Oh, the joy of this week in the garden! This week’s uninvited but fascinating guest: the humble sow bug. You may have noticed them lounging under the mulch or your garden boards. Fun fact: sow bugs are like the distant cousins of lobsters (minus the fancy dinners) and are more about decomposing plant material and removing lead and arsenic from our soils. Heads up, when it cools down, these crustacean critters may want to crash your place. No worries, though, just a quick vacuum, a trip outside, and they’re back in nature. Also, seal up those foundation cracks and consider a dehumidifier – nobody likes a damp basement, not even bugs. The difference between a sowbug which is a grey color and a pill bug which is a dark color and rolls up into a ball is just that.
Pill Bug or Roly PolySow Bugs
Weed of the week: Ragweed! You may have noticed your allergies are cranking up. You can thank ragweed, producing a staggering 1 billion pollen grains from just one 5-foot plant. Feeling sneezy? Ragweed and its pal, Marsh Elder, are to blame, not Goldenrod, who unfairly gets fingered for the crime. Goldenrod’s pollen is too hefty to go airborne, so it just drops.
Marsh ElderCommon Ragweed
A quick note on tree TLC: If your big beauties are looking a little thirsty, it might be because lawn watering just doesn’t cut it. Trees need a good deep drink now and then, especially the evergreens. Don’t forget to water until the soil freezes if they’re under two years old. And hey, if you’re thinking about planting a tree, now’s prime time. Just remember, don’t plant it too deep—nobody likes to feel smothered, not even trees.
Mulch Ring around a young tree
And finally, in the battle of you vs. the garden weeds, I know you’re tired. But don’t let those pesky weeds win by going to seed. If you can’t pull them, slice ’em off at the soil line. Keep fighting the good fight!
As your business flourishes, you need to be maximizing space and success. Upsizing your home accommodates your growing enterprise and enhances your capacity to serve more clients and innovate. This transition, however, requires careful planning to ensure that your business operations remain uninterrupted and more efficient than ever. In this guide from Shippy Realty and Auctions, you’ll learn how to integrate business needs into your new living space, maintain professionalism, and manage additional responsibilities with a larger home office.
Assessing Your Business Needs
Identifying your business’s requirements in a new home is the first step to a successful upgrade. Consider the space needed for your operations, whether product storage or a quiet consultation room. Consider your technology requirements and whether additional rooms might be required as your team grows. Assess the accessibility for clients and deliveries, ensuring your new location supports a professional image.
Complying with Local Zoning Laws
Before you move, it’s essential to review local zoning laws that pertain to home-based businesses. These regulations can affect how you use your home for commercial purposes and may include restrictions on signage, client visits, and types of permissible activities. Understanding these laws can help you avoid costly penalties and ensure your business operates legally. To navigate these rules effectively, engage with a local attorney or zoning consultant.
Advancing Your Business Skills
Earning an online degree, such as by earning a doctor of business administration degree, equips you with leadership skills essential for advancing your business. This flexible learning format allows you to manage your business obligations while enhancing your acumen. Integrating education with your daily operations positions you effectively as a business leader; this could help you learn more. Pursuing your degree online maximizes your time efficiency and could help streamline your path to professional growth.
Establish a Professional Home Office
Maintaining a professional environment for client interactions is essential as your business address shifts to a larger home. Designate a specific area of your home as the client reception or meeting space, ensuring it is well-appointed and separate from personal living areas. This setup helps project a professional image while setting clear boundaries within your home environment.
Ensuring Professional Boundaries
Privacy is paramount, both for your family and your business. Implement measures such as soundproofing business areas or using privacy screens to delineate workspaces. Consider separate entrances, if feasible, to minimize disturbances to your household. These steps ensure a professional atmosphere and enhance concentration, benefiting business operations and family life.
Building Good Neighbor Relations
Communicating with your neighbors about your home-based business activities fosters good relationships and minimizes misunderstandings. Explain the nature of your business, anticipated traffic, and potential noise. Offering contact information for concerns shows consideration and professionalism. Such openness can also lead to local networking opportunities and community support.
Expanding your home to accommodate your growing business is significant but rewarding. By meticulously planning the integration of business functionalities into your new home, ensuring legal compliance, and maintaining a professional environment, you pave the way for continued growth and success. Embrace this next chapter confidently, knowing you are well-prepared to meet the challenges and opportunities it brings.
Author bio: Katie Conroy enjoys writing and created advicemine.com where she shares advice from her experiences, education & research. She particularly enjoys writing about lifestyle topics and created the website to share advice she has learned through experience, education, and research.
I had to take a long time to mow in the garden this week because I had to pick up all the frogs and toads in the grass and put them in the flowerbeds. It is all good because they go after all the little crickets and grasshoppers.
Many people have noticed quite a bit of purslane growing in the gardens and flowerbeds this year. If you want to get rid of this, pull and remove it. If you toss it back on the ground, it will root again in the soil. It is also a food source used raw in salads, frying, or thickened soups like okra.
Purslane (weed or not?)
The bug of the week is the soldier beetle. Not all beetles are bad. These eat aphids and pollinate flowers. They are attracted to yellow flowers like goldenrods. The one we have in the state is the golden soldier beetle.
Golden Soldier Beetle
The needles on spruces dying and dropping off on the interior of the tree are normal. It becomes not normal if the tips are brown (with a purple tint) or the top of the tree dries up. This could be a sign of cytospora fungus. The fungus rarely kills the tree, however, will weaken it and the tree might succumb to winter injury. Follow the dying branch to a canker (a weeping area of resin) and prune out. The disease is more pronounced on mature blue spruces.
Spruce with cytospora fungus
This is the time to reseed areas in your cool-season lawn. Make sure you keep the area moist until the grass seed sprouts. If you want to try a buffalo grass lawn, seed in June or the first of July since it is a warm season grass.
Buffalo grass lawn
Talking about lawns, the brown patch is showing up. This fungus causes small patches in the lawn to turn brown to white. The problem is becoming worse since the humidity levels have been increasing during the past few years. Use liquid fungicide on the patches so they do not spread. They are also resistant grass varieties to plant.
