A Young Man’s Fancy

Alfred Lord Tennyson famously penned “In the Spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.” Well, in my world, in Spring a homeowner’s fancy turned to yard clean up. 

Just a few ideas:

Be kind to the earth and living things – prune your trees and shrubs properly to promote healthy growth and pest and disease resistance.

Lime your lawn instead of using herbicides and pesticides. If you have a fireplace, you can sprinkle the ashes on your lawn. A perfect lawn isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Have dandelions? Get one of those dandelion pulls (they really work) instead of poisoning the plant. Put you uprooted dandelions in a pile under a bush and let the bunnies have a feast. Everyone has to eat.

Scan your trees and shrubs for spotted lantern fly nymphs. They are black and white polka dotted. If you see them, spray your plant trunks with a mix of white vinegar and soap. 

Feed your backyard birds fresh bird seed. A good variety of birds in your yard will do wonders for keeping the insect pests under control.

Need tick and flea control? Two suggestions on this one – keep kitty indoors. It will go a long way to keep in fleas out of your house. Get chickens – they will eat and the ticks and fleas and you will eat the eggs (fresh, healthy, real free range eggs – from a chemical free yard). – Annette Brownell