Working
in the yard
GRASS CARE
Today the subject is “Grass.” This subject you’ll be able to
easily understand. Properly done, taking care of your grass involves little
time or money.
*You don’t need to buy fertilizer because enough Nitrogen
(N2), which is the element that makes grass green, comes from rain in most
areas of the United States.
*You don’t need to aerate. Instead let the night crawlers do
the aerating.
*You don’t need to water too often. This forces roots of the
grass to grows long and strong in search of water. Mow when the grass is 3 to 5
inches tall and then cut us an inch. Tall turf grows slower and stronger, and
develops deep extensive roots With deep roots during a drought your lawn will remain
green longer without water “Bluegrass lawns can be grown to 5 or 6 inches
before mowing. Leave the clippings when you mow. They’re free fertilizer.
Clippings break down slowly and continually feed nitrogen to grass roots.
For a manicured look, invest in a mulching mower or put a
mulching blade on your existing mower.
Sharpen the mower blade twice each summer to avoid jagged
grass tips which are susceptible to disease and drought.
Mow in an alternate direction each time. Mow in an alternate
direction each time. Otherwise the lawn can develop furrows and uneven spots
Most lawns need at least an inch of water very week during
growing season. Buy a rain gauge to monitor rain fall. If you need to water, apply
it all at once.
If you see your footprints when you walk on the grass or it
the turf takes on a slightly bluish tint the lawn needs water.
Stay off the grass right after it’s been watered. Foot
traffic on wet lawns can compact the soil reducing the laws supply of oxygen
and nutrients.
It saves money, time and stress by not fertilizing,
sprinkling crab grass additives, hiring people, storage costs, buying
equipment, transportation costs, aerating so and so forth. If you do, I mean
don’t do any of these things your lawn will look professionally taken care of
Oh, you'll need a lawn mower. The type of lawn mower most
people prefer has the horizontal circular blade. Do set the cutter bar about
four inches off of the ground. The reason is if the grass is allowed to grow
about four inches tall, and you won't have dandelions and other weeds to
contend with. *Cut and
water only as needed. Let the cuttings mulch the lawn.
Next let’s talk about weed eaters.
I’m reminded of this
subject as I am watching the yard care crew that is cutting the grass at my
condo, while I write. They are killing the trees with their weed eaters. They
are, cutting the bark off the base of the trees at the same time as they cut
the grass around the trees. The younger the tree the more the damage and the
more likely to slow the growth or in a worst case scenario the death of the
tree, especially in a dry year. No shade for the tenants and home owners. The
big surprise is the federal government gives green money to weed eater users to
do all this killing.
The Weed Eater was invented by a man by the name of George
Ballas. He got his big idea after a poisonous snake bit a worker who was
trimming his lawn with shears. In 1975 George showed off his Weed Eater, a
popcorn can rigged up with some wires. It made a helluva noise. He died last
Saturday or maybe it was Sunday at age the age of eighty-five.
He was a dance instructor, developer, and inventor and
marketer who built hotels, patented an adjustable table and marketed an early
portable phone. But it was the Weed Eater—of which he invented both the concept
and the name that made him a fortune while sparking a revolution in lawn care.
He introduced the device in the early 1970 and by 1976 was selling $50 million
dollars’ worth of them annually.
The son of Greek immigrants who ran a restaurant in northern
Louisiana, Mr. Ballas served in the Air Force during World War II and the
Korean War. After getting out of the service, he married Maria Louisa
Marulanda, a dance instructor whom he met when she taught him the tango. She
had appeared in films, including the 1949 western "Rio Grande,” and the
couple went on to give performances together. Mr. Ballas went into the dance
business, managing several Arthur Murray and Fred Astaire studios. His son,
Corky Ballas, became a professional dancer, and his grandson, Mark Ballas, has
appeared on seven seasons of "Dancing with the Stars," including
partnering with Bristol Palin in season eleven. In the late 1960s, George
opened “Dance City USA” in an unused cinema in Houston, boasting that the
43,000-square-foot dance studio was the largest in the world. He called it a
supermarket of babes, booze and big bands all under one roof.
With his lawn business thriving, Mr. Ballas wanted his
lawn—all three acres of it—to look good. His search for an alternative to time-
and labor-intensive shears gained urgency when a worker he had hired was
hospitalized after being bitten by a copperhead. Mr. Ballas said the idea for
the Weed Eater came to him while he was in a car wash, contemplating the big
rotating bristles that cleaned hard-to-reach corners yet somehow didn't scratch
the finish. Drawing from that inspiration, he rigged up an old popcorn can with
some wires and hooked it to a rotating edger, and the first string trimmer was
born, but it ripped up the turf and tore away the grass," Mr. Ballas told
the New York Times in 1977. He hired an engineer to design new models that
substituted mono-filament fishing line for wire and ran on electricity and gas.
He dubbed it "Weed Eater" and held several patents on it. When Mr.
Ballas failed to find a company interested in distributing the device, he
decided to sell it himself. He gave each new model a pet name—the first was a
"Weedie" and the second a "Clippie"—and designed logos for
each based on portraits of his children with unruly, grass-like hair. He used a
high-visibility ad campaign, including spots on the Super Bowl and a
sponsorship role in the 1977 David Frost interviews of former President Richard
Nixon. In 1977, Mr. Ballas sold Weed Eater Inc. to Emerson Electric Co. for an
undisclosed sum that his daughter, Winnie Jamaal, called a largely fortune. Mr.
Ballas also taught entrepreneurship at Rice University in Houston. He continued
to tinker with new inventions, and at one point marketed football-helmet-sized
portable phone that found few takers.
“A Weed Eater," Mr. Ballas told the San Francisco
Chronicle in 1998, "comes along once in a lifetime."
Any questions you can email me, or ask the yard and garden
“We Can Help” section of Home Depot
.
DR. KARL WALLACE D.D.S.
To read more Karl Wallace stories go to: w.w.w.karlwallaceblog.blogspot.com
