How to Keep Your Winter Yard Safer for Everyone!
December 30, 2015 by
Filed under Blog
It seems like the weather just keeps getting more unpredictable. It can be sunny one day, raining the next, then there’s a tornado warning for Fresno the day after that!Below-freezing temperatures can show up suddenly and even surprise the weather bureau. The trouble is, that means dangerous ice can appear on your walk or driveway, and your garden can suffer too if it’s not ready for it.
I Like My Ice with SprinklesFirst, let’s think ahead and prevent problems so they never happen. Water leaks and drippy gutters can create a dangerous skating rink situation. Make sure your gutters are cleaned out and working properly, and that all that runoff water has somewhere to go besides your walkways. If you do have an ice problem, have coarse sand ready to sprinkle on it for better traction. You can also use rock salt, which will melt the ice, but too much can damage your cement and put a lot of salt into the soil nearby. A good solution is to keep a mixture of dry sand and rock salt together in a bucket in your garage, then use a scoop to sprinkle it around on trouble spots.
That First Step is a Doozy
A lot of people are using ladders right now to take down holiday lights, trim broken branches, and so on. The steps or rungs on ladders can be icy when other things aren’t because they’re off the ground where it’s colder, so be extra careful. Even if they’re just wet, metal ladder steps can be slippery under wet boots if they only have those horizontal tread lines. When buying a new ladder, look for one that has diamond-shaped treads so that your foot doesn’t slip sideways when doing work outside in wet weather.
The Plants Were Tucked All Snug in Their Beds
Don’t forget about plant safety! As the very cold temperatures settle in for the next couple of months, make sure your plants are protected from bad cold snaps. Pile mulch up around the bases of tender shrubs and perennials to keep the roots warmer — you may lose the top, but the plant should regrow from the bottom just fine in the spring.
While Visions of Birdseed Danced in Their HeadsWinter safety is for your backyard birds and animals too. When temps drop below freezing, take the hummingbird feeders in at night so that the water doesn’t freeze inside them. For songbirds and squirrels, make sure your seed feeders are full, and use some hot water to refill and melt ice in bird baths so they can get a safe, clean drink instead of drinking from dirty puddles that can contain motor oil or road salt.
Don’t Break the Ice!
If you have an outdoor fish pond and it gets iced over, do not break up the ice with a hammer, because the impact shockwaves can harm your fish. In our climate, a pond should only have ice on it for a few days at a time, and unless the pond is very small or has too many fish in it, it will be just fine with the fish asleep at the bottom. If your pond is in constant shade or you just don’t want to worry about your fish during cold nights, a pond waterfall will keep the water moving, which helps prevent the surface from icing over, or you can get a floating pond de-icer, which doesn’t cost much.
A little prevention is worth a pound of cure, especially when it means that you, your garden, and all the little animals you enjoy are safer and happier when it gets really cold out. If you need help cleaning out your gutters, or fixing those pesky water leaks that can lead to dangerous ice, or adding a waterfall to your fish pond, call The Fix-It Professionals today to schedule an appointment!
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Outdoor Lighting and Yard Safety for Winter
December 10, 2015 by
Filed under Blog
This is the time of year when it gets dark earlier and earlier, and many people get home from work long after the sun has gone down. It’s easy to forget about this during the summer, but automatic lighting is a real life-saver in the winter.
There are lots of different kinds of automatic outdoor lights, from big security floodlights to decorative ground lights that light your walkway. You can choose from solar-powered units that use a storage battery, or the type that are wired into your house’s electrical system.I’m Beginning to See the Light
Some lights are turned on by detecting how dark it is, and some are motion-detecting lights that turn on when a sensor detects movement nearby. Motion detectors take a bit of fussing with to get them set just right, so that they go on when a person walks by, but they don’t turn off and on all night long if there’s a raccoon playing in your yard. When picking out a light, make sure it says that the motion sensitivity can be adjusted.
Automatic lights are great for security, or if you have a lot of trouble with ice or obstacles in your path, or if you have your hands full when going to and from your car, or for the elderly who may need extra help finding their way in the dark. They have lots of uses!
Water Hazard
Speaking of obstacles, now is the time to roll up the garden hoses if you haven’t done it already. They can be a real hazard if they’re laying across where you might walk. They can be tripped over, or can send your foot zipping sideways if they’re wet. That could mean a nasty fall. Leaving your hoses out all winter is really bad for them, too.
Disconnect your garden hoses from the faucets and let them drain. This prevents them from getting cracked if the water inside them freezes. Coil them up and keep them in a decorative clay hose pot or, even better, hang them up inside your garage to keep them out of the sun. Hoses take a lot of abuse when left laying around (and they can be dangerous!). They will last much longer if you store them away for the winter.Pop Goes the Sprinkler
If you have an automatic lawn sprinkler system, this is a good time to winterize that as well. Drain the system (if it has this feature), shut off the timer, and check to make sure all the pop-up heads are back down where they belong. Like hoses, sprinkler heads can be a real tripping hazard, especially when the grass gets long enough to cover them up a bit. Then they turn into a hazard for your lawnmower, so it’s always a good idea to check that they’re not sticking up when the system isn’t in use.
Do you need help getting your sprinkler heads to behave? Is there a dark area around your house that could use some brightening up? Let there be light! The Fix-It Professionals have got you covered. Give us a call today, and consider hiring us on retainer to stay on top of all those winterizing tasks.
