Trusted Tips and Resources

Trusted Tips & Resources

Trusted Regina Landscape Expert share a great tip on Composting

 TRUSTED REGINA Landscape & Yard EXPERT

Here we share an interesting article on Composting in response to a Facebook fan question:

Turn your green waste into nature's gold 

Tending the garden keeps on producing quantities of plant debris that take up space. What's the best thing to do with garden refuse like grass cuttings, tree and hedge trimmings, leaves and withered flowers?

Green recycling

 

Our VIKING garden shredders will tidy up your garden. Their innovative technology, high reliability and easy handling are the result of more than 25 years' accumulated technical know-how. The high-quality cutting systems chop up all kinds of garden waste. Unwieldy branches and bushy twigs are quickly chopped up into easy-to-handle plant residue which you can simply dispose of or re-use as a compost base.  

 

The intelligent solution

 

The cuttings can be used to make environmentally friendly compost. The composted shreddings can be recycled as a valuable natural fertilizer. Turn your garden waste into home-made fertilizer. Mulch and compost contain a number of valuable raw materials that supply your garden soil with important nutrients in a totally natural way.

Ten rules for good compost

  • Gather the correct proportions of nitrogenous (‘green') and carbonaceous (‘brown') plant trimmings – mixing lawn clippings with woody cuttings for example.
  • Remember compost needs air. Never lay the material in a trench and do not use containers which are closed on all sides.
  • Do not place the compost heap on a solid base made of stone, concrete, etc. The compost needs an ‘earth connection', so that earthworms and small organisms can penetrate it.
  • Create order in your compost heap. For the bottom layer, pile up coarse shredded material – approximately 20cm high. On top of this add mixed, finer materials such as leaves or shredded material.
  • Thinly spread lawn clippings – to prevent the danger of decay!
  • Always cover kitchen waste with soil, as it attracts vermin.
  • Avoid totally dry conditions as micro-organisms in compost heaps need moisture.
  • Do not water the compost excessively.
  • Cover up the finished compost heap.
  • Earthworms are beneficial to your compost heap and are attracted by phlox and elder for example. Onion skins, chive residues, ground coffee and tea leaves are also favorite foods for earthworms. 

 

The composting process takes several months, depending on the time of year and the ambient temperature. When the compost has matured it should smell pleasantly of forest soil and fungus.

Tips :

  • If you put shredded waste on a compost heap, subsequent turning over is no longer required.
  • Passing waste material repeatedly through your garden shredder provides optimal mixing and aeration. Shredding waste before placing it on the compost heap speeds up decomposition as it increases the surface area open to attack by microbes and decomposition agents.

 

Chris Worby your Trusted Regina Financial expert shares a tip on pension planning

Finding the shortest and safest route to any of your dreams requires planning and only with a carefully thought out financial plan can you be sure to make the most of your resources and to protect against risks along the way. At Worby Wealth Management, Chris will do his best to help you achieve those dreams with a financial plan that is tailored to your specific needs and based on your individual situation.

Let TRUSTED REGINA's FINANCIAL ADVISOR Chris Worby from Worby Wealth Management help you live your dream!

 

Here Chris shares a great tip on Pension Planning Regina

" A client of mine emailed me last week saying that her previous employer told her she had 2 options with her pension; leave it where it was or move it to another pension plan. They were wrong!!.

- Qualified people can make us aware of more options - Some options require more from you - Advice is great!

Generally speaking, the administrators of a pension plan are not really involved in things like financial planning and understanding your investment personality in order to recommend a good fit. They do what their job title says - they administer. This can actually leave you with more responsibility for your financial future.

You will likely need to do your own research within the limits of the investments that company's pension plan offers, you may need to work out your own asset allocation and you may have to do all your own income calculations for retirement. When it comes to financial matters, one of my clients put it really well. He could tell that my "financial universe was bigger" - his way of saying I am at the centre of more information, more knowledge and more financial matters come to light in my office than in other people's everyday lives.

So, back to the pension. Sure enough, there is a third option, a Locked-In Retirement Account (LIRA). I often move the investments from a pension to a LIRA and the reasons are simple: I give advice, I help with the plan and I lend my information to your decision making.

Call Chris Worby at  (306) 757-4747 ext 226  or on his Cell: (306) 737-2909. Check out his listing on the Regina Directory in the REGINA FINANCIAL SERVICES category   . Chris is a Trusted REGINA FINANCIAL EXPERT

 

Trusted Regina landscape expert share a tip on how to revive a thinning lawn

 

Find Trusted Regina Landscape and lawn professionals HERE

 

Here's great article on how to revive a thinning lawn in response to a Facebook fan question: 

Overview

Lawn looking thin, bare or brown? You can revitalize it in a weekend using just one or two tools from a local rental or garden center. The power core aerator (Photos 1 and 2) loosens any compacted soil in your yard and breaks up thatch. Thatch is a cushion of old, partially decayed grass roots and stems that develop in many sodded lawns (Figure A). It separates the actively growing crown of the grass plant from the soil surface.

The power rake (Photo 3) is equipped with vertical fixed tines to cut the soil and prepare a thinned-out lawn for reseeding.

For you Northern homeowners whose lawns experience a hard freezing winter, the first dew in August is your signal that it's time to aerate to ensure lush grass next spring. For homeowners in warmer or more arid states, aerate your lawn next spring to boost those warm-climate grass varieties before they go dormant in mid-summer. 

Make a Plan: Examine your yard

Power aerators and power rakes can usually be rented by the hour, half day or day. Because these two machines are in high demand (especially on weekends), ensure that your work plan will flow uninterrupted by reserving both machines in advance. Save some money by first renting the aerator, then picking up the power rake when you drop off the aerator. Rejuvenate your lawn using these strategies:

  • Budget your time: You should be able to aerate and power rake up to 5,000 sq. ft. in three to four hours.
  • Avoid renting aerators that are equipped with spikes and only roll over the lawn and perforate it. The core aerators that actually remove soil plugs—like the one shown—are vastly superior because they open up more soil volume.
  • Recruit a buddy who has either a pickup truck or a minivan to help wrangle these heavy lawn machines home and back to the rental center. Inquire whether your rental center offers delivery and pickup (at additional cost).
  • If your grass is thinned out, adopt a more aggressive plan for total lawn rejuvenation by following the steps shown in Photos 3 and 4.
  • If your lawn has excess thatch or you've laid new seed, use the spreader and apply decomposter mix to both accelerate the decay of thatch left in the turf and increase seed germination and rooting (Photo 5).
  • Complete any plan by watering your lawn with up to 1/2 in. of water for thin lawns and 1/4 in. for bare soil. Over-watering will wash away the seed and nutrients.

If you've never used an aerator or a power rake, practice on an isolated section of your yard. The first time I used a power core aerator, it nearly dragged me off the lawn and into the street. My uncle still enjoys recounting that story.

Figure A: Revitalize your lawn

How Compaction and Excess Thatch Ruin Your Lawn

The zone where grass meets soil is an amazing micro world of plant roots, bacteria, insects and complex chemical reactions. Healthy soil is soil that's loose enough to allow air, water and nutrients to pass into it to foster plant growth. Keep these concepts in mind:

Compacted soil strangles roots
The causes are many: In existing lawns, the top 1 to 1-1/2 in. of soil becomes compacted over time from foot traffic, riding lawn mowers, high clay content and rain. New lawns often have problems—beginning with home construction or remodeling—when topsoil is bulldozed, remixed with subsoil and over-compacted. Sod lawns that are hastily laid over unevenly graded lots look good enough for the contractors to get paid, but they can manifest problems after one or two growing seasons. In both cases, the eventual outcome is choked and starved grass roots.

Too much thatch chokes the lawn
Thatch is a tightly woven layer of partially decomposed grass roots and stems that can develop over several years in the zone between the crown of the grass and the soil surface. Contrary to myth, grass clippings don't contribute to thatch buildup, and power raking doesn't cure it. Thatch becomes a problem when it's thicker than 1/4 in. It's a sign that lawns have been over-watered at night, damaged by drought, over-fertilized with high nitrogen fertilizer or that the soil is too alkaline. Thatch occurs most often in new lawns when sod is installed over dips and voids in the regraded yard or in poor or improperly prepared soil and is then incorrectly watered. Break down excess thatch by using a rotary spreader loaded with thatch decomposter mix on the lawn (Photo 5).

You can reverse the damage
Revitalize compacted soils once a year. Run a power core aerator over the lawn to pull up plugs of dirt, creating voids in the subterranean soil to provide space for and stimulate new root growth (Figure A). The slashing action of the power rake's vertical tines slits the soil's surface where seed, nutrients and water can combine to regenerate the lawn.

America is serious about growing grass. Since the mid-'90s, the total acreage of lawns (homes, golf courses, businesses, etc.) has exceeded the amount of land used for agriculture. Soil types and grass varieties differ by climate and region. Learn more about your soils, grass varieties and recommended lawn care practices by talking with experts at garden centers or a county extension agent. For a more complete lawn assessment, take along two 4 x 4 x 4-in. lawn samples cut from the best and worst areas of your yard. The best time to aerate and reseed cool-season grasses (varieties like Kentucky bluegrass and perennial ryegrass) is four weeks before the trees lose their leaves in your area. The best time to rejuvenate warm-season grasses (varieties like zoysia grass, bermuda grass, tall fescue and St. Augustine) is late spring. If you follow this plan, you'll give your grass time to germinate, grow and recover from the aeration process before it goes dormant. You'll also be able to establish a fuller, thicker lawn to help keep next season's weed growth to a minimum.

Aerate for compacted soils

Photo 1: Set the depth

Make two passes across the lawn perpendicular to each other with a power core aerator so that the aeration holes are spaced 2 to 3 in. apart. Set the spoon penetration by turning the depth control knob to the deepest setting. For operation on hills and uneven terrain, load or remove one or both onboard weights to increase stability.

Photo 2: Test before you start

Run the aerator in the morning when the turf is cool and moist (but not soggy). You want the aerator's hollow spoons to easily penetrate 1-3/4 in. to 2-1/4 in. into the soil and pull out full-length dirt plugs. If a large, straight-slot screwdriver can't easily penetrate 3 to 4 in. into the soil, the soil is too dry. The day before aerating, water the soil till it passes the screwdriver test. Mow your lawn just before watering and aerating it.

Most lawns, whether seeded or sodded, are planted over a fairly skimpy layer of topsoil. Over time, lawn mowers, pets and pick-up football games compact the soil, making it difficult for air, water and vital nutrients to penetrate to the grass roots. Your challenge: to restore healthy soil conditions that nurture your lawn. To loosen and aerate the soil, rent a power core aerator (Photo 1). They're available at rental centers, plus some hardware stores and garden centers.

In our area, an aerator rents for about $20 per hour. This self-propelled lawn machine employs a row of evenly spaced, hollow, 3/4-in.-dia. spoons that penetrate the soil up to 3 in. deep. They pull out soil plugs, leaving a pattern of holes in the lawn that will readily absorb water, air and nutrients (Photo 1). Our rental power core aerator may differ from what you'll rent, but they all work basically the same. Ask your rental center to demonstrate the machine's controls and the procedures for turning and reversing, then follow these general guidelines:

  • To avoid damaging the aerator's spoons and scarring your sidewalks, driveways or steppingstones, run the machine across them with the rotating spoons in the raised position.
  • Flag and avoid lawn sprinkler heads or you'll risk busting them and springing a leak.
  • Don't use aerators on hillsides with a slope exceeding 35 degrees. For the safest hillside operation, go up and down hills rather than across them.
  • Maximize the perforation spacing in the lawn by following the aeration pattern shown in Photo 1.

Prepare for Seeding

Photo 3: Power rake later in the day

Prepare soil for reseeding using a power rake. Its solid tines (see close-up photo) slash through any thatch mat and score the surface of the soil. Power-rake only after aeration and in the afternoon, after the morning dew has dried—so the dead grass and roots lift out loosely without clumping. Make two opposing passes with the power rake, each 45 degrees across the pattern used by the power aerator. 

Close-up of power rake

Rotating tines pull up lawn thatch to the surface

Photo 4: Hand rake the thatch

Between passes with the power rake, always use a hand rake to loosen dead grass and lawn debris to ensure that new seed or fertilizer will contact the soil. If you reseed your lawn, make two passes with a rotary spreader. Each pass should contain half the recommended lawn seed for your square footage of lawn. Run it after each time you hand-rake in the same direction the power rake slit the soil so more seed can drop into the core holes and slits without being raked off.

Photo 5: Break down the thatch

Feed the soil and accelerate thatch breakdown with a rotary spreader loaded with thatch decomposter mix. We set our spreader at No. 15-16 to broadcast the decomposter mix at a rate to cover 2,000 sq. ft. of yard. If you've reseeded your lawn, apply decomposter mix and a 9-13-7 new lawn fertilizer that contains slow-release nitrogen. After reseeding, water the lawn twice on that first day, 1/4 in. each time. 

Often, older lawns that haven't been aerated and maintained have turf that's scraggly and thin. After power aerating the lawn, your first step to correct this problem is to rent a power rake—a gas-powered lawn machine that's roughly the size of a lawn mower but 1-1/2 times heavier (Photo 3). They're available at rental centers for about $15 an hour. The power rake is much less complex than a core aerator and easier to operate. Ours wasn't self-propelled; we pushed it around the yard. It should be operated at full throttle to maximize the power of the continuously spinning, solid, vertical tines (see Photo 3, inset) that pull dead grass and lawn debris up to the lawn surface, and leave a pattern of 1/4-in. deep slits in the soil surface. Used after the aerator, the power rake will prepare the soil to receive seed and/or fertilizer. Follow these tips for using a power rake:

  • Some power rakes (like ours) have fixed vertical tines for slitting the soil. These are better for penetrating any thatch and getting to the soil surface than loose, “flail-type” tines. Rent a power rake with depth controls that can be set the tines to cut 1/4 in. deep into the soil for seeding.
  • For lawns with smaller areas of bare spots or thinned areas around the perimeter that you can't efficiently power-rake, prepare the soil for seeding by using a flat-nosed shovel to chop slits in the soil 1/4 in. deep. After seeding, use the knuckles on the back of a fan-type rake to “scuff” the seed into the soil.
  • Power rakes work best on lawns with even terrain. On bumpy lawns, a power rake will scalp the high spots and ride over dips in the lawn without cutting the soil.

For a quote please contact (306) 2915303 or email Sara@trustedcanada.com - reference Trusted Regina landscaper

 

The Trusted Regina ,com directory talk to the experts TRUSTED Show- who are we and what do we do?

www.trustedregina.com celebrated it's 1 year anniversary on April 15th 2013 ..the directory has had over 45,000 visitors ( most from Regina - 81% from Saskatchewan ), yet we get questions on a weekly basis from the public and businesses who are unsure what we actually do and what being Trusted means !  

The Trusted Regina Directory team of www.trustedregina.com want to make sure that the public knows exactly who we are , what we stand for ( and against ) and how we do what we do , so we asked our wonderful Facebook and Twitter fans to submit questions about Trusted to us , so we could answer them..50 questions later we knew we had a great show ( and that we had done the right thing to ask!!).

Sean Dean and the team then chose 5 lucky winners from these questions to thank them for their great questions, see the list of prizes and winners below!

 

Enjoy the Trusted Show!!

 

 

 1. $100 Just For You Day Spa Gift Certificate - Shonte Hill      

2. $100 Trusted Regina Gift Certificate - Cindy Verbeek

3. $100 Trusted Regina Gift Certificate- Greg Rintoul

4. $100 Trusted Regina Gift Certificate- Anita Robinson

5. $100 Trusted Regina Gift Certificate-Bridget Veiszer     

 

If you are a lucky winner please email sara@trustedcanada.com for the full details and to claim your prize!

 

Trusted Regina Landscape Expert share a tip on growing Fruits and Vegetables

 

Find Trusted Regina Landscape and lawn professionals HERE

TRUSTED REGINA Landscape & Yard EXPERT 

Interesting article on  growing fruits and vegetables:

For Fruits and Vegetables, agriculture is important in Saskatchewan, but most of what is grown is grains, legumes, and seeds (for oil). The growing season is relatively short, but many farmers use hoop houses, greenhouses, and other methods of extending harvest time, so you may well find local cucumbers in November and other oddities. In any case, winter storage and root vegetables can keep you in local produce all winter long. Availability will, of course, vary based on your location within the large province as well as the specific conditions each season.

 

The growing seasons listed below are based on likely availability in the southern part of the province, including Regina and Saskatoon.

APPLES, July through October

ASPARAGUS, May and June

BASIL, July through September

BEETS, July through March

BLACKBERRIES, July and August

BLUEBERRIES, July and August

BROCCOLI, June into October

BRUSSELS SPROUTS, September through November

CABBAGE, July through March

CARROTS, July through March

CAULIFLOWER, July through September

CELERY, August and September

CHERRIES, July

CORN, July into September

CUCUMBERS, July into September

EGGPLANT, July through September

GREENS, June through October

LETTUCE, June through September

ONIONS, June through September

PEARS, August into October

PEAS, June through September

PEPPERS, July into September

POTATOES, June into October

PUMPKINS, August into November

RADISHES, June through August

RASPBERRIES, July into September

RHUBARB, June into August

SASKATOON BERRIES, July and August

SCALLIONS, August through March

SPINACH, July and August

STRAWBERRIES, June into September

TOMATOES, June into September

TURNIPS, August through March

WINTER SQUASH, August through February

ZUCCHINI, July through September

Information provide by: The Spruce Eats 

Saskatchewan Fruits and Vegetables

What's In Season In Saskatchewan?

By Molly Watson  Updated 10/21/17

www.thespruceeats.com/saskatchewan-fruits-and-vegetables-2215537

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