New Home Source Blog

Mulch is great, except when it invites pests to your yard. April is National Pests Management Month, so here are tips to keeping your new home pest-free.

By Patricia L. Garcia

Moving into a newly built home means you can breathe easy knowing maintenance will be minimal. Regardless if your home is new or a resale, you must stay vigilant to ensure that pests are not welcome in your house.

Because spring has sprung — and so have baby pests everywhere — April is the ideal time to concentrate on keeping pests out of your new home. The Professional Pest Management Alliance, the consumer arm of the National Pest Management Association (NPMA), celebrates National Pest Management Month in April to remind homeowners to stay vigilant in their battle against bugs, rodents and other pests. “It’s a good time to focus that, because April is a peak month when you’ll start seeing more pests,” says Missy Henriksen, vice president of Public Affairs for the NPMA.

Because pests can cause damage to your new home and carry diseases, you should stay vigilant about keeping them at bay. When you move into a new home, you get a fresh start, so it’s important to properly maintain your home from the beginning. “Setting up good basic practices and making sure there are good sanitation practices from the moment you move in will go a long way in preventing pests,” Henriksen says. “You want to make sure you’re taking precautionary steps. You want to roll out the welcome mat to your family and friends, but not to pests.”

The Great Outdoors

When trying to prevent what’s outside from getting into your home, it’s important to first take a look outside: Is your yard flashing an invitation to pests that there’s food, water and shelter for them?

One place to start is your landscaping. Using mulch to help protect plants is a good system to use, but the right mulch is important. Some mulches can provide food and shelter for some pests, while others, such as mulches made from tea tree, will kill certain types of termites. Because mulch helps keep a moist environment for plants, you may want to use mulch sparingly if ticks are common in your area (the moisture attracts them). Speak with someone at your local nursery to determine which mulch works best for your area.

If you store firewood on your property, place it at least 18 feet from your home to help prevent rodents and termites from coming close.

Look Up

Once you’ve checked your landscaping, look to your roof. Regularly check under eaves for any bee, hornet or wasp nests. To help remove water sources, be sure to regularly clean out gutters and make sure that all of your home’s downspouts direct water away from your home and that water doesn’t pool up, Henriksen says.

Pest Buffet

If you have pets, be sure to store their food inside and that it is covered, since that could attract pests large and small, and change out the water in bird baths at least once a week. When determining where to store your trash, try to find a spot that’s as far away from your home as possible, Henriksen says. If you do have pests in your home or yard, contact a pest management professional who can help you take the right approach. If you take a DIY approach, be sure to follow the directions given.

Ensuring that your home is free of pests requires a common-sense approach. Developing a pest management plan from the beginning is good way to ensure that your new home and yard will be pest-free for many years to come.

Patricia L. Garcia is content manager for NewHomeSource, where you can search for and get information on new homes and new construction communities. You can find her on Google+.

The Yellow Lady Banks is just one way to add spring color to your yard. This hardy vine is a prolific bloomer. Photos Courtesy of Monrovia.

By Patricia L. Garcia

Each spring, vegetable gardens get all of the acclaim: “How to Start a Veggie Garden” “Prepare Your Garden for Spring!” “Easy Garden Tips” But lost beyond all that veggie freshness are spring’s peacocks that, while not edible, bring dazzle to any yard — both new and old.

I’m talking about plants whose showy blooms will add spring color to your yard. By adding a few of these plants to your new home's yard or garden, you’ll not only add a focal point, but provide good food sources for beneficial insects and birds. We checked in with Nicholas Staddon, director of new plants for leading plant company Monrovia, for the best plants to do just that. Here’s his list of show-stopping, colorful plants for this spring:

Lady Banks Rose

This vine has yellow, picture above, or white blooms and can get quite large, Staddon says. Because it can grow so large, it’s important to place this plant in a spot where it can spread its thornless branches or around a trellis where it can climb freely.

You’ll be rewarded with a multitude of flowers. In milder climates, this hardy rose is an evergreen plant. This plant is ideal for both beginners and experienced gardeners alike.

Eternal Fragrance Daphne

While Staddon recommends daphnes in general for their hardiness and the large varieties, he says the Eternal Fragrance Daphne is “really setting the market on fire,” because of its small fragrant, blush pink blossoms. “It’s a fabulous evergreen shrub with a sweet rum scent that is lovely.”

The compact, round plant can reach two to three feet tall and wide and blooms on and off throughout the summer.

Magical Gold Forsythia

Both showy and prolific, the Magical Gold is a burst of color in the garden. “It has the most stunning gold flowers about the size of a quarter,” Staddon says. This deciduous (it loses its leaves seasonally) shrub grows to about five feet tall and four feet wide when mature and blooms from 20 to 30 days.

While a great outdoor plant, Staddon says that folks tend to let this plant bloom indoors. One easy trick for those who do so: place flower stems in tepid sugar water (just two teaspoons will do) to give them “a dose of sunshine without them ever seeing the sun.”

As an added bonus, this fire-resistive plant makes for good firescaping, so these could work in places that are closer to your home.

Loropetalum

This flowery shrub does best in the warmer areas of the country, like the West and the South. It can grow to anywhere from 12 inches to two feet high and 10 feet wide. The Razzleberry Loropetalum produces soft pink or hot pink flowers, while Pipa’s Red produces red — burgundy in some cases — flowers.

Because of its size, you’ll want to plant these farther from your home than other plants. Place them along the entryway to your home as a welcoming sign for guests. “People will walk up and see these and emotionally, it will make them feel good,” Staddon says.

Staddon says that now is the perfect time to find colorful plants for your yard. He suggests that gardeners go into garden centers or nurseries and ask which are the plants that are coming in. If there’s a special plant that you’ve been wanting for some time and ask, they will likely save one for you, he says.

Patricia Garcia is content manager for NewHomeSource, where you can search for and get information on new homes and new construction communities. You can find her on Google+.