Landscaping Tips
Here you will find some helpful tips and tricks about gardening, fencing and landscaping. These tips are here to help you better understand your yard and what you can do to prevent damage and also how you can better maintain the look of your lawn and fence.
Foundation Tips
Knight Lawn and Fence
Why lack of water causes foundation problems
Foundations are designed to have continuous support from the soil. In the heat of summer the soil shrinks and moisture evaporates, causing the soil to pull away from the footing, which allows the footing to drop or rotate — depending on how the footing is loaded. In some instances, foundations can both drop and rotate.
The areas of a structure to move first are typically the southeast and southwest corners. The corners are the heaviest areas of the structure, therefore they are the most likely areas to settle. The south wall has more wind and sun, causing the soil to dry out more quickly.
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How watering your foundation helps
Now, for some good news. There are things that can be done to prevent or minimize foundation damage. During extended periods of excessive heat, watering the foundation helps. The amount of watering is determined by the severity of the drought.
Watering Tips
Knight Lawn and Fence
As you probably know, the best time to water your grass is early in the morning, between the hours of 4 and 10 am. Why is the early morning the best time for watering, you ask? Early morning watering is best because of two main factors: wind and temperature.
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TEMPERATURE
Less sun in the mornings means lower temperatures. Lower temperatures mean less evaporation. Less evaporation means more water gets absorbed by soil. More absorption means healthier grass.
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WIND
There is generally less wind in the early morning. You may be wondering how this affects your grass watering efforts? When there is less wind, water droplets are less likely to be blown away far from your thirsty grass.
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THE WORST TIME FOR WATERING?
The absolute worst time to water is in the middle of the day, when temperatures are at their peak and water evaporates too quickly. Therefore, many people have the misconception that watering in the evening is just as good as watering early in the morning. However, this is simply not true. Watering at night, while wind and temperatures are lower, does not provide the same benefits to your grass. Instead, watering in the evening gives wet blades of grass the entire night to develop lawn diseases and fungus.
Fence Tips
Knight Lawn and Fence
Painting the fence is an annual ritual in most homes. Even if a wooden fence is chemically treated to endure the elements (and most wooden fences are), the treatment at the factory will only last so long, and do so much. Which is why if you want to keep your fence looking good, and keep the wood safe from the ravages of time, you need to keep it painted, or stained.
Always check the instructions on your paint, or stain, and pay special attention to both how many coats you should use, and how long the treatment is meant to last. Even an inexpensive treatment will last for a year, but beyond that mileage may vary. Additionally, if you're using stain, make sure you use the same kind when you apply new treatments. Differing stains can interact, giving your fence a strange, patchy look if you're not careful.
Termite and Wood Rot Prevention is Key
Wood, as we all know, is the favored food of termites. And while you can keep most of your fence off the insect buffet just by ensuring the wood isn't sunk into the ground, that isn't an option with your fence posts. If you have moist earth, that is going to take a toll on the wood.
The fence posts, just like the rest of the fence, are treated with pressure and chemicals by the manufacturer to resist rot and the incursions of insects. However, with time and exposure, that layer of defense becomes less and less potent. Which is why it pays to invest in prevention so you don't have to uproot your fence posts every few years to give them a new treatment, or replace them because they've begun to rot away.
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