24 ~ North Shore News — Sunday, April 9, 2000

Leave chemicals | Get ria of ma

out of cleaning

SPRING seems to
bring out the animal
in all of us.

No sooner have a few
daffodils shown their pretty
yellow heads than hundreds
of North Shore residents are
seized by the desire to scrub
out the homes they’ve lived
in all winter long.

We want our caves clean,
our lairs laundered, And — if
we take our responsibility at

..the top of the food chain
seriously — we want to get it
done without causing harm
to the environment.

Spring cleaning can mean
mountains of garbage, high
water demand and Srarmsal

_ Substances entering our
 feceiving, water system.

This year, why not try
‘some spring cleaning strate-
gies that minimize your neg-
ative impact on the earth?

“ Kefore you begin, find
three sturdy boxes and label
them “recycling,” “give-
‘away? = ands “garbage.”
Choose: a. room and begin
‘your attack. :

“Ifthe Kitchen i is your first

 stop,.deal with the easy stuff ”

2 first. Fill the recycling’ box
_ with used glass containers,
“cans, paper bags and so on.

Later you'll! sort this box into -

materials for your Blue Box

“. or. the: recycling depot and

beverage ‘containers that you
can return for the deposit.

Fill’ the give-away box

with those extra coffee mugs ©

jou never-use, old pots and
pans’.and ‘other items you
- don’t: ‘need anymore." Later
you ‘can. decide: whether: to

lonate -reusablé “items. to.’
r hold a garage sale. -
'. dangerous, ‘Further, be sure

* chari
» Anything’; that- cannot: be

reuséd.or.’recycled_ goes in:

‘the ‘garbage boi. --
Drag your boxes in to the

bedrooms.’ Put ‘dothes you

he North American

or your kids don’t wear in
the give-away box. Recycle
old love letters and maga-
zines. Add a fourth box if
needed, to store winter
clothes. Buc remember, the
less stuff you have, the less
you have to clean.

Once you’ve reduced the
clutter in- your home it’s ime
to pull out the rags, mops,
and cleaning products. Be
careful here: most cleaning
substances contain, in vari-
ous degrees, substances
harmful to health or the
environment.

As Angela Murrills,
Georgia Srraight columnist
and earnest spring cleaner
put it: “any substance strong
enough to dissolve that black
crud lining the oven isn’t
going to do much for the
tweety. birds, the flowers and
the pristine = mountain
streams.”

Save the environment
(and money too) by making
your own cleaning products.

Baking soda is the all-
round cleaning, scouring,
deodorizing and polishing
champion.

Make your own all-pur-

cleaner by mixing 4% cup

of baking soda with % cup .

white vinegar and 16 cups of
water.

For oven cleaner, mix
equal parts baking soda and

it, add water to form a
paste and apply with a cop-
per scrubbing pad.

For. window v cleaner, mix
mix 4 cup vinegar to 4 cups
of water.

- Always use tested recipes
when making your own
cleaning solutions. Random
mixing of chemicals ‘can be

to label. your cleaning sup-

‘plies and never put them in

‘See We following page

Montessori Teacher; Ton ing

ram commences each:

Prog
September. [tis 3 hours, ona cveninga ~ .
‘J ‘week’and 9 months fong. This program’:
Js for. people desiring to obtain their.
Montessori

aching £ Diploma.”

Roy
ZONSSON

sow it
grows

LAWNS are starting to
grow and now is the
time to get them in
shape for the coming
season.

With a very mild and wet
winter, the moss did not
stop growing. If you have
small patches of moss it may
be possible to apply moss
killer and then let the moss
blacken and shrivel up
before raking it out. For
heavy moss growth, it is bet-
ter to use a Mantis de-
thatching machine to clean
out the carpet of dead grass
and moss. The lawn should
be cut at a fairly low level
before de-thatching as this
will remove some of the
moss and the long blades of
grass. Add moss killer to the
grass after de-thatching and
this will kill off the residual
moss that the machine
missed.

Most lawns benefit from
aeration and the application
of a compost and sand top
dressing ut this is not

ssential every year, especial-
ly i if there is little traffic and
the grass has a good root
base. Lime can be added in
the late winter or after the
de-thatching is done. Raking
damp moss out of the lawn
with all the lime stuck to it
is not advisable

Slow release, chemical or
organic fertilizers are a bet-
ter buy and reduce the
amount of work when
applying and mowing. Do
not use “Weed and Feed”

With over 20 years of
experience, we pride

type fertilizers as
they are more
expensive and
add excess herbi-
cide to the envi-
ronment. Spot
spay those weeds
that cannot be
removed manu-
ally.

Most garden-
ers don’t own a
green house but
it is quite easy to
set up a tempo-
rary mini green-
house or cold
frame over a sec-
tion of vegetable
garden, flower
bed or patio.
This allows you
to seed early
crops such as
spinach, lettuce,
onions and peas.
Cold frames can
also be used for
hardening off
new bedding
plants grown
from seed or
bringing last
year’s geraniums
back to life.

Weevils can
be destructive
and ruin the
appearance of
plants such as
rhododendrons,
camellias, pieris,
grapes and
strawberries.
Unlike slugs,
that chew hoies
in the centre of
leaves, weevils can only
chew round notches in the
side of the leaves because
they have a long nose. They
are 4” or 12mm long, grey-
black in colour and have a
very hard shell.

If weevils have become a
problem, this is a good time
to try to control them. The
sign of success will be new
rhododendron leaves with-

HOME AND GARDEN

ss and weevils

out notches in them like the
old ones.

Weevils feed at night and
sleep in the leaf litter or
root area during the day.
Where the plant has a single
stem and the branches are
not touching the ground,
sticky Tangle Foot on a
piece of tape can be used
around the trunk.

Another method is to
scrape away the leaf litter at.
the base of the trunk and lay
a short section of beard
down for the weevils to hide
under. Each time you lift the

“board you can catch a weevil

or two.. ;

A third method is to lay
newspaper under the plant:
where the weevils are feed-
ing and then go out at night
with a flash light and vigor- ©
ously shake the plant. You
will hear the weevils fali on

the paper and see them with

WEEVILS, which feed at night, chew round notches in the sides
of plant leaves. There are several ways to catch them, including :
a night-time weevil hunt. :

the flash ‘ight.

The longer days are caus-
ing house plants to become |:
active again and this is the .”
best tine to re-pet plants
that have out grown their ..:;
containers or have used up
all the organic material in. *.
the soil. Knock them out of:

their pots and replant'them
in larger pots or cut away:
some of the old roots and
shake out as miuci of the
spent soil as possible before
re-potting in fresh soil.

' Start your fertilizer pro-

_gram again for the growing
- season and remember tha’

plant leaves can accumula

~ a layer of dust during the

winter. A soft dry cloth

. works best for. dusting leaves

as a damp cloth may tura:

the dust to mud. Cut ‘out

weak growth and stake tall
fants to form an attractive:
ushy display.”

© Down draft’ belt omy sition

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TALKING.

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