I keep thinking…if people mow their lawns, bag the clippings and rake up all the leaves, where does the lawn soil get any organic material from? It’s an interesting question and one that I haven’t found the answer to yet.
I used to bag the lawn clippings. I was having fun doing it too. Then, I read that I could just mow the lawn and let the clipping stay. Of course the article was written by one of those freaky granola people with a dirt lawn. You know the type, the guy who tries to eat the lawn weeds. I always try to take advice from people I want to be like, not some weirdo who jumped on the “green” train. So, I kept on reading articles from a variety of authors. I came to the conclusion that leaving the grass clippings on the lawn is okay if you mow frequently. If you mow infrequently, you will get big grass clumps that will kill the grass underneath. I think I can handle mowing regularly. About half way through this last Summer, I stopped bagging and the lawn looked the same thereafter.
The whole reason I did that research is because every time I bagged the clippings, I felt like I was taking a little bit of love away from the soil. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out how that soil was going to get the organic material back. I mean, was it from the leaves I pick up every Autumn? No, because they obviously aren’t there anymore (I picked them up, duh).
I had a vision in my head…I visualized the lawn in five years. It was horrible. Everything was in black and white and looked barren like the moon’s surface. You can even use Mars as an example. I didn’t like having a lawn with no nutrients and dark soil. I decided to keep reading and to research what would happen if I just mulched up the leaves that fall from the trees every year and kept them right there on the grass. Well, wouldn’t you just know it, other people were having the same thoughts and a group up at Michigan State University did a study on this exact topic.
I am going to jump right to the conclusion of their study. They said that it is okay to mulch your leaves into the grass and it’s actually better for the soil. It helps out all those microbes and the worms as well. I know about the worms because my compost pile is FULL of them. Worms like organic material. If the lawn had more organic material, I could imagine that the worms would find their way there.
I’m going to do it. This year, I am going to mulch the leaves and leave them on the lawn. I am going to have to do a really thorough job though because there are a lot of leaves. That’s good because there are some areas of this lawn where the soil is just stripped of any nutrients. I wouldn’t even call it soil anymore. It’s like dust when it gets dry.
I suppose I could always just spread peat moss or compost over the grass every Autumn. That wouldn’t really be fun. Besides, where would I get my compost? From the big pile of leaves and grass clippings I raked up and bagged the year before?
This year will be the experiment. I will let you know how it goes. If things look good in the Spring, I will tell you. Actually, I will tell you either way. It can’t get any worse than it is now. Although, I am looking at the grass after a three week spell of no rain and a thorough dethatching job. Things ain’t looking so great.
Remember my post a few days ago about how bright the moon was? I knew I wasn’t sniffing something, it actually is bright. It just so happens to be one of those full moons.
I didn’t get a chance to take a photo for the last post, but I did get one tonight. It’s not of the ground like I would have liked, but it is of the moon.
Did anyone else see the moon last night? I wanted to grab a photo, but gave up because I knew it would never work.
Lately, we have been walking after dark. While this is not the safest thing to do, it’s nice because it’s peaceful. 20 degrees during the day is the same 20 degrees at night, so it really doesn’t make too much of a difference when we walk during winter.
On our way back last night, we rounded a bend and I saw my shadow on the road. The road was all lit up, which struck me as kind of odd, because I didn’t remember seeing a street light around anywhere. When I looked back to look for the light, all I saw was the moon. Holy smokes.
I informed Laura of my discovery and she was just thrilled. Eh hem. Yeah right. I got more of something like, “Oh really?” She is so polite.
I just want to say that last night had the brightest moon I have ever seen. Later on in the night, when I was looking out the window to the backyard, I saw all the oak tree branch shadows very clearly. The snow made it even more pronounced.
I think aliens may have something to do with it, but you didn’t hear that from me.
Five months later and it looks like Facebook is ready to release their new profile redesign. Initially Facebook announced they were working on a redesign earlier this year. In May, a glimpse of the redesigned was released to developers in the developers sandbox. Tomorrow evening the redesign will be open to the public.
Android started off being a great idea, from a great company, with lots of support from carriers and manufacturers, and an awesome $10million contest to get developers drooling. With some stiff competition from Apple, and loss of developer morale, I’m afraid of what the future might hold for this platform.
The world’s first commercial-scale tidal turbine developed by British tidal energy company, Marine Current Turbines, has delivered electricity onto the grid for the first time. In principle, SeaGen works much like an “underwater windmillâ€, driven by the power of the tidal currents.
Google Tests Search Interface That Looks More Like Digg
In the new Google Search Interface each comment has an up or down vote feature as well, and Google is using thumbs up and down icons that are exactly the same as those on Digg. The comments show the username of the person leaving it, and clicking on it shows their Google account profile.
When Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the moon, he uttered unforgettable words. But the next visitor to roam the lunar landscape may send back e-mail instead. Welcome to a new kind of space race, where the earthly guest will be a machine and the goal is as much exploration as seeking out new business ventures.
Since there was a total lunar eclipse tonight, along with a very clear sky, Laura and I decided to venture out to the front sidewalk to have a look. We went out there and then bolted back inside to grab our cameras.
We were just in time…I think it was 9:52PM. the moon looked like it was almost fully in the Earth’s shadow. The orange color was really neat. We took sixteen photos between the two of us. When we got back inside to look at what we took, we were quite proud of ourselves. Then, I opened them on the computer and we were less proud. Since not one of them stood out to be the best, I decided to put them all together in one photo. We did manage to get some pretty neat effects though.
