Key Items that Should Be on Your Spring Clean-out Checklist

 Water Gardening projects of any type benefit from advanced preparation. Regardless of the type of project, having all the necessary supplies on hand before you get started always makes it go faster. Realizing it’s a good time to fertilize the water lilies after your pond has been drained, and running to the store for lily tabs tends to slow down the spring clean-out process, turning a half-day job into an all-day chore.

      Planning ahead a little means you can spend less time working on your pond,

and more time enjoying it! 

De-chlorinator – If you are on city water, you’ll need to de-chlorinate the newly filled pond before you put the fish back in.

High Pressure Sprayer – Use a pressure nozzle on your garden hose or a pressure sprayer to dislodge debris and algae from the rocks.

New Filter Mats – Filter mats should be replaced every three years or so. If you think it might be time, be prepared ahead of time by purchasing replacements prior to your pond clean-out.

Expanding Foam – Expanding foam may need a bit of a touch up in some areas. Be prepared with a can of it just in case.

Rubber Gloves and Boots – Spring clean-outs can be cold, wet, and messy. Arming yourself with boots and gloves will go a long way toward making this chore much less unpleasant.

Pump and Discharge Pipe – To drain the water out of the pond, you’ll need a pump and some discharge pipe. It’s ok to use your pond pump, but even better if you have an extra pump to lessen the wear and tear on your pond pump. About 2000 gallons per hour, depending on the size of your pond, will do the trick.

Fish Net – Before you drain your pond, you’ll need to catch and relocate your fish. A good quality net means doing this without injuring your fish during the catch.

Net to Cover Fish Container – Fish, especially large koi, jump, and they may very well jump right out of the container that you’ve set up for them. Be sure to cover it with a net that is pulled taught across the top to prevent them from jumping.

Pruners – Part of a spring clean-out is pruning back dead plant material from the previous season. Make sure you have a good pair of pruners or scissors to get the job done.

Plastic Rake – Rake the leaves right out of you pond with a children’s garden rake.

The plastic eliminates the chance of tearing the liner and the small size makes it easier to maneuver in tight spots than an adult sized rake.

Lily Tabs – Take advantage of the water-free accessibility of water lilies, lotus, and other plants that may need to be fertilized. Have a container of lily tabs on hand when you’re doing your pond clean-out.

Container for Plant Debris – Grab an old plastic plant pot or bucket so you can easily dispose of any debris that you gather from the pond bottom.

Planting Pots – A spring clean-out is a good time to thin and divide plants that have grown out of bounds or crowded a pot. Make sure you have some aquatic plant pots handy so you can re-pot and share your new plants with other water gardeners.

Extra Gravel – After the freeze and thaw of winter, you’ll inevitably find rocks and gravel that have shifted, exposing bare liner. With an extra bag or two of gravel, you can cover exposed liner in a jiffy.  

For more information on water gardening, water gardens, rainwater harvesting, and ecosystem pond maintenance, please visit one of our websites www.aquascapeinc.com, www.rainxchange.com, and www.watergardening.com.

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All-mobile ski snowboard & ski resort guide sno.mobi puts the whole resort in your pocket!

We don't take laptops with us on a skiing holiday & hardly ever get to an internet cafe... but everyone carries their cell phone with them, everywhere, all the time - even when skiing on the mountain!

 

Now you can find whatever you want in your ski resort, right there in your pocket

 

Free mobile ski, snowboard, snow forecast & ski resort guide www.sno.mobi is the first complete ski resort guide to the world’s top winter resorts, which works on ALL cell phones (not just smart phones) with ski resort info & ratings, Snow Forecast & Piste Conditions, Events, après-ski Bars, Restaurants, Taxi, Childcare, Catered ski chalet Accommodation, self catered apartments & hotels, Airport Transfers, Shops, Ski Rental & ski Lessons, Ski Holiday Deals, Webcams, Indoor Activities, Mountain Guides and much more... all with Free with Maps, Directions & Email... & it all works on ALL mobile phones!

 

it works as normal on a PC – but sno.mobi is designed especially to be viewed on your mobile phone, when in your ski resort

 

Find your way around your ski resort with free navigation on ALL phones - each business shows map & you can save your ski chalet or apartment address, to get navigation directions around town and home to your accommodation too (no GPS phone needed!)

Stay in touch on your ski holiday with free email you can use on any mobile phone & PC (no smartphone or PDA needed!) - even from the ski slopes!

 

Entire site is completely free to view - they don't charge a penny (and they make sure your network can’t fleece you too... read on)

 

Fast & avoids big data bills - text-based design makes data size of each page tiny – mobile data is much cheaper these days but you still don’t want to be viewing the huge pages designed for a PC screen, especially when “roaming” abroad on a skiing holiday.  Usually your phone downloads the whole PC page & squashes it to fit, meaning you download a lot of data for each page you view (especially on ski website which have lots of huge pictures).  sno.mobi pages are mainly text to minimise data size, plus they resize all pictures for your phone – snoProblem!

 

To try it out, go to www.sno.mobi on your phone and simply Choose your Ski Resort (eg Chamonix) and there it is, the whole ski resort in your pocket!  You can also use it on your PC, as there’s an on-screen phone that works just like a real one (again, simply Choose your Ski Resort).

 

Skiers & snowboarders prefer to support LOCAL business, rather than big chains, when on a winter holiday

 

When starting their business, sno.mobi did a bit of ski/board research and they found that, just like us, most snow lovers would prefer to support LOCAL business – to help keep mountain resorts the buzzing places we all love to visit.  sno.mobi is designed to make it easy for us to do exactly that – we approve!

 

You can try sno.mobi out on your mobile or via your PC web browser with their on-screen phone – they also have local domains like www.chamonix.mobi and www.les3vallees.mobi which go straight to that ski resort’s homepage, but you can find any ski resort from the main sno.mobi homepage

 

If you have a business in a ski resort or service, ski accommodation like self-catered apartments or fully catered chalets, après-ski events, property for sale, ski jobs vacant, skiing holiday deals or last-minute ski offers, go to www.sno.mobi & click “Get Listed” - everyone can find you, even if they don't have a computer!  Most ski websites charge one or two hundred euros/dollars per year to list your business (and they only have PC pages, not mobile) but sno.mobi has decided to make theirs an ethical business, where all ski businesses can afford to Get Listed, so they’ve kept the price down to just €25 or $33 per year – it’s not just a marketing claim when they say they’re helping us to support local business!

 

Foreget iPhone apps that only give you snow forecast etc – iPhones account for less than 2% of mobile phone sales – sno.mobi works on ALL cell phones (even your twenty bucks no-contract phone) and their weather/snow/piste info is just a tiny part of this huge mobile website – we love it and wish them every success!  Help them like we are, by adding a link to www.sno.mobi to your own website or blog – it’s not often that a business tries to do the right thing, let’s help them make it work!

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