This guide will help you find a grasscycling mower that’s right for you. For up-to-date ratings of mulch-mower performance, consult the most recent June issue of Consumer Reports, available at your local library.

Push Mowers
Not only are push mowers quiet, non-polluting and inexpensive, they do a good job of grasscycling. One disadvantage is that they can’t chop and blow the clippings down into the turf like a power mulching mower. But you can always rake up the areas where clippings might be tracked into the house. Grass clippings make great compost and mulch.

Push mowers are sold in most local hardware stores, as well as big department and discount stores. Quality of construction varies with price, so comparison shop. Test the handle for stiffness, strong attachment to the mower, and comfortable hand grips. Compare the ease of height adjustment, and look for smooth, sharp blade edges. Higher priced mowers often have six blades rather than five, to cut more smoothly.

Interior Lighting
With so many lighting options in a variety of wattages and color tones, just about every fixture in your home can be a source of radiance and energy efficiency.

Attics/Basements
CFLs – Pairing CFLs with motion or occupancy sensors that make your lights go on and off when someone enters or leaves a room can help save energy and money by ensuring attic and basement lights won’t be left on accidentally.

Bathroom Lighting
CFLs – When lighting vanities or sinks, choose ‘bright white’ or ‘daylight’ CFLs, which most closely resemble natural daylight.
For vanities that have multiple lights, switching to CFLs not only helps saves in lighting costs but eliminates the excessive heat produced by less efficient incandescent bulbs.
CFLs can also be used in shower downlights-–-just remember to make sure you select CFLs labeled for use in wet areas.

Innovation

• Identifies white space opportunities based on an understanding of the perceived organizational structure of the marketplace.
• Relates need states (by occasion) relative to avail able choice and pinpoints unmet needs.
• Provides strategic direction for new product or service innovation platforms.
• Integrates new product or service ideas (concept testing) and assesses their performance relative to the market, white space opportunities and consumer or user needs.

Brand and Product Positioning

• Explains current brand and product imagery, equities, usage, relative occasion, setting and mood.
• Determines key drivers and under – pinning attitudes and behaviors.
• Can provide actionable need state or attitudinal segmentation.
• Can identify barriers and triggers (functional and emotional).

What Makes Market Landscaping with Ipsos MediaCT Different?
All of our landscape and structure engagements are supported by market scientists and client service professionals with specific expertise in market landscaping, segmentation and innovation research.

Tips for Selecting Trees

• Plant local trees for regional character. What seems common here is unusual elsewhere and reflects our unique natural history and ecosystems.
• Plant native tree species instead of ornamental varieties. Birds and wildlife prefer native trees and can benefit more from their flowers and seeds.
• Trees that evolved in this region are better suited to our climate of wet winters and dry summers and to our soils that are often rocky, acidic, and low in nutrients.
• Consider the final size of the tree to make sure there is clearance above and around the tree as it grows. Often trees are smaller in cultivation but many of our native trees can still get quite tall.
• Consider the water and sun preferences. Some trees can grow in either sun or shade but require more water when grown in full sun. Plant drought-tolerant trees where they won’t get watered by sprinklers.

Turf Tip #1 Check Your Sprinklers
Good watering practices begin from the ground up, so let’s start with the sprinklers. First, check your sprinkler system. This will tell you if you’re getting even water distribution. Dry, brown spots and wet, swampy areas in your lawn are the most obvious signs that there’s a problem with your sprinklers. Another sign is water constantly draining from the sprinkler system and running into the gutter. This could indicate a broken line, a plugged valve or stuck automatic drain valve. Even a well-designed sprinkler system needs regular checkups and necessary corrections

Turf Tip #2 Get to Know Your Grass
Kentucky Bluegrass forms a dense, tightly-knit turf that withstands wear and has the ability to mend when damaged. The grass blades are narrow and dark green. Tall Fescue is a grass with wide, coarse blades. The Turf~type Improved Tall Fescue is more desirable because it grows lower, denser, is deep rooted and has finer grass blades. Perennial Rye is a grass with a medium to fine texture. It is fast germinating and because of tough veins in the leaf blades, it often has a ragged appearance when mowed. It is often used in a seed mix.

Lawn Care: An Ecosystem Approach
Like forests or prairie grasslands, lawns are dynamic ecosystems: communities of plants, soil, and microbes; insects and earthworms and the birds that feed on them; and humans who mow, water, fertilize, and play on the lawn. The interactions of all these community members shape the dynamic equilibrium we see as a lawn. Understanding and working within the natural processes that shape the lawn and its soil community can yield a durable, beautiful lawn that is easier to care for. As it turns out, these ecologically sound methods will also help reduce water use, waste generation, and water pollution.

Why Make A Change?
The ecological approach to lawn care described in this report has several advantages, including:

• Reduced mowing time and fertilizer needs, and improved turf color, quality, and density.
• Enhanced resistance to diseases and weed invasion.
• Improved nutrient availability, and less soil compaction, acidification, and thatch buildup.