53February 18, 2015

Trust me when I tell you that somewhere under all that snow is your front lawn!
I guess that I don’t have to tell you that we have had a lot of snow. It has piled up high on roofs all along the area. There have been numerous roof collapses too. You may find that you have to get the snow off your roof. I can tell you that from using a roof rake to get the snow off our flat roof at home that it is not an easy task. Unfortunately, under the edge of the roofline is where we plant many of our shrubs. When the snow is being removed from the roof, the impact of the snow landing on the shrubs can damage the shrubs. If you have to shovel your roof, try to get the snow to land away from your shrubs.

Probably the only saving grace is that so many of our shrubs are completely covered in snow. This covering of snow may protect your shrubs from the impact of snow being shoveled off the roof.

Over the last week, we have had many customers come into the store asking what they can do about mice coming into the house. If I had to make a guess, the mice are looking for food. The snow is covering any of the naturally occurring seed that they would find outside the home. You can use a mousetrap to catch them but that tends to bother many people when it comes time to dispose of the mice. Over the last few years, I have told you about a product called Mouse Magic. This product is a mouse repellent. It doesn’t hurt the mice, it just has a fragrance that we don’t mind but the mice hate the smell. Mouse Magic comes a packet that looks like a large tea bag. The packets are placed around the home in areas where mice are coming into the home. As the mice try to come inside, they smell the Mouse Magic and decide not to come into the home. The placement of the packets is important in keeping the mice at bay. You want to place the packets near pipes that come into the house, at the base of the bulkhead, near any sides of the garage door etc. Each packet gives off its fragrance for 30 to 45 days. Most people have found that by replacing the packets once a month, the mice stay out of the house. I have even had customers tell me that the Mouse Magic drives the mice right out of the house! We carry Mouse Magic in our store.

Well, that’s all for this week. I’ll talk to you again next week.