Best Lawn Sprinkler System

The best part is that this project helps drain annoying puddles and speeds up the arrival of dry ground. What could be better than that? Fortunately, there are a few things you can do to wage war against the mud, and one of the simplest is to dig drainage...

These delivery systems work by shooting a fine mist of insecticide into the air every 15 minutes. Various suppliers sell fly predators, but because several species are available, it's important to buy those that are effective in your region.

This doesn't mean that season-extension facilities, such as cold frames or hoop houses, cannot be used, but it means that artificial inputs are kept to a minimum. Trees and shrubs can be selected for potential lumber harvest, animal habitat or to attract...

Harvesting trees, which are often taller and heavier than the farmer, pose different workplace hazards than, say, bending over to harvest beans or zucchini. You'll have to figure your time to harvest based on your climate and the tree variety you plant.

Your first step is to decide whether a formal co-op with all its legal paperwork, financing and contracts will be necessary for your purposes, or if a less formal agreement or arrangement would work.

The University of Missouri Extension says: “Cover crops are often helpful on poorly drained fields when you are trying to plant early. Also, decomposition of crop residues is slower in clay, which means building up soil structure through introduction...

Hay is highly flammable, so you don't want it overhead if your main barn catches fire. Twine should be snug and spaced 6 to 10 inches apart. However, you'll need a tractor with a loader spike to move them.

The possibilities are as abundant as your curiosity and interests: collecting plants and other materials to craft into beautiful objects or delicious foods or developing formal long-range plans that can contribute to your farm's income, for example.

In short, if you raise hogs, at some point you're probably going remedy a pasture that's been beyond natural repair . Applying hog rings to the animals' noses can help subdue rooting behaviors, but many farmers eschew this tool: Nose rings are challenging...

“This was an emergency situation and we had to act to fast,” he says. There are different categories: tropical, warm, cool and cold water and climate dictates the species it's appropriate and possible to raise.Cold snaps and hot spells can have a...

Tags hobby farm Then pick up the November/December 2011 issue of Hobby Farms for more complete information on starting an aquaculture operation with catfish or prawns. If done the right way, freshwater fish farming can be a great value-added opportunity...

Rodney Wilson On our farm, we do a bit of all three: We hand-mix an all-natural ration, run pigs in our limited pastures and let herds roam the farm's 12 wooded acres looking for fruits, nuts, bugs, snakes … the forest floor is a buffet for a foraging...

Seed your corn as soon as the soil is warm enough. That way, we are taking advantage of all the space something as thin as a leek leaves unused. We like to sow a thick band down the middle of our leeks to produce one or two good cuttings before the leeks...

Each plot can benefit from cover cropping in between your planned food crops. Each year, Parson moves the plans for each plot up one space. What was growing in Plot 3 in 2014 will grow in Plot 2 in 2015, and so on.

Preparation 503 is created by stuffing chamomile blossoms into the small intestine of a cow, buried in autumn for use in the spring to aid in compost fermentation. There is no NFL salary here, no fame, no glory; just a lot of hard work.

Once you have a sacrifice area constructed and you establish a plan for using it during very wet or very dry seasons, you should see positive changes to your pastures and forage health.

“One thing we noticed early on is that when timber prices are high, the prices for cattle are low,” Owens says. Pat, an accountant by trade, insisted that unless the farm could pay for itself, they would have to sell off parcels of land.

And judging from past growth, the future of organic foods looks bright: Since 1997, organic food sales have shown annual growth rates of around 15 to 21 percent. “Cascadia Farms said they could use our berries for their organic jam if they were certified...

Allow poultry to range the area, too, to break up manure clumps and dine on the parasites contained inside. If you're weighing the necessity of a manure-management plan for a farm of your scale, the answer is yes—even if you only have a few animals,...

“Well, it's beautiful to watch kale finish its cycle of life as it grows long stems and then flowers and forms seed heads. Wait for a couple of days until they turn brown and then work them into the soil.

The State of the Birds 2013 , a joint report on the status of birds and bird habitats on private lands for 2013, says that grasslands cover 358 million acres of the U.S., and 85 percent of that landmass is privately owned.

Obviously, they can do a lot of things we can't when it comes to eating and drinking. If the trough starts out clean and you keep it that way, it's much less prone to growing algae.

(It's a joke only in the loosest sense—the humor lies in the fact that, nine times out of 10, this is exactly where he is.) I'd had a few conversations with the cows on the farm bordering my grandparents' land when I was growing up; I knew they were...

These might include: agritourism (think leading trail rides or offering summer camps) therapeutic-riding instruction equine or human massage competitions clinics riding lessons from various trainers on the farm Working with horse owners is vital if you...

Summer squashes, such as green zucchini, yellow crookneck and spaghetti squash, may or may not require slings, depending on their weight. Suitable structures run the gambit from practical to offbeat, so let your imagination run wild.

They eat renewable resources, like grass, which will cut down on feed bills. They can work in small gardens or on large grain operations. They can haul carts or people for hay rides.

Products, such as the EasyKeeper Herd Manager , are available to help track livestock, their health and sales. Nonetheless, as any successful farmer knows, it's just as important to keep accurate records of your crop and livestock activities as it is...