Steven asks…
Is there something wrong with growing lawn with seeds over laying sod?
I know sod is much quicker, but also way more expensive. I made the mistake of telling a new tenant I had put in a new sod lawn for the last tenant that let it die. Now they also want a sod lawn. When I mentioned throwing down grass seeds, the new tenant said yea, but the birds will eat it. I don’t get this other than the same old story of the landlord paying out loads of money. Please explain because I guess I don’t get it.
GardenersCardiff answers:
Hi Ava,
There is nothing wrong with laying down seed as opposed to laying down sod. Seed is great and a lot cheaper than sod and it is easy to do, providing that you follow a few important directions. If there are any bare spots, be sure to rough these spots up with a garden rake before laying down your seed.
If the soil is very sandy or clay, it will be a good idea to lay down about 1 inch of topper prior to laying down the seed. This will give the seed a nutritious base in which to germinate in. Once the seed has been applied it will be necessary to cover the seed with a good quality topper. I do not favor steer manure because of all the weed seeds it has.
There are two reasons to cover the seed. The first one is to prevent all the birds from eating the seed and the second is to keep the new grass seedlings form being dried out by the sun and the wind.
Once the seed has been covered with between 1/8 & 1/4 inch of topper, the whole area where the seed was applied must be watered on a regular basis. During the first 7-10 days is very important to keep the soil damp, but not wet. Remember that the grass seed is just below the surface and it will take about 7-10 days for the grass to germinate, depending on the type of grass you are going to use.
Sod is more expensive but it gives you an instant lawn. The care of sod however, is the same as the seed. With new sod, the grass must be water frequently every day, enough to keep the new sod “gushy” wet for that first week. Depending on the type of soil you have, the new grass will have to be watered several times a week for about 20 – 30 minutes per cycle.
The water must sink into the soil about 2 inches to give the new grass sufficient water to survive the summer heat. After the grass has been established, you may be able to cut back on the watering to about 2-3 times a week, providing you have been deep watering the grass.
The best time to water is in the morning hours. This way the grass is hydrated for the heat of the day. Do not water in the evening. This can cause a fungus in your lawn. You can water in the afternoon, but do not water any later in the afternoon, than it takes for the grass to be dry to the touch by the time the sun goes down.
To have a successful lawn, it will take some cooperation from your tenant since they will have to water the lawn to keep it green. To have a successful lawn, you will need to have a sprinkler system. Watering by hand from a hose nozzle is only effective for the first two weeks with seed or sod. After that, it takes a sprinkler system to get enough water on the lawn to keep it green or a hose end sprinkler that is moved from spot to spot on the lawn.
Please let me know if I can be of further assistance to you.
This has been another of,
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Lizzie asks…
Can someone explain string theory which would be comprehendible for a high schooler?
I’m not trying to get easy answers. If you’re going to bash me, don’t bother answering. I’m trying to understand the string theory. Right now, I’m using Wiki to figure it out. I don’t quite grasp the concept, but I really want extra credit for my physics project. If I can explain this theory fairly well, it would help my grade. I only have about a month to get this. Thanks!
GardenersCardiff answers:
I’ve answered a similar question before, so I’ll repost an edited version of my original answer here.
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String theory is basically the idea that elementary particles (particles that can’t be divided into smaller particles) are made of strings. There are two reasons why so many particle physicists are excited about it. The first is that it is a viable theory of quantum gravity, and the second is that it may unify the four forces (and particles associated with those forces) we observe in nature, so it is a candidate “theory of everything”.
To explain string theory, I need to go into a bit of history. In the first half of the 20th century, physicists made two great discoveries in physics. One was special relativity, which basically states that nothing can go faster than light, and the other was quantum mechanics, which deals with the fact that particles actually behave like waves when their behavior is measured on small length scales.
After the discovery of special relativity and quantum mechanics, physicists wanted to unify the two ideas. They came up with something called relativistic quantum mechanics, and after adding in the possibility that particles can be created and destroyed (matter-antimatter annihilation), they came up with resulting theories which we call quantum field theories.
Processes that occur in quantum field theories can be described by Feynman diagrams, where lines describe particles moving in space-time, and points at which these lines intersect describe interactions.
Quantum field theories were refined and extended to describe three of the four fundamental forces, electromagnetism, the weak nuclear force, and the strong nuclear force.
There were however, problems with these theories. In certain cases, infinite quantities arose when calculating the probabilities related to processes with loops in their corresponding Feynman diagrams. This was resolved with a technique called renormalization, which provides a way to “ignore” those infinities.
This issue became very problematic when physicists tried to create a quantum field theory for gravity. The infinite quantities simply couldn’t be “ignored” anymore with the techniques developed for the other theories.
String theory solved some of these problems by saying that each line (particle) in a Feynman diagram is really a tiny loop of string, and the points are where the strings combine and separate. When Feynman diagrams are thought of in the string context, the loops in the diagram no longer produce infinite values in calculations.
There is one catch to string theory. In order for the theory to be consistent (or without contradictions), it requires extra dimensions in addition to the ones we experience (four; length width height and time).
Extra dimensions are usually regarded as being extra spatial dimensions, exactly like the three we see every day. It’s difficult to imagine a fourth space-time dimension, but I like to see it as a bunch of 3-dimensional grids in a line.
String theorists explain the fact that we don’t experience these extra spatial dimensions by saying that the extra dimensions are really small, so that we don’t notice them. For example, a garden hose hose looks like a giant 2 dimensional surface to an ant (it can move in 2 directions, along the hose or around it). Yet, when you’re really far away, it looks like a line, which is a 1-dimensional object (it looks like you can only move along the hose now).
This explanation, by the way, had also been made before in an earlier theory, called Kaluza-Klein theory, which required a fifth dimension to work.
Sorry for the long post, but hey, what do you expect for an explanation of string theory?
Daniel asks…
What would be the youngest acceptable age to bring your child on vacation?
Like to disney world or something like that. How young was your child when you first brought them on vaca? And how was the experience? Anything you did to make the experience easier and more enjoyable for both parents and the child?
GardenersCardiff answers:
For my sons first birthday we took him to sea world, he loved it and while he was too young to remember any of it, it was a great experience for him. I took lots of pictures and made a scrapbook. For his 2nd Busch Gardens, 3rd Disney World, 4th Animal Kingdom and his 5th we went to Discovery Cove. He has a scrapbook for each of his birthdays and enjoys going thought.
My daughter was only 6 months when we took her to Animal Kingdom for her brothers birthday. It was fine we had a great time. She was also only 9 months when we took her on our family vacation to the Keys before my son started pre-k. I had her in ISR classes before we went, if you live around water I highly recommend these classes www.infantswim.com. Everyone had a great time we took the boat out and went snorkeling(daddy and I taking turns watching the baby), Bahia Honda was the best, it was really shallow she was able to just hang out in her float, while we hung on to her and snorkeled around.
I guess it depends on how you feel as a parent. I always take my kids with me everywhere I go, usually by myself, so it wasn’t a big deal to me. Actually a lot easier since there dad was there:) However my cousin won’t even take her kid to the grocery store or anywhere if she is by herself.
No matter what age my kids are I have always loved taking them to experience new things and so what if they aren’t old enough to remember, I am! Plus you’ll have pictures! Kids love looking at pictures of themselves:)
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