Spring’s coming. When it does, are you prepared for all of those outside projects awaiting you? As you head outside to watch the children play, get yard work done, paint decks, rails, and trim, and prep the gardens, you need to have the right supplies on hand. Make your outside chores go smoothly with the best tarps for spring projects.
Start Seedlings Early
You love to garden, but the growing season is short. Have you thought about getting a greenhouse frame and buying clear tarps to create the walls and roofing? Clear PVC tarps are UV treated to prevent damage from intense sun rays. Light gets in, but the tarp keeps cold air from freezing your delicate seedlings. You can get plants outside earlier and have them well established and ready for transplanting as soon as the frost danger ends.
Make it Easy to Clean Up After Gardening and Yardwork
As winter comes to an end, months of snow, winds, ice, and rain can leave your yard a mess. Flower beds look dull and need sprucing up. Cover an area of your driveway or ground with a blue poly tarp and have someone deliver a load of cedar mulch. Cedar keeps insect pests away and brightens your beds up while you wait for the flowers to bloom.
Place rings of mulch around trees to help their roots retain water. To do this effectively, make sure the mulch is away from the base of the tree to prevent the tree trunk from growing fungus and rotting. Leave four or five inches of space between the trunk and the mulch ring. Keep the mulch to a depth of four inches maximum.
When you’re done, the remnants of mulch are all on the tarp and not all over your lawn. It makes it easier to clean up. Shake off the mulch pieces into a compost pile, rinse the tarp off, and allow it to dry. Once it’s completely dry, fold and store it until it’s needed again.
Screened-In Porches and Patios Keep the Bugs Away
Do you love spending time outside but find your time cut short because of biting insects? Now is the perfect time to screen in your covered deck or patio. If you have a covered deck, adding some lumber to form walls and attaching mesh tarps to those walls will keep the insects out. If they come up from below the deck through the decking, weatherproof deck carpeting helps.
What if your deck or patio isn’t covered? You can always cover it with a pergola or similar framing and cover that with an 18-ounce vinyl coated polyester tarp. This tarp is tough and can handle strong winds and stormy weather, and it’s UV-treated to prevent damage from the sun’s UVA and UVB rays.
Sunshades to Protect Against the Sun’s Rays
If you have kids spending time outside, sunscreen is a must. You don’t want the UV rays damaging their skin and increasing the risk of skin cancer years from now. Sunscreen only lasts so long and has to be reapplied every two hours or after getting wet. Double the protection and put up sunshades over picnic tables, sandboxes, kiddie pools, and playground equipment.
You should also protect your skin. Use a heavy-duty poly tarp on the ground as a picnic mat. String an 18-ounce vinyl coated polyester tarp between trees to create a sunshade that you can move as needed. Bring out some pillows and read while your children play. Vinyl coated polyester tarps also make good sunshades over a hammock or lounge chair.
Privacy Screens and Fencing Keeps Nosy Neighbors Out
You spend a lot of time outside, but your metal fencing makes it easy for your neighbors to see exactly what you’re doing. With the right neighbors, that’s no problem. Sometimes, you have a nosier neighbor who becomes a little too nosy and it’s distracting.
You may have already experienced it. The neighbor who stands outside and watches you every time you come outside to use your pool. Or, the neighbor’s kids who stand at the fence and stare with the hopes you’ll invite them over to swim. You feel uncomfortable, so you try to time swimming with times the neighbor is gone or sleeping.
Instead of timing your fun around your neighbor’s habits, attach mesh tarps to your metal fence to create privacy screens. You could also get some framing and put up a taller wall around your pool to keep out prying eyes. Vinyl mesh tarps are the best choice for privacy screens.
Protection for Outdoor Painting Jobs
Protect your outdoor surfaces, shrubs, and gardens from paint splatter when you’re restaining your deck, painting trim on your home, waterproofing wooden playground equipment, and laying down driveway sealant. Canvas is a preferred tarp for paint covers inside the home. If you want one for outside the home, canvas tarps are great, but they’re not waterproof or mildew-resistant if they’re not treated.
Pool Covers That Keep Bugs, Leaves, and Twigs Out of the Water
A green-silver heavy-duty poly tarp is good at the end of the season when you’re closing up the pool for the winter. What about the spring when you open the pool for the season? How can a tarp protect your investment using a mesh tarp. With these two types of pool covers, your pool will be easier to get ready in the spring and keep it clean in between uses.
Protect your investment by keeping your pool covered when it’s not in use. It helps keep twigs, leaves, bugs, animals, and branches from sinking to the bottom. Mesh tarp will work here. Cover the pool when people are done for the day. Before it gets used the next day, remove the tarp, and hang it up to dry for the afternoon.
Grills, Patio Furniture, and Other Outdoor Items That Need Protecting
Do you want furniture and grill covers to protect outdoor equipment during rainstorms? Iron Horse polyester tarps are durable and designed to stand up to wind, downpours, and heavy-duty jobs. It’s a great choice for covering your grill once it’s cooled down. You can also use it to cover patio furniture, lawn equipment, and toys.
Do your children have a sandbox? After replacing the sand in the spring, keep neighborhood cats from using it as a litter box by keeping it covered when it’s not in use. An Iron Horse tarp is waterproof. The sand stays dry, and cats can’t get into the sandbox when your children aren’t using it.
Slip and Slides for Outdoor Fun
Are your kids begging to cool off on a warmer-than-usual spring day? Is the pool not ready or you can’t afford one? There’s a solution that will make them extremely happy.
Buy a vinyl tarp and turn it into a slip and slide. Chicago Canvas has slip and slide tarps in sizes ranging from 5 x 20 to 10 x 100 feet. Soak the vinyl down with water, put on clothes you don’t mind getting wet, apply sunscreen, and join your kids for a refreshing afternoon. Turn back on the hose as needed to keep the vinyl tarp slick.
How do you know if you’ve found the right tarp for your spring projects and outdoor needs this season? Chicago Canvas is happy to talk to you about the different tarps offered and what sizes they come in. Many are available in custom sizes if you need something larger or smaller than the standard sizes. Reach our experts online through live chat or by filling out the “contact us” form.