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Do It Yourself

Top Tips To Water Your Lawn

Last week, as I drove down the street on my way home from work, I noticed several nice and soft looking green lawns. When I arrived at my home, I noticed that my lawn was still green, but had that slightly dry, bluish-green, crunchy appearance. I knew that if walked on the lawn barefoot, I would feel the prickly blades of grass poke the bottom of my feet. The lawn was thirsty and was begging me to give it some water, so I set the irrigation timer to begin watering early the next morning.

When your lawn has that slightly dry, bluish-green, crunchy appearance, it is time to make sure it gets some water. Here are three simple tips to ensure the time and money you spend watering your lawn are efficient and effective.Top tips to water the lawn

1. Water Deep

The first tip for watering your lawn is to apply water long enough to get the soil wet. Ideally, you want to get moisture to penetrate the soil about six inches deep. By getting that much water in the soil, you will promote the growth of roots deeper into the soil. Having deep roots will allow your lawn to be more drought-resistant and the lawn will require less water in the long run.

Categories
Do It Yourself

Three Steps This Spring For A Beautiful Summer Lawn

Winter is releasing its chilling grip across the U.S., and your thoughts are likely turning to springtime flowers and a beautiful, lush, green lawn.

Home and Lawn

You want a nice green, weed-free lawn, right? §

There are three things you need to be doing this spring to help that lawn start growing.

1. Apply Crabgrass Preventer

If you lawn was infested with crabgrass last summer and you don’t want a repeat occurrence, then your first task is to apply crabgrass preventer.

The timing of this step is important. Crabgrass preventer discourages the crabgrass from germinating, but only works for about a 10 week timeframe. If you do it too early, the effectiveness will wear out before germination. Too late, and the seeds will germinate before the crabgrass preventer can take effect.

The exact time varies each year depending on the weather. However, the general rule of thumb is to apply crabgrass preventer when the forsythia bushes in your area are almost done blooming.

Categories
Do It Yourself

12 Simple Steps To Replace An Oven Igniter

If your gas oven does not heat up, then you might need a new oven igniter. Replacing an oven igniter is not nearly as scary or dangerous as it sounds. In fact, if you can assemble an entertainment center, a grill, or something similar, then you can replace an oven igniter. How do I know? A few weeks ago, and for the second time in three years, the igniter in my gas oven stopped working, and I replaced it myself.

What is an Oven Igniter?

The oven igniter does exactly what you might guess. It has a metal and ceramic element that gets very hot when you start the oven. When it reaches the proper temperature, a sensor triggers a switch that allows natural gas to flow into the burner tube. The natural gas then ignites due to the hot igniter, creates the flame, and the oven begins to warm up.

If the igniter is not hot enough or doesn’t get hot at all, the sensor will not allow gas into the burner tube and the result is the oven stays cold. A nice safety feature, don’t you agree?

Here is a picture of my old, burned out igniter.
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The good news is that replacing an oven igniter is relatively easy.