Set your Sundial

The best time and day to set your sundial for most accurate reading for the summer is on June 15th at 12:00. The next date that you will be able to set your sundial for accurate reading will be September 1st at 12:00.

To Set your Sundial

• Make sure the spot that your sundial is in is level and has full sun.
• The shadow arm (gnomon) needs to be pointed toward celestial north if you are in the northern hemisphere. This is different than the magnetic north that a compass will show you. To find celestial north you will need to set your sundial at noon. Turn the sundial so the gnomon's shadow falls directly on the sundial's mark that shows where noon is.
• This is known as SUN TIME.

For the most accurate sundial set it on one of the following days:
April 15, June 15, September 1, December 24.

Keep in mind that to your sundial noon is always going to be when the sun is highest in the sky.

Window Boxes - A Little Info

We've talked a lot about container gardens in the past and we always mention window boxes, but we've never truly delved into explaining how to get a window box set up properly.

Choosing your window box:
You will need a box that spans the width of your window frame.

How to support your window box:
You will need stout steel angle brackets. The bracket ends need to be bent up in order to hold the box in place. You should then secure the box even further by attaching nooks to the box ends and using short lengths of metal chain or wire, connect to hooks that are screwed into the wall or window frame.


Now, if you have a wide flat window sill that can hold the box then you should still use the hooks and chain, this helps to stabilize the box during wind or bad weather. If your window sill is not horizontal, you will need to get wedge shaped pieces of wood to fit beneath the box and be sure that they are thick enough and spaced far apart enough for your box to be able to have a drip tray.

How to choose your brackets:
The brackets come in a variety of sizes and designs. Choose ones that suit your home's exterior, but are also strong enough to support your window box.

Gift Ideas for Gardeners

Sometimes it is hard to know what to get someone as a gift. If you are trying to find an idea for a gift for someone who enjoys gardening, then you are in the right place, we are going to share our top 5 gardening gift ideas with you.

A flower box is a great gift idea for a flower gardener. You can also fill the box with small flower pots, seeds, or flower tools.

 A great lawn ornament will be appreciated by someone who loves spending time outdoors making their yards and homes look beautiful.

 A bucket filled with garden tools is also a great gift idea.

A Solo Hand Sprayer is a great gift for any gardener. Hand sprayers come in handy for many yard and garden applications.

Does your garden enthusiast love watching birds in his/her yard? Then a bird feeder would be a great gift.

Are you a gardener? What kind of gifts do you always love?

Fall Lawn Care

Once the worst of the summer heat has passed, you will want to be sure you implement your fall lawn care regiment. We will go over a few tasks to get you started here, but depending on you location, type of grass, etc, you may need to do more to keep your lawn at its healthiest. But here are the first steps to take this fall in caring for your lawn:

Get out your garden sprayer, clean it (to be sure no residue from past uses is left in it) and spray herbicide on any weeds that have crept up in your lawn. Be sure to clean your sprayer well before put it up for storage during the winter.

Fall is also an ideal time to aerate your lawn. This will encourage your grass to uptake oxygen and nutrients and it helps to combat all the compaction that typically takes place on the lawn during the traffic that lawns see during summer months.

Be sure to get leaves up off of your lawn as they begin to fall. When your grass is covered by leaves it is unable to receive the nutrients it needs to store from the sun during the winter. Also leaves are a great addition to the compost pile. (Read more about composting.)

If your fall is a hot dry one, then you will want to water your lawn.

Also, fall is a great time to fertilize your lawn if it needs extra nutrients.

If you are seeing bare patches in your lawn, reseed now.

What fall lawn care tips do you want to share? Please leave your tips in the comments below.

Attracting Birds to Your Yard

Birds are definitely a creature that humans have found fascinating for years. Perhaps it is their simple beauty, the gorgeous songs they trill so happily, or the intrigue that humans have with animals of flight. Watching these magnificent creatures is a past time that many people share. And there are a few things that you can do to bring birds to your backyard so that you can enjoy watching these carefree, playful little creatures of the air.

For the main part, if you have food and a source of water in your backyard for your little feathered friends, then you are already off to a good start.

For attracting certain birds you will need certain types of food. As each breed has its own preference.

Depending on the type of food you will need a proper bird feeder, if you are using bird seed, then you will need a tube feeder or hanging feeder. For Suet Cakes, you will need a suet feeder, and for that sweet syrupy stuff that hummingbirds love you will need a humming bird feeder. (My personal favorite is the strawberry hummingbird feeder.)

A few types of Bird Seed and a few of the birds that each attracts (each different seed attracts more birds than we have listed, but we will give you at least 3 birds that are attracted to each):

Sunflower Seeds:
-Cardinals
-Juncos
-Woodpeckers

Peanut Hearts:
-Chicadees
-Titmice
-Grosbeaks

Cracked Corn:
-Jays
-Sparrows
-Doves

Nyger:
-Finches
-Pine Siskins
-Buntings


At Red Hill General Store we carry several varieties of Bird Food including seeds and suet cakes, each blend attracts a variety of birds to your yard.

And a photo a Red Hill Employee got of a Woodpecker on her backporch:

Have fruit trees that you'd rather not have birds in? Read How to keep birds out of fruit trees.

Red Hill General Store's Outdoor and Gardening Blog

We are bringing you a blog that ties in with several of our sister sites. Sprayer-outlet.com and Earthway-outlet.com are just two of our Web sites that we will feature products, projects, advice, and ideas from on this blog.

Once harvest season rolls in we will also feature some tips from Pressurecooker-outlet.com.

We want to know what kind of blogs and information you want to see about the outdoors and gardening. What type of information are you needing this coming year?

Some great places to start:
Starting a Garden
Urban Container Garden
Harvest Time