around with a square bladed shovel in the fall, you could actually go around and dig a perimeter around there and just cut those roots as they come out and try to expand. If you go around there and, and September, October, depending on your climate, And you keep around a perimeter around there that will cut those off and they won't grow and expand outside of that area.

[00:33:34] Eric Goranson: But that's the tough part is getting into that. And then if you've got ticks or other things, they can be hiding off into that as well. So that is stuff that be very careful with planting bamboo because it can be absolutely beautiful, but it can absolutely get out of control and be a heck of a mess to keep trimmed out.

[00:33:56] Eric Goranson: And under control. We're going to have to remove some up at the beach house property [00:34:00] because out in the back on the hillside there, they put some in there and it's just out of control, taking over a whole area. And that's not going to be a fun one because that it's up on a hillside. So we're gonna have to dig that out.

[00:34:11] Eric Goranson: And get it down there. Cause I don't want to have to put in a bunch of chemicals in that. I want to just make it go away without having to quite frankly, nuke the area. But those are things that I just want you to think about when you're planting these type of plants in there that maybe they're better in.

[00:34:28] Eric Goranson: Some kind of a container or a raised bed or someplace that they're not going to grow out of. If you were to do a raised bed with block or something out there, or something that's got a liner on the inside so that those roots can't get out of there, that might be a great spot. Now, bamboo can be tough in a container.

[00:34:47] Eric Goranson: Because it's got so much height to it that if it's a small container, it will blow over in a windstorm or just a mild wind, depending on how big it is. So those are things that aren't good, but that's [00:35:00] another one. And then some other things I want you to think about that are horrible for landscaping. And it's just because they're so toxic is railroad ties.

[00:35:10] Eric Goranson: Please do not go building anything around your property with railroad ties. If you have them. I would recommend them be removed and get out of there because that creosote is known as a cancer causing agent. And in many areas, when you go to get rid of them, they consider them hazardous waste. So you need to be careful of that, how you dispose of them.

[00:35:33] Eric Goranson: But I know people that will go down to their lumber yard and get some old railroad ties that they've swatched out. And there's multiple problems with road ties. One, they got creosote. Two, who knows what got dripped onto there? Was it sewage from an Amtrak train or a passenger train? Was it chemicals that were dripping out of the bottom of a rail car?

[00:35:53] Eric Goranson: What ended up on that? It could be a plethora of things. And the last thing you want to [00:36:00] do is put that out there where the kids are playing or as a bed around your gardens, because that is putting chemicals in that are going to end up in your plants. And it's not a good thing. So spend some time with that.

[00:36:12] Eric Goranson: Make sure that you got that all dialed in and when in doubt with any of these toxic chemicals, like our old, you know, 15, 20 years ago, we had some of the same stuff that was in pressure treated woods. So you're better off just building something out of another material. And when in doubt, it's a good idea to get those road ties out of there.

[00:36:32] Eric Goranson: And then I would probably just do a soil test to make sure that everything around it is good. If you need to get rid of a little bit of dirt, just to get it cleaned up around there, you might want to get that tested and just double check. And it's not that bad for a soil test and then see what you can do with it.

[00:36:46] Eric Goranson: Now, if you want to make your own organic weed killer, this is something that does work. And it's a mixture of vinegar, salt, and soap. Something like Dawn. And it's [00:37:00] basically just a three ingredient homemade weed killer. Now, here's the thing. It will kill anything you put it on, basically. So not sure about things like they're tough Ivy or any of the blackberry bushes and stuff that are pretty hardy that way.

[00:37:17] Eric Goranson: But this is basically, you're just going to mix vinegar. How the household vinegar contains an acid in it. So it's really effective. At killing the weeds. And then, so basically you're going to mix in the dish soap and salt, and that's how it works. And now the thing is that salt is not amazing for the soil.

[00:37:37] Eric Goranson: So you need to be careful. Salt is not something that's going to help. So basically you're going to mix a gallon of vinegar, tablespoon of dish soap. And a cup of salt and I would be tempted to leave the salt out if it was me Just because i'm not a fan of that if you're trying to keep anything from coming back later That salt will do that.

[00:37:57] Eric Goranson: But salt is really tough on the soil. So if you're going to [00:38:00] actually do that It basically dehydrates And kills the weeds though. It can really mess with the ph of that soil And if you do it around there too much, it will hurt the surrounding soil. So it could make it. So it's pretty tough to grow anything in the future.

[00:38:16] Eric Goranson: So no sense of limiting that in doing that. And so that's one of the issues there to make sure that you've got that. And then I would make sure as you're out there, you want to pair, want to be paired up with some good gloves. I want to see long pants. I want to see long sleeves. And keep that mixture away from your eyes and face.

[00:38:34] Eric Goranson: Cause it's not going to be good for your skin. So this is not the exfoliant you're looking for a clean complexion, but it is effective and organic and it will work, but it is a contact herbicide, which means if it touches it, it kills it. That means that no matter where you spray it, it's going to get it.

[00:38:52] Eric Goranson: So be careful around the grasses and stuff. If you're trying to go out and do weeds, I would not do it for in lawn weed. But if you've got a walkway or [00:39:00] something like that, that you're trying to keep it on. That might be the good way. So it's not going to be your final solution, but it is a good green one to use.

[00:39:08] Eric Goranson: And just be careful with the salt. All right, everybody. I got to run. This show is over. Thanks for tuning in to around the house. I really appreciate it to find out more about us head over to around the house online. com. Have a great rest of your weekend as always. Thanks for tuning in to around the house.