One of the keys to having a healthy and lush lawn is to aerate it when needed. When you aerate the soil, you essentially are loosening it up to allow room for nutrients and air to circulate down into the soil. Soil compaction often becomes a problem in high-traffic areas where people and pets seem to frequent, rather than less traveled areas of the lawn.

A very cheap and inexpensive way to find out if your soil is to compacted and therefore in need of aeration, is to take a simple screwdriver out to your lawn after it has been watered and try to push the screwdriver down into the soil. If the screwdriver goes into the soil with almost no resistance at all, then there is no compaction problem that you need to be concerned about. But on the other hand, if you find it’s difficult to get the screwdriver into the soil, then you’ll need to aerate your soil as quickly as possible.

The really good news about lawn aeration is that for most yards it’s a very inexpensive thing to do. In fact, if your yard is small to medium sized, and especially if the compaction is limited to just a small section of the yard, you can even use something as simple as a spading fork to aerate your soil in those areas. So using a coring tool can be beneficial in a number of ways for your yard.

If you have a larger yard, the two methods mentioned above may simply require too much labor to perform. If you use this method to go over the entire lawn at least twice you should get great results from your aerating.

If there are spots in your yard where the grass is sparse, you can also combine seeding and aerating at the same time. Lawn aeration is a very important, but often overlooked part of good lawn care. But if you follow the guidelines given above you should be able to have a beautiful, healthy, green lawn in no time.

Help the Elderly Remain Active and Healthy – 7 Special Tips to Help a Senior Live an Active Life

If you’re reading this, it’s probably because you have an elderly parent or other loved one who you’re worried about. There are thousands of caring sons, daughters, caregivers, and friends who are committed to helping elderly people lead the highest quality of lives possible. Your efforts will not succeed if the elderly person feels coerced into doing it. 2. Educate the elderly person about the benefits of activity and exercise. 5. Offer praise and support when the elderly person completes the activity. Praise can go a long way to helping a senior feel motivated to continue the activity in the future.

7. Encourage the elderly person to see a physician if there is any indication that medical issues are contributing to her reluctance to participate in activities. The primary things to remember when helping an elderly loved one or friend to be active and interested in life is that it requires patience and perseverance.

10 Healthy Tips For a New You

Someone, stop the madness!

Eat right and exercise.

1. Exercise – the only way to burn fat is to engage in aerobic exercise.

 2. Strength Train – not just for the guys! Do both aerobic and strength exercises – the results will come!

3. Get 25 grams of fiber daily. Get your fiber early girls!

4. Every day, eat a handful of almonds – yummy afternoon snack!

5. With dinner – substitute that white rice with brown rice. Cook meat in 4-5 minutes.

6. Portable fiber – Fiber One has a great line of tasty treats.

7. Vitamins. Bonus Tip: Make a schedule. Fail to plan and we plan to fail!