Shoppa's Farm Supply

If you have a long gravel driveway at your place, and you live where it snows in the winter, you've probably had this experience. During the winter you cleared snow from the driveway using a snowblower (US CA)or other implement and very likely pushed a fair amount of driveway gravel into the grassy border area. Gravel in the grass isn't good for mower blades, so how do you get the gravel back where it belongs without doing it by hand. Set the broom height to minimize any damage to your grass, and set it's angle to push the loose driveway gravel in the grass back where it belongs.

Spring is a good time to see if your lawn is developing a thatch problem by digging a core sample using a garden spade. Thatch will appear as a distinct layer between the healthy grass crown and the underlying soil. If it is more than thick, it's probably time to dethatch your lawn. Thatch is made up of un-decomposed plant material that accumulates on the surface of the soil. Dethatching removes that layer of material. If you have a small lawn, a manual thatching rake will work, though it will likely be a tedious process.

Although Mother Nature does a fabulous job beautifying the landscape all by herself, occasionally, you might have the urge to give her a helping hand by planting wildflowers. For example, a large area of rough pasture might be fine on the back section of your property, but maybe less so if located not far from your front porch. A rolling, grassy area on the near horizon might be starkly attractive, but what if it sported more color during the growing season? Turning those areas into something more eye appealing might be a good idea.

Food plots are great for attracting all kinds of wildlife. Deer, wild turkey, upland game, song birds, butterflies. With the right food mix and habitat location, you can attract virtually any wildlife to your property. A well-placed food plot might also draw wildlife away from areas you don't want them to be, like an orchard or vineyard. Grasses, flowers, and other naturally occurring plant materials spread over a large area can also provide erosion and weed control, not to mention the beautification of what might otherwise be an eyesore.

A land plane is a great tool to have in your machine shed for maintaining a gravel road or driveway, smoothing a horse arena, leveling a garden, and plenty of other uses you'll think of. So here are some basics for how to work with one. The Frontier Land Planes (US CA) use two cutting blades set horizontally and at a parallel diagonal angle between two end plates attached to a steel frame. The cutting edges of the blades can skim along or cut into the ground's surface at a shallow depth. There are models with both draw bar and 3-point hitches, which give you flexibility in the equipment you use to pull it.

If you have pasture for livestock - or if you have any large acreage where you want healthy vegetation to flourish - then how you control weeds is very important. Because without good weed control, you'll reduce hay and grazing quality. In this video, we'll take a look at the two basic ways to control weeds. Mowing and spraying. There are other pasture management practices you can also employ, but for dealing with weeds that are already there, mowing or spraying are your two best options. Periodic mowing is a helpful practice if you're able to cut weeds after they've grown above the height of the grass, but before they've filled out with seeds.

To build a rail fence, or any other fence for that matter, isn't complicated. There are a few fundamentals to follow, no matter what type of fence you want to build, or how long you want it to be. And overall, it's a process that follows common sense every step of the way. So let's start with a quick checklist of tasks you need to complete before you ever dig your first post hole. The last thing you want to do is build your fence on your neighbor's property. So no matter how sure you are, make sure you refer to a legal property description of your land showing the exact property line locations.