Nutley NJ Pest Control Wildlife Services Call Today (973) 388-9126
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fp8Xoyah2pw Nutley NJ Pest Control Wildlife Services Call Today (973) 388-9126 We provide our coustomers with nothing less than a 5 Star Service. Our motto...
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Nutley NJ Pest Control & Wildlife Services Call Today (973) 388-9126 - Video
Diatomacious Earth
I write about Diatomaceous earth in this earlier blog: http://micahgallant.com/2014/06/08/amazing-diatomaceous-earth Its an amazing natural pest control substance, edible, biodegradable, of...
By: Micah Gallant
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Diatomacious Earth - Video
Portofino Lighting
Portofino Lighting , , ,Outdoor Lighting Portofino Products | Capitol Lighting 1 ... http://www.1800lighting.com/Outdoor-Lighting/Portofino/mn/N-a5Z1z13xmm Shop for...
By: sai kumar Dhulipudi
The Christchurch City Council is banning lighting of outdoor fires across all areas of the city from this weekend.
"A restricted fire season has been in place for rural parts of the city and Banks Peninsula since December 21 but, given the ongoing dry conditions, there will be a total ban introduced from the weekend," says Murray Sinclair, Christchurch City Councils Manager Civil Defence and Emergency Management.
The ban comes into effect from midnight on Saturday 10 January 2015.
Outdoor fires are already banned in urban areas of the city.
People can use gas barbecues as long as they are careful and have access to a reliable water supply, Mr Sinclair says.
"The ban applies to lighting of fires and using charcoal barbecues and other devices that use solid fuel," Mr Sinclair says.
"One of the biggest risks is from sparks, so we ask people to take extra care when mowing lawns. In the heat of the day, it doesnt take much for a spark from a mower hitting a stone to turn into a significant fire. Because of the dry conditions, people should do their mowing early in the day when there is still moisture from any dew, or on overcast days."
The fire bans will remain in place until further notice.
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Chch Council extends city fire ban
Picture: Eco Outdoor
Stylish, comfy and inviting outdoor furniture is a must to help you take full advantage of the warmer weather. Here, four experts share their top tips for choosing alfresco furnishings, and the hot trends to update your outdoor living space this season.
Freedom Ms Lambkin said the trend for outdoor spaces that flow on seamlessly from inside the house was stronger than ever.
"The veranda or patio is becoming an extra room in the house and customers are looking to take the design elements from the indoor dining and living, outdoors," she said. "Australians spend so much time outdoors, so this is key space for entertaining and enjoying the seemingly endless summer."
Ms Lambkin said outdoor sofas were increasingly popular, part of a shift towards more casual alfresco entertaining.
When it came to trends, timber was ever-popular. "Timber furniture is always timeless, so for this season we have combined the beauty of teak with a cast aluminium frame to create the simple but elegant Adelphi dining setting," she said.
"The trends are for functional but beautiful pieces that create the perfect background for easy outdoor living."
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Eco Outdoor According to Osborne Park alfresco furniture specialists Eco Outdoor, oversized pieces are a key trend, particularly luxurious oversized sofas.
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Summer loving
BLOWING ROCK, NC (WBTV) -
Bright sunshine did little to change the feel of winter across the mountains and foothills on Thursday.
"At 8:30 this morning is was minus three degrees," said Billie Rogers of the local Chamber of Commerce in Blowing Rock. "It's lovely," she said as she walked down the sidewalk, all bundled up.
Cold temperatures like this are expected from time to time in the mountains, and are even welcome with the Martin Luther King holiday coming up in just over a week.
Area ski resorts are using the cold temperatures to make as much snow as they can to be ready for the expected crowds.
Off the mountain, temperatures were in the single digits overnight. In Morganton, Brian Searcy at CBS Sports, a clothing and sports equipment store, turned a snow gun on on the front lawn of his business.
"We think we can make snow for the next 48 hours," he said Thursday morning. The store will be having a big sale on winter merchandise this weekend, and hopes to have enough snow for customers to try out some snowboards, and as an area for kids to play.
"This is just perfect weather for it," he said.
With another night of extreme cold, authorities are urging any travelers to be extra careful and be sure to have supplies with them in case they are stuck. They are also urged to have a fully-charged, working cell phone.
Rogers says the weather in Blowing Rock could always be worse. "In Minnesota it was minus 57 last night."
1/8/2015 - South Side Leader
Deer damage to ornamental plants is an increasing problem. Deer populations in neighborhoods have grown rapidly due to abandoned farms, hunting restrictions and suburban sprawl. And they are dining on expensive suburban landscapes especially in areas with heavy snowfall in the woods. In those areas, front and backyard plantings can serve as easy winter forage.
Deer are selective feeders that eat leaves from flowers, shrubs and ornamental trees, said Tchukki Andersen, BCMA, CTSP and a staff arborist with the Tree Care Industry Association. Damage to larger trees can extend up to 7 feet off the ground.
In some areas, deer damage peaks in winter when snow cover reduces the food supply. Most areas with overpopulated deer herds experience problems year-round. The availability of natural food sources and the taste preferences of individual deer make deer-proofing a landscape difficult task in many areas.
Deer will eat almost any plant rather than starve, so damage-control measures will be needed in addition to careful plant selection, said Andersen. Use of fencing and repellents can help control deer damage to landscapes.
A fence is the most effective control against deer damage. An 8-foot fence is generally sufficient to deter deer, and lower fences can work if they slant away from the yard. Tree protectors or shelters also prevent deer from browsing on young trees. Made of polypropylene tubing, plastic tree wrap or woven-wire mesh cylinders, netting can be used to protect individual or group plantings. The netting can be left on year-round if its attached loosely at the base to allow for plant growth, but should be monitored frequently.
Repellents may help deter deer, but they do not eliminate damage completely. Homemade repellents include rotting eggs (mix two eggs with 1 gallon of water and spray the mixture on ornamentals). The eggs rot on the plants and the smell repels deer. Human hair hung in mesh bags makes a simple repellent. Hang the hair bags on the outer branches of trees about a yard apart and replace them monthly. Bars of strong-smelling soap hung in the same way also will work. This is a good way to make use of all those aromatic Christmas gift soaps you dont plan to use. Repellents containing predator urine or spray-on, soap-based mixtures usually only last a few weeks, depending on the weather.
Once deer taste your garden, it is difficult to get rid of them. Replacing the current mix of trees and shrubs with less appealing plants will help move the herd to other sites.
The Tree Care Industry Association recommends planting trees that have a history of surviving areas of heavy deer activity, such as:
Check with local garden centers or tree care companies for more on trees and shrubs that are the least appealing to deer.
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Keeping landscape deer-free
By Audrey Hoffer January 9 at 7:30 AM
In a 50-acre hilly enclave shrouded in trees, 10 minutes from the Capital Beltway in Potomac, Md., are 159 houses built more than four decades ago.
Potowmack Preserve is a contemporary place with an antique name, said Raj Barr, president of the homeowners association, who has lived there for 20 years.
The houses were built during the period when landscape architect Ian McHarg wrote Design With Nature, the landmark 1969 book about planning in a natural environment.
In 1970, developer Croyder-Irvin and designers Cimbco Ltd. and Cohen, Haft & Associates fashioned this community of houses taking advantage of the natural setting in southeastern Montgomery County. They protected the woodlands as green buffer zones and placed the houses into the folds of the topography.
Forty-four years ago someone said green is good and built these houses into the texture of the land, keeping the trees so that today the poplars, oaks, sycamores and white pines are 60 to 70 years old, Barr said. It was quite prescient of them to say, Yes, were going to protect the land, save the trees.
Houses were literally built into each lot. The developer didnt bulldoze the site to make it easier to build, said Rande Joiner, another longtime resident who lives with husband Robert Honig, mother Gloria Weissman, border collies Jedi and Skye, and cats Lyra Peabody and Mr. Frodo.
We looked at lots in Potomac 25 years ago and considered building an Acorn or Deck house. We stumbled into Potowmack Preserve, and the rest is history. Weve been here since 1989, she said.
In harmony with wildlife: Sonjae Whang moved there last year with his wife and daughters, now 3 and 5 years old. They were in a townhouse and were looking for a single-family house with a decent-sized yard in a quiet neighborhood with good schools, said Whang, treasurer of the homeowners association. We like living here. Its close enough to D.C. yet feels far enough away.
Community-owned green space is plentiful around the houses, and Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission land borders two sides. Woods surround quarter-acre lots. Theres a sense of harmony and coherence, said Barr.
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Where We Live: Potowmack Preserve has been developed with nature in mind
Updated JAN 09, 2015 10:45a ET
FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA.
Scores of professional hopefuls leave their homes during January break and wind their way toward a cricket pitch in south Florida. The ritualistic importation provides them with one last chance to make their impressions before the MLS SuperDraft. Many of them will soon realize the difficulty of the task ahead.
MLS once relied exclusively on the college system to produce young players capable of contributing at the first-team level. It made sense for a league on tenuous financial footing to lean on others to bear the cost of developing players. It required minimal investment and reaped considerable benefits. The gambit proved successful enough with dozens of players climbing through the ranks and entrenching themselves as valued performers.
Those pathways still exist, but the emergence of academy programs over the past few years altered the calculus substantially. The process of identifying potential professionals shifted to teenagers willing to apply themselves in dedicated settings and learn their trade under the guidance of MLS academy coaches. The emergence of more traditional development models allowed teams to pluck promising prospects out of their academies and sign them to the first team before or during the college years. The resources expended and the structures implemented encouraged teams to lean on themselves to stock their own squads over the long haul.
By investing significantly in academy systems across the league and spiriting away top players before they graduated college, MLS squeezed the potential opportunities afforded to players later in their growth curve. Homegrown players occupied spaces once allotted to college standouts. The subsequent left an increasingly stripped pool of players trying to fight their way through the crowd to secure a contract with resources increasingly devoted toward cultivating academy players.
The altered reality is reflected in the shrinking Generation adidas classes. MLS once used the program to import a crop of talented prospects prior to the emergence of academy setups, but it is now wielded as a more precise tool to usher a handful of players into the professional ranks.
MLS limited the class to just seven players in each of the past two years and sliced the contingent to five this year. The smallest group in the history of the program includes the highly touted UConn forward Cyle Larin and Washington midfielder Cristian Roldan, but it also reflects the inability to entice other top prospects like Georgetown defender Joshua Yaro to leave schools for the contracts offered.
The tempered approach to spending on SuperDraft-eligible players and the uncertain labor landscape also affected the ability to tempt some of the primary senior targets. St. Louis forward Robbie Kristo opted to sign in Serie B. UCLA midfielder Leo Stolz is expected to pursue a European move, too. The defections left MLS to unveil an eight-player senior signing class without a first-team NSCAA All-America in its ranks, though the class does possess potential contributors like Notre Dame defender Nick Besler and Oregon State forward Khiry Shelton.
Several of their colleagues hope to earn their way toward a similar status with their performances this weekend. MLS teams evaluate players during the college season and reach out to contacts to gather further information, but they also rely on the Player Combine to interview potential picks off the field and take one last glimpse at them before compiling their SuperDraft boards.
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MLS Player Combine reflects changing landscape within domestic player development
Farming on the slopes has sparked fears of a potential catastrophe.
GEORGE TOWN: The Penang Hill may soon lose its appeal no thanks to unmonitored cultivation that is chipping away its green landscape.
The hill is one of Penangs tourist destinations but bald patches are visible from kilometres away, due to farming activities, which spark fears of a potential catastrophe reminiscent of the recent Cameron Highlands tragedy.
Penang Island Municipal Council (MPPP) engineering director Addnan Mohd Razali said the MPPP had received reports on farming carried out by the landowners.
He said under Section 70 of the Street, Drainage and Building Act 1974 (Act 133), the council does not have the liberty to prosecute landowners.
However, the MPPP had discussed with the district officer on the relevant laws to prevent the landowners from continuing with their activities, he said.
We are currently monitoring the situation to see what kind of action can be taken to curtail the activities, he told Bernama when contacted here today.
Some non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have been calling for the state government to address the matter before the hill turned into another destructive Cameron Highlands, in which illegal farming was blamed for the unnecessary loss of lives and property.
A check by Bernama found bald patches on both sides of the Penang Hill railway line and could be seen from as far as the Jalan Air Itam roundabout, 2km away.
On another land-clearing activity near Jalan Rajawali in Bayan Lepas, Addnan said he was not aware and would refer it to the MPPP to investigate.
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Penang Hill losing lure due to farming activities