As we near the end of summer and thoughts of getting our children back to school and making those last minute end of season trips abound, we also need to spend time on our lawns and making sure that it is prepped for the coming fall. Homeowners in today’s green-conscious world have quickly turned more and more to the most efficient lawn care methods that will translate into savings for our wallets. Beyond saving money is water conservation, which affects both us and the environment we live in.In this article, we will focus on irrigation and mulch, two areas of lawn care that should be considered for all homeowners with the desire to conserve and decrease water consumption and a cost-efficient way to cultivate the lawn and landscape.IrrigationLawn sprinklers and irrigation systems are known to be quite wasteful, consuming two or three times more water than the water used indoors. Experts report that much of the water applied to a lawn is lost due to poor application practices, high evaporation, uneven distribution, and excessive runoff. To combat these lawn ails, an efficient irrigation (or sprinkler) system and watering schedule is necessary.Irrigation TechniquesTo make the best use of irrigation, divide your plants up into groups or zones with the same watering needs. Lawns, plants in containers, vegetable beds and fruit orchards may need more water than other plants such as trees, shrubs, perennials, and bulbs. Your irrigation system should reflect your different plants’ watering requirements and only fulfill what is absolutely necessary to maintain your greenery. Be sure to understand your watering zones and check that these systems are not giving too much or too little water to the plants or lawn area.An efficient watering system such as drip or soaker hoses can be used to minimize water loss through evaporation or runoff. Lawn experts further recommend that, for reducing evaporation, operate your irrigation system during the cooler hours of the early morning rather than during the heat of the day or in windy weather.Turf would be best irrigated with sprinklers, since infrequent, but deep watering can encourage deeper root growth and greater tolerance of soil moisture fluctuations. Keep in mind that about 1.5 inches of water are needed per week for the summer. If you are not sure how much water your system is delivering to your plants, simply place a bowl or a cup in the area before the sprinkler system comes on then remove it when the system cuts off. Then all you have to do is measure the collected water. If this amount is more or less than the recommended amount, adjust your system accordingly.Maintain Your SystemIt is important to not only make sure sure your irrigation is working efficiently to get your plants and lawn the water they need, but also crucial to check up on your irrigation system to be certain that it’s functioning correctly. This includes checking the system for leaks, broken heads, faulty valves, and other malfunctions. You may also want to check that water isn’t being misdirected onto sidewalks, driveways, or streets.MulchMulch can act as both a protection for your plants from the heat as well as an agent to trap and retain moisture. With water conservation a big issue for homeowners, mulch is more important than ever as a way to efficiently keep your plants healthy and protect from harsh conditions. Mulching helps to maintain a more consistent soil temperature and can also control weeds that may otherwise consume water meant for garden plants.While you may not be able to control your water consumption all the time, you can definitely make an impact on both your water bill and your local community by following lawn care methods that are focused around water conservation and efficient cultivation methods.
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Starting a Home Based Business? 5 Steps to Follow
Starting a home based business on the Internet has never been easier. With the current state of our economy it’s one of the best decisions that anyone can do to dramatically change his/her life. It has been statistically proven that for the first time in internet history, millions of people seeking their way out in this industry every day and the numbers are continuously growing.People come to the internet looking for answers to money problems, home loan problems, real estate problems, and looking for employment. All these searches performed on Google or any other search engine mean potential customers for individuals who already run their online business.If you have a solution to the searchers problems, there is tremendous potential in creating online wealth.The internet has millions of searchers each day and that information will equate to a six billion dollar e-commerce revenue projected for 2011. Internet revenue is expected to continually grow exponentially every year through 2015. Conservative analysis now estimates global Internet sales at 10 billion dollars in 2016.Since we are just slowly recovering from the recession that hit millions of people, many entrepreneurial minded people are beginning to consider starting home based business as a good idea. And they are right but only if they will do their research and due diligence.Many who will just jump blindly on any internet advertisement that says “Best Home Based Business Opportunity” will fail miserably. Unfortunately there is nothing like Get Rich Quick Scheme or a Push of a Button Scheme that would bring money flying out of your computer. You are better off buying a lottery and hoping for a good luck or miracle to happen..The online success will not happen overnight. It takes commitment and hard work to build a successful home based business. Only with everyday devotion the success will be built gradually. By starting home based business you have to give up two things at the beginning, time and money. The reality is that those who will invest their time and money at the beginning will see the results ten times down the road.Learning Internet Marketing is the best future investment that you can make right now.Here are 5 simple steps to follow on how to start home based business that can put you well on your way to building an online business this year.1. Starting Home Based Business – Think about a type of product or service that you would like to promote and sell. Make sure to do extensive research if that particular product is what others are searching for. Find a way to promote and sell it to them.2. Creating a Home Office – Create a place where you can close the door and fully concentrate without any interruptions. Make sure you talk to other family members not to interrupt once the door is closed. Allocate specific time blocks when you going to work on your business. Time management is the biggest downfall of many home based business entrepreneurs.3. Invest in training and education – Spend at least 60 minutes a day learning new internet marketing skills for the next 6 months and your business results will be ten times bigger than without the proper training. You can set up your own schedule and save tons of money if you study at home instead of spending 4 years in college.4. Leading Home Based Business Corporations – Many of the leading home based business companies promote multi level marketing programs where you tell one friend and that friend tells another friend and so on earning small commissions that build from one friend to another. Or you can tap into Network Marketing companies that offer higher end education products or lifestyle related conferences. These are great long term residual income producers that can create huge incomes for those savvy enough to market their product.5. Top Legitimate Home Based Business – Once you have found the top legitimate home based business for you, you’ll need to start marketing that business online. By becoming a member of a legitimate MLM or Network Marketing company, you will be provided with all the necessary tools and resources, you need to be successful online. There is usually a “Back Office” with these programs that will guide you through the sales procedures. Many of these companies will even supply you with your own website. Your job is to market their products online. You simply drive traffic to it through different social websites such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Google Groups, and hundreds of other sites that you join to discuss your products and services. I will also recommend to market with Google AdWords, Video Marketing and Blogging.Starting home based business can be very easy if you have the right mindset, tools, resources, training, and system that you can follow and carbon copy.
Are You Seeking Information About How To Make Money Online? Then Check Out These Great Tips!
You can make money online if you’re able to learn a few things about it first. You may be someone that needs a job, or you could just be looking to supplement your income. Whatever the case may be, you should take your time to go through all of this.Affiliate marketing is one of the best ways that you can make money online in your spare time. This type of marketing means that you will sell other people’s stuff and get paid a commission when you do. There are all types of items that you can sell depending on your style.Get paid to review some of the new products that are out on the market today. This is a great way for companies to determine if their new products are a hit or miss as they will pay good money to get an opinion on them. Get the word out on these products and pull in the cash.Do you love to write? Are you finding it difficult to locate an outlet for your creativity? Try blogging. It can help you get your thoughts and ideas out, while also earning you a little money. However, to do well, make sure you blog about something you are both interested in and that you know a little about. That will draw others to your work. Once you have followers, you can bring in advertisers or start writing paid reviews.One great way to make money online is to write. If you have the talent and ability to write well with few or no grammatical and spelling errors, many people will want your services. Writing jobs can be anything from rewriting badly written information to write all-new, original information and more. You can also make money by writing your own content for a blog or article directory by making good use of keywords and opening an account with Google AdSense.Remember to create a budget before you start to work online. You need to know what your overhead will be, be it the cost of your computer and internet connection if your work will be completely totally virtually, or any supplies you need if your plan is to sell items online.Try to flip names for domains. Lots of folks generate income by using domain names. It the same concept as buying real estate but what you are buying is a web address with a great name. Look for trending keywords on Google AdSense. Buy some acronym-based domains. Predicting popular domain names of the future can be quite profitable. Give it a try!Do not use your own money to front your online ventures. There are many dishonest companies online who will ask you to pay a certain fee to work for them. Such firms will probably just rip you off. Stay away from such companies.Check out online forums dedicated to helping you find legitimate online work opportunities. There are many geared towards niches which you can find people just like you on, such as work at home mom forums. Once you join the community, you’ll be geared towards making lots of money online!Don’t be afraid to make contact with real people, just because you’re looking for money making opportunities online. While most sites are self-explanatory and can be operated with little to no assistance, you can find out more about legitimacy by conducting conversations with site owners or other employees. If you don’t hear back anything, that could be a red flag!Working online is likely not to make you a millionaire overnight. Even Perez Hilton or Ariana Huffington had to work hard to get their sites to be popular. The same goes for you, whether you are writing SEO articles or designing websites. Don’t let frustration cause you to quit if you don’t strike it rich quickly.Don’t buy into anything that tells you that you can make a whole bunch of money if you pay into a system. A lot of these things that promise you a fortune were put together by someone to get your money and not help you at all. Use common sense and you should do fine if this comes up.If you have a knack for writing, there are various internet portals that offer work for writers of all levels. Sites like iWriter and Write.com allow you to write for various sources who need well-written content. Make your writing skill work for you and you can generate much needed income.Start making money online by taking surveys. A number of websites let you take surveys for small amounts of payment. It’s practically impossible to make a living doing this, but it can generate enough money to reinvest into more profitable online money making endeavors. This means you can start making money online with only an investment of your time and not any financial capital.Make extra money on the side with email marketing. This is a great way to promote a company and use the subscribers that you have to your advantage. You will simply send a message or advertise a product to your large pool of subscribers and get paid money to do so.Joining survey sites is a great way to get your opinion heard and earn some extra income. Meanwhile, you probably won’t be able to pay off all of your bills or buy a new car, you can certainly use the extra money. Many reputable sites will often pre-screen you for surveys and email you new ones when applicable.Do you have expertise in a certain field? You could start a blog and share your knowledge in the posts, making money off affiliate links or ads. You could create how-to videos and make money off the ads on YouTube. You could sell your skills online as a consultant, too!Now it’s probably clear to you that you can work online and make money if you’re able to follow the guidelines you just read. It’s something you’re going to have to take your time on, but in the end, things should go well for you. Hopefully, you are able to make some money now!