To an amateur, a garden in the winter looks neglected, like the owner left it to fend for itself, and come spring, will renew the beauty once more. However, a lot of planning and preparation goes into a garden before the winter hits, to ensure that it will survive the season, and blossom once more in the spring. There are some gardening basics that must be done once the trees start to turn colors, such as weeding, spreading mulch, etc. Gardening in the fall allows you a chance to enjoy the crisp weather, and keep your garden healthy and happy.
First, it’s important to weed your garden and start a compost pile for dead annuals and vegetables. Be careful that weeds don’t creep into the compost pile, so that next year’s garden will not have weeds. While cleaning out the garden, dig fertilizer and soil amendments into the soil so that it will be ready for next year’s planting.
Spreading a fall fertilizer will keep the grass healthy during the winter and protect it from the elements, as will spreading a layer of good quality mulch. Some gardeners stick to the classic wood mulch, but many are turning to rubber mulch. Rubber landscape mulch is more weather resistant, and will better protect the grass and soil during the winter. Rubber, as a non porous material, allows water to flow down to the roots rather than absorbing it along the way, like wood chips.
Rubber mulch is also eco-friendly, a cause that is embraced by gardeners worldwide. Made from recycled rubber, the landscaping material saves space in landfills by reusing old tires. Fears that toxins in the tires would leach into the ground have been unfounded, as the benefits far outweigh the cons. Rubber mulch is more pricey than wood chips, but it’s important to keep in mind that it also requires no maintenance, and does not have to be replenished annually.
It’s important to keep raking leaves and cutting the grass, as fungus can grow in long grass during the winter. By running the leaves over with a lawn mower, you are manufacturing more compost, or you can pack the crushed leaves around plants.
While preparing, think about what worked this past summer, and how you may want to change the layout or different elements of your garden. Plants or flowers that have to be planted in advance should be seeded now, and you should plan the layout of next year’s garden. Until then, your job is to help your garden huddle in to survive the cold winter.
When a simple household product is used by someone of great influence or who is under public scrutiny, the item in question suddenly becomes well known. This is where the idea of celebrity endorsement comes from. Sometimes a product may receive endorsement simply through the free choice of the celebrity using it, without the company paying for advertisement. This is the case with rubber mulch.
When Barack and Michelle Obama moved into the White House, as with all Presidents and First Ladies, they put their personal touch on the residence. In their case, this included a White House vegetable garden and playground, among other amenities. After being contacted by the National Recreation and Park Association, they chose to put Playsafer playground flooring into Sasha and Malia’s playground. There is almost no greater endorsement than being used by the Obamas, and this resulted in a big boom in the rubber mulch industry. Why did they do it?
The Obamas are advocates of the Green Revolution and making this world a safer place for our children. Rubber mulch is made out of recycled tires, offering a perfect solution for tires that otherwise take up space in landfills. There are many benefits to rubber mulch, one of which is its added playground safety. Unlike wood chips that have been used in the past, mulch has an added measure of shock absorbency, helping to prevent numerous injuries in children. Other benefits are its cost effectiveness and low maintenance, and customized colors, but safety of the environment and our children comes first. The Obamas have shown that by choosing to use rubber mulch in the White House playground.
Naysayers argue that the mulch covers the ground, allowing it no oxygen, and that there is the potential for chemicals to leach out of the rubber tires. However, studies have proven otherwise, and the Obamas have embraced this new solution to wood chips that lead to deforestation. They chose Playsafer rubber mulch above other manufacturers for their excellent service, low prices, and high tech methods of producing rubber mulch.
For city and personal playgrounds, Playsafer rubber mulch is now the way to go. If it’s good enough for the President of the United States, it should be good enough for you.
For most people, summer is a time of vacation and relaxation, but for thousands of families each year, it can be a time of medical strife. The National Safe Kids campaign reports that one in four kids ages fourteen and younger sustain medical injuries during the summer that require medical attention. They have also found that forty percent of all injury related emergency room visits, and forty-two percent of all injury deaths happen between the months of May and August. The statistics are chilling, and a frightening wake up call for parents everywhere. There are easy ways to help prevent the principle causes of injuries to children.
Playground Flooring
Is your playground really as safe as you’d like it to be? Studies have shown that rubber mulch is the safest playground flooring on the market. Rubber mulch looks like wood chips, but is made out of recycled rubber, providing an alternative that is friendly to kids and to the environment. The flooring has shock absorbing properties that help prevent injuries in children. Rubber mulch in your neighborhood playground can be the difference between sprained wrists or merely bruises. Check with your neighborhood parks department that the parks and playgrounds in your area are equipped with rubber mulch.
Keep Them Hydrated
Kids are often very busy having a good time, and forget mundane details such as meals and drinks. It is vital to keep your children hydrated with water, especially during long periods outdoors and at the pool. Dehydration is a leading cause of emergency room visits for children, as their small bodies retain less water than adults, and they can rapidly dehydrate to dangerous levels.
Helmets
Whether it’s on a scooter, bike, roller blades, or the like, a helmet is vital. Helmets can be the difference between life and death. Dusk is a particularly dangerous time, as drivers have lower visibility, and may not see a child before it’s too late. Make sure that your kids don’t leave the driveway without a helmet on.
Write to your local officials to ensure that rubber mulch is used in community playgrounds, and keep a large stock of water on hand at all times. Make sure that your kids’ helmets fit well, and are in good condition. Keep your summer experience happy and healthy with the necessary safety guidelines in place.
More than 200,000 playground injuries end up in the emergency room every year. Don’t let your child be next! This may seem extreme, but it is true. Schools around the
U.S are installing Rubber Flooring in their playgrounds to insure their students safety. Rubber Mulch is a smart choice for schools because it’s economical and lasts long.
That’s good because with all the headache that comes with running a school, owners don’t want to be bothered with dealing with the flooring of their playgrounds. At the
end of the day, everyone’s happy. The owners of the schools feel confident that they are doing their best to keep their students safe and the kids actually enjoy it too!
It’s fun and colorful and easy to run around on. If anyone falls, it ends up being a light bounce, as opposed to a hard bang. Parents can relax too, knowing their kids
are safe at school.
Surprisingly, 90% of playground structures are considered unsafe! This may seem freightening being that kids spend most of their time out on the playground and even justoutdoors! You can put Rubber Flooring anywhere your kids play. If you have an empty lot with cement flooring, where the kids bike, skate, or play ball, you may
want to seriously consider Rubber Bonds. The kids are bound to fall, and they will definitely feel more comfortable knowing how soft and bouncy, yet still strong and
sturdy, Rubber Bonds are. As parents, you too will feel much more relaxed when your kids play outside. The injury rate will definatiley decrease!
Rubber mulch is installed on surfaces such as playgrounds, gardens and backyards so as to make a rubber covering on them. Rubber mulch is usually prepared from used tires and thus is eco friendly in nature. It is really a very useful product as it reduces the possibility of accidents that are taking place on such hard surfaces at your swingsets. Recycling of the old tires and manufacturing rubber mulch from them is really a great idea.
Rubber mulch is a multi device. You can also use it as an alternative to wood mulch. It is really a latest technique that uses waste material to prepare a very useful product. The best thing about rubber mulch is that it is much more durable. It lasts for long and can be used for years. It has no affect of bad weather. Rubber mulch is neither blown away by stormy winds nor is it washed away by heavy rains.
Seeing the increasing demand and excessive use, some people have started preparing this superb product at home. It just requires some guidance along with few tools and some supplies. There are various benefits of rubber mulch. Some of them are as follows.
As the Safety Director and a doctor, he was concerned. “I see plenty of bone injuries in my practice and felt that we needed a better solution. We decided that wood fiber was no longer a safe or environmentally sound choice for our children. We chose to use “Playsafer” rubber mulch manufactured by Rubberecycle. I immediately noticed a difference. The surface is unbelievably soft and dry! I feel comfortable knowing that our children are much safer while playing on the tot lot.”
The Obama’s use the same Playsafer rubber mulch at The White House and Dr. Sommerer has the surface at his own home too. “It is a great safety and environmentally conscious example for others to follow. We also felt that in the spirit of Arbor Day, it was a great educational tool to show the children how to save their environment. We wanted to encourage them to do their “green” part by using a recycled product. The Toms River East Little League continues to nurture future champions on and off the baseball fields.”
The new surface sports the team’s colors: blue and black. RubbeRecycle supports this team and others in their efforts to go green and to go safe when it comes to our kids.
It is often seen that children get injured playing on hard playground surfaces. They spend good time playing on the playgrounds or backyard or some other place and get injured playing out there.
If you are just fed up of their injuries and don’t want them to get injured any further then the best way is to install rubber mulch on your playgrounds. This will act as a cushion on your playground surfaces and will reduce the impact of fall.
Kids usually fall from a swing or slide while playing and sometimes gets badly injured. Rubber mulch ensures their protection and keeps you tension free while your kids are playing on hard playground surfaces.
The shock absorbing capacity of the rubber mulch bounces your kid back when they fall on it. This reduces the risk of your kid getting injured.
Rubber mulch is easy to install and can be used anywhere. You can install this great playground equipment on your playgrounds, backyards or any other such place where your kids like to play and get injured again and again.
Rubber mulch being a superb thing is just perfect for all seasons. It does not get blown away in heavy storms, do not get washed away in rain and even does not rot due to any other reasons.
It is simply perfect for all surfaces and does not melt. The best thing is that rubber mulch does not attract insects. This keeps it clean and safe for your kids to play on them.
Rubber mulch is easily available at Rubberecycle comes in various attractive colors and designs. It just has one negative point that it is highly inflammable. While installing rubber mulch on any surface make sure that it is not near any place where it can catch fire.
Mulch is a thing not everyone today consider using. But let me tell you that this is one of the fantastic things that you can use for your garden, if you simply want to lower down the maintenance costs while getting the best desired results.
These Rubberecycle mulches are generally a layer of natural material that can be spread on the top of the soil and are perfectly right for your garden. These conserves the soil’s moisture and are further helpful in improving the soil conditions in your garden by maintaining the right temperature of the soil that is just right in every season.
Rubber Mulches are generally light and admit easy flow of air and water into the soil.
These mulches are available in variety like organic, inorganic and synthetic (like rubberecyle mulches). Organic mulches are usually plant material that decomposes and adds nutrients automatically to the soil. These mulches act as one of the best sources for defending and controlling of weeds. As these reduce water loss to great extent that evaporates during sunny day, your garden therefore needs very less watering.
This reduces much maintenance costs that are nearly impossible without these rubber mulches.
The rubber mulches are also helpful in adding nutrients to the soil. It serves you well for long and acts brilliantly as time saver and money savers for you. Pine bark, shredded leaves, grass clippings, etc. are some of the best used organic mulches that are common these days in garden areas.
These decompose and act as nutrients for your soils thus enhancing the quality of soil in your garden. You can easily use these comfortable mulches following simple steps at your home. Clean and weed the area properly and use them on the surfaces accordingly to get the best results.
There are also the types of Rubberecyle mulch that you can use for your surfaces at gardens and playgrounds and make the surface ready to use.
With the announcement of First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move initiative to battle childhood obesity, The International Play Equipment Manufacturers Association (IPEMA) is reminding parents of the importance of providing an hour of free play outdoors in a safe play environment.
Let’s Move! has an ambitious but important goal: to solve the epidemic of childhood obesity within a generation.
Let’s Move will give parents the support they need, provide healthier food in schools, help our kids to be more physically active, and make healthy, affordable food available in every part of our country.
Join First Lady Michelle Obama, community leaders, teachers, doctors, nurses, moms and dads in a nationwide campaign to tackle the challenge of childhood obesity.
5 Playground Safety Tips from IPEMA.com
1. Don’t forget what’s below your feet! Grass is not an acceptable surfacing for playgrounds. One of the leading causes of injury on playgrounds is falling from playground equipment. To minimize the frequency and severity of injury from playground falls, it is crucial to have certified playground surfacing, such as rubber mulch surfacing installed under and around the equipment on any public playground. This surfacing is certified to have sufficient depth or thickness to minimize impact injuries from falls. Like you would find that when the white house had a playground installed, they chose recycled Playsafer Rubber Mulch and Rubber Curbs from Rubberecycle.com of Lakewood New Jersey.
2. Be an advocate for safety standards. Playground equipment and surfacing have been carefully evaluated by the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission and the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM). The standards set by these organizations help ensure that playground equipment and surfacing is age appropriate and designed with the measurement of children’s physical dimensions, skills and abilities in mind. IPEMA runs an industry-leading certification program to test and validate playground equipment and surfacing to meet ASTM standards.
3. Proper installation is key to safety! Playground equipment should be installed by individuals experienced in assembly directions and knowledgeable about the environment surrounding the playground, including soil, drainage and the use of other construction materials, tools, equipment and machinery. The manufacturers of specific pieces of equipment can provide certified installers, or the International Playground Contractors Association can provide assistance.
4. Check, re-check and then check again. Once the equipment and surfacing are installed have a post-installation safety audit performed by a person certified in playground safety prior to use. This audit will determine if any equipment or surfacing is non-compliant and will help prioritize any issues that should be corrected before the playing begins. Proper installation also includes posting signage about the age-appropriateness of specific equipment.
5. Don’t underestimate maintenance and upkeep. Proper maintenance can be forgotten — but is one of the most important aspects of ensuring safety on a playground. Maintenance processes must be in place on both a routine and long-term basis. Equipment must be checked for signs of damage following severe weather and for signs of vandalism or any other man-made or natural catastrophe. In addition, equipment will show natural wear and tear each year and regular maintenance inspections and replacement processes should be in place to minimize hazards.
Kudos to Rubber Mulch for being the chosen playground safety surface by the white house staff for the first family playground.
Children having fun in a safe environment!
My kids used to come home muddy and dirty from playing outside. I tried to bring them to a park once a week so they can play and not get so dirty. I found a park that had Rubber Mulch. My kids were thrilled! They kept climbing the monkey bars and jumping off! They thought it was so cool that they didn’t get splinters or bruises.
I then decided to put Rubber Mulch in my yard! They were so happy! Their friends started always playing by my house. Here’s the website I ordered it from http://www.rubbermulch.com/playground.htm ,( I live in New Jersey) and my sister got Rubber Mulch to from http://www.rubberecycle.com/ ( she lives in Hawaii)I was really happy with the service!
Till recently, there was a spurt in the number of playground related accidents and fatalities.Even though several playground safety features are incorporated in our playgrounds to make them safer to play on, the hard and unprotected ground proved to be spoilsports to many of us.Falls frequently occur during the course of play and as such, thousands used to get injured or crippled from falls.
But the emergence of playground mulch has changed the scenario for the better.It is an eco-friendly product, unlike many people professes, and is durable and efficient.Rubber mulch is obtained after cleaning used rubber tire treads and granulating them.If spread well in sufficient quantities, it can act as a cushion even if the fall is very heavy and disruptive.
The material is highly reliable since it remains intact even after many years.Pests and weeds cannot destroy it, unlike other mulches.Once installed, you need not worry about replacing and maintaining it.Even heavy rains and winds cannot dislodge it.In addition, colored rubber mulch improves the attractiveness of the playground.This is why people consider playground safety and rubber mulch as blood-brothers.Government authorities are also promoting extensive use of rubber mulch in playgrounds as a safety measure.
To an amateur, a garden in the winter looks neglected, like the owner left it to fend for itself, and come spring, will renew the beauty once more. However, a lot of planning and preparation goes into a garden before the winter hits, to ensure that it will survive the season, and blossom once more in the spring. There are some gardening basics that must be done once the trees start to turn colors, such as weeding, spreading mulch, etc. Gardening in the fall allows you a chance to enjoy the crisp weather, and keep your garden healthy and happy.
Till recently, there was a spurt in the number of playground related accidents and fatalities.
