Useful Tips

THE FSRT TEAM • TESTIMONIALS • IN THE NEWS

Lawn Care
Pesticides are an increasing problem in our waterways. Everytime pesticides are used, run-off allows for high concentrations entering our Great Lakes, causing adverse effects to local environments. Keeping weed populations off your lawn can be as easy as physically removing them by the root with a tool you can purchase from your local store. Lawns can be kept thick and healthy by raking dead grass and aerating at least once in the early spring and once in the late spring (March/May) and once in the fall (August/November.

For more information on Aeration and how it can benefit your lawn, please contact MARK'S AERATION in Burlington at 905.616.2080.

Seeding can be done at this time to fortify a good grass yield or simply letting your grass grow to seed periodically before cutting.

Indoor Insect Pest Problems

Prevention: seal cracks and fix plumbing leaks

Natural remedies:
Fleas: spray cedar oil (around house, not on your animal)
Ants: sprinkle salt, red pepper or ground white chalk across doors and windowsills
Moth larvae: freeze clothes or place in hot sun for 2 days
Flies: a water and vinegar solution will repel flies from counters

A tap that leaks one drop per second wastes over 25 L of water per day. That's 9000 L per year. Usually this can be prevented by replacing the washer, which costs less than 10 cents.

Canadians take home over 55 million shopping bags a week

Food scraps and yard waste make up 1/3 of the average household's waste

Biodegrade trivia:
Lottery ticket: 2-4 weeks
Wool sock: 1 year
Pop can: 200-500 years
Glass bottle: undetermined amount
Five recycled PET bottles make enough fibre fill to stuff a ski jacket
One tonne of recycled newspapers (approx 2000 daily papers) is equal to saving 19 trees.

Water Conservation
Think twice about washing your car yourself and take it to your local car wash. Many carwashes, if not all, recycle the water they use. Also, harmful suds with high concentrations of phosphorus and nitrogen will not enter the environment causing unwanted algae blooms. Also washing your driveway has to be one of the most wastefulthings you can do. Sweep before you wash!

It is also good to note that during hot summer days, you should really only water your lawns in the early morning, just after the sun comes up and about an hour before sundown. These are the times of the day which are less hot and your watering will be most effective. At other times, 80% of the water you use on your lawn doesn't even get to the roots of the grass. People tend to use sprinkler systems that spray water high in the air and a large volume of that water evaporates before even hitting the ground. It may look like it is covering a lot of ground by spraying all about, but you are accomplishing less than you think. A good practice is to dribble your water out of a sprinkler system and move the system around every 10 minutes or so until the yard is complete. You will notice the difference!

Save water by using left over boiled water for your plants. Water used to boil veggies contain high concentrations of nutrients that plants can utilize. You're just throwing out good liquid fertilizer when dumping your water used to boil noodles or veggies.

Super Compost
Composting is a great way to divert waste from your local landfill site. It also proves to be a great source of nutrients for your gardens and flowerbeds when done properly. If you have a pet that does not consume meat, such as a rabbit, add its waste to your compost. Cows and sheep are not the only good sources of manure.

Enviro Lawn
Some people prefer low maintenance, and why not? We are all busy people and like to enjoy the little time we have. With a little research and a visit or two to your local nursary, you can create parts of your lawn, if not all, into a rock garden with special plants that require little water and little attention. If taken time and done properly, people will really be impressed by the aesthetics of your maintenance-free lawn. Time and money can also be saved by less watering and less time spent manicuring.

Why are you maintaining your lawn like a PGA course? Both little animals and little people appreciate longer, pesticide-free grass.

Household Hazardous Waste
Household Hazardous Waste has no place in the natural environment whatsoever. Placing paints, oils and other hazardous waste in a garbage bag going to landfill is not good practice since it just ends up in drinking water and our Great Lakes due to the leaching of these items once they are buried. In Ontario, we have special curbside pickups for these wastes. Use them! In Halton, our landfill site has a special spot set aside for residents of the region to bring their household hazardous waste and divert them from landfill. They are processed properly and sometimes recycled. Placing these wastes on the curb is not economical to say the least. Our taxes pay for these household waste depots and pickup days, and if you don't use them, you're wasting your own money.

Turn Scrap To Money
Find out where your local scrap dealer is in town. Save up your pop cans, old copper piping, old siding/aluminum eavestroughs, BBQs and even old car batteries. These may be useless products to you, but they keep scrap dealers in business. Many of these products are reused for their "precious metal" status or because they contain metals that can be implimented back into useful products. Make yourself some money and drop your waste metal and batteries off to someone who can reuse it. You would not believe the money you can earn.

Insects
Don't kill bees. They pollinate our food crops and other flowers, and don't kill Dragon/Damselle Flies, these are natural bug exterminators since they feed on all types of annoying insects.

Around The House
Don't handicap your refrigerator by placing it near your stove or any other heat source.

Arrange furniture away from radiators and arranging shelves above them deflects heat to the middle of the room.

Fill the empty spaces in your freezer with newspaper greatly improves energy efficiency.

Camping
When camping, don't bring your firewood with you. Instead use native scrap wood.

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