WEBVTT - SYSK Distraction Playlist: How Grass Works? Yes, How Grass Works 0:00:00.840 --> 0:00:04.040 Welcome to you Stuff you should Know from house Stuff 0:00:04.040 --> 0:00:12.200 Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm 0:00:12.280 --> 0:00:15.680 Josh Clark, There's Charles t. W Chuck Bryant, and we 0:00:15.680 --> 0:00:17.400 were just talking about Canada, so I said to you, 0:00:18.400 --> 0:00:21.200 and there's Jerry over there. So this is stuff you 0:00:21.200 --> 0:00:26.400 should know. Hello, live from the Bowling Green how Stuff 0:00:26.400 --> 0:00:32.040 Works dot com. Mhm, that's what the site's slogan is. Yeah, uh, 0:00:32.240 --> 0:00:37.560 are you doing all right? I'm doing great? Watch this, chuck. Yeah, 0:00:38.360 --> 0:00:43.960 have you ever seen grass? I have, sir, you won't 0:00:43.960 --> 0:00:46.839 find a lot of good grass in my yard. But no, 0:00:47.080 --> 0:00:49.600 is it terrible. I've I've seen it before. I don't remember. 0:00:49.600 --> 0:00:52.639 It's pretty bad. Well, I mean i'll I will um 0:00:52.920 --> 0:00:55.480 bemoan myself all throughout this one. So well you have. 0:00:55.800 --> 0:00:59.720 It turns out the traditional American yard, did you know 0:00:59.800 --> 0:01:06.560 that peck dirt, maybe a little bit of garden around, um, 0:01:06.680 --> 0:01:11.480 and there you go some native grasses. That's the that's tradition. 0:01:11.959 --> 0:01:14.920 And it turns out, um, that's the way if you 0:01:14.959 --> 0:01:19.360 went to an American house, chuck um, pre Industrial Revolution. Yeah, 0:01:19.360 --> 0:01:22.200 pretty much you're going to find that. Like you're just 0:01:22.200 --> 0:01:24.560 gonna find peck dirt in the yard, maybe a garden, 0:01:25.680 --> 0:01:30.040 some weeds. Nobody really cared much. They were more um 0:01:30.080 --> 0:01:34.880 trying to survive. Yeah, right, And then um in the 0:01:35.000 --> 0:01:38.920 nineteenth century, as Americans said, you know, we've been hanging 0:01:38.920 --> 0:01:41.039 out here for a hundred years, let's go back to 0:01:41.080 --> 0:01:45.680 England and visit. Yet they found it was But they 0:01:45.680 --> 0:01:48.360 also found that the English had something called a lawn, 0:01:49.160 --> 0:01:52.640 which is a beautiful, well manicured expanse of grass that 0:01:53.080 --> 0:01:57.400 a very wealthy English could afford. Well, wealthy Americans were 0:01:57.440 --> 0:02:02.560 never wants to be um out by wealthy British now, 0:02:02.960 --> 0:02:04.920 So they came back and they're like, I want a lawn. 0:02:05.240 --> 0:02:08.839 I am worth so much money it's mind boggling. Make 0:02:08.919 --> 0:02:12.000 me a lawn. And whoever they were talking to said, 0:02:13.320 --> 0:02:16.320 we can't really do that here, right, The native grass 0:02:16.400 --> 0:02:20.639 is not conducive to camped lawn. You can't pop over 0:02:20.720 --> 0:02:24.400 to the big box hardware store and buy huge sacks 0:02:24.440 --> 0:02:26.560 of seed, right, And so they said, well, you know what, 0:02:26.840 --> 0:02:29.200 I'll be right back. I'm going to the UK to 0:02:29.280 --> 0:02:32.799 buy my seed. And then they traveled there, and then 0:02:32.960 --> 0:02:35.520 fourteen weeks later they made it all the way back 0:02:36.120 --> 0:02:38.720 and they said, here, you go grounds keeper, Willie, make 0:02:38.760 --> 0:02:44.360 me a lawn. Here's some British seed for turf grass. 0:02:44.720 --> 0:02:47.639 And he said, hey man, he said, when I'm done 0:02:47.639 --> 0:02:52.320 with you, they're going to need a compost mortem. Whoa wow, 0:02:52.520 --> 0:02:54.400 the deep cut. That was good. I think that was 0:02:54.480 --> 0:02:58.440 treat house with horror, like oh the one where he's ready. Yeah, yeah, 0:02:58.560 --> 0:03:03.200 nice man. Gonna need to come Postmoredom. So he said that, 0:03:03.960 --> 0:03:06.639 and then he said, well, here's the problem. Our climate 0:03:06.720 --> 0:03:10.560 is different than the UK's and these seeds aren't going 0:03:10.639 --> 0:03:14.200 to survive here. So the lords and the ladies said, 0:03:14.280 --> 0:03:18.240 I give up. We'll figure something else out. And it 0:03:18.280 --> 0:03:23.520 took the Golf Association, the U. S. Department of Agriculture, 0:03:24.280 --> 0:03:28.400 and the American Garden Club to finally get together and say, 0:03:28.480 --> 0:03:31.720 let's make this happen. Everybody. Yeah, they got together. The U. S. 0:03:31.800 --> 0:03:33.679 D A got together with the U S. G A 0:03:34.480 --> 0:03:38.040 and they said, our names are similar, so let's let's 0:03:38.120 --> 0:03:41.640 plant some grass together. Right. Uh So what they had 0:03:41.640 --> 0:03:44.120 to do basically was looked for, you know, kind of 0:03:44.200 --> 0:03:48.040 full around with the right combination of seed varieties which 0:03:48.080 --> 0:03:50.440 they imported from around the world. Yeah, just to see 0:03:50.480 --> 0:03:52.160 like all right, what this, what's gonna grow here in 0:03:52.200 --> 0:03:54.760 this new country because we gotta place in golf. Yeah, 0:03:54.880 --> 0:04:00.400 like Kentucky bluegrass. Friends, that's from Europe. Firm muta grass. 0:04:00.520 --> 0:04:04.760 Where do you think that's from? Obviously Africa, that is right. 0:04:05.160 --> 0:04:08.400 God knows where Zoisja came from, although I believe Asia 0:04:08.880 --> 0:04:13.360 and not just because Zoysia and Asia are somewhat similar sounding. Uh. 0:04:13.400 --> 0:04:15.720 It took him about fifteen years and they finally kind 0:04:15.720 --> 0:04:18.599 of settled on some good combination of grasses. Yeah, but 0:04:18.640 --> 0:04:22.440 you can thank golf to start. So if you hate 0:04:22.440 --> 0:04:25.640 golf but you love your lawn, yeah, you have to 0:04:25.720 --> 0:04:28.920 kind of like golf anyway. That's right, Um, but still chuck. 0:04:29.000 --> 0:04:31.960 Even though they finally came up with the right grass combinations, 0:04:32.480 --> 0:04:34.920 you had to still be pretty rich to have a lawn. 0:04:35.440 --> 0:04:39.599 The reason why was because irrigation was a factor. Cutting 0:04:39.600 --> 0:04:42.080 it was a big factor. Like all of those manor 0:04:42.160 --> 0:04:46.200 houses in the in the UK, they had people whose 0:04:46.279 --> 0:04:50.039 job it was was to cut grass with a scythe Yeah, 0:04:50.080 --> 0:04:52.560 a lot of people, I would imagine. Yeah, because these 0:04:52.600 --> 0:04:57.000 lawns were not small. Um, and like you said, they 0:04:57.000 --> 0:05:01.000 didn't have like garden hoses back then, Nope, and buckets 0:05:01.000 --> 0:05:02.800 of water is not a great way to water a lawn. 0:05:03.839 --> 0:05:06.600 Um all the livestock that you know, they did cut 0:05:06.640 --> 0:05:09.640 them with the sites, but they also had cows and 0:05:09.640 --> 0:05:11.400 goats taking care of a lot of that. Yeah. Who 0:05:11.520 --> 0:05:15.320 was it who had the uh the um sheep on 0:05:15.360 --> 0:05:18.839 the front yard of the White House. I don't remember 0:05:18.839 --> 0:05:21.200 what administration that one. I think it was Wilson was it. 0:05:21.480 --> 0:05:23.840 He was saying like, look, what you can do is 0:05:23.880 --> 0:05:26.720 an American you can put a sheep on your lawn. Yeah, 0:05:26.760 --> 0:05:29.160 so do it. And then he sold the wool or 0:05:29.160 --> 0:05:31.919 auctioned it off for like a hundred thousand dollars. Wow, 0:05:32.120 --> 0:05:36.760 and he kept it. Probably it's a good story. Um. 0:05:36.880 --> 0:05:40.600 The lawnmower mechanical mowing in the nineteenth century became a 0:05:40.600 --> 0:05:43.400 real thing when an Englishman named Edwin Budding, who was 0:05:43.400 --> 0:05:47.160 an engineer, developed what it's called the real mower, and 0:05:47.160 --> 0:05:50.720 that is R E L And you've seen these. You've 0:05:50.720 --> 0:05:54.719 probably seen some suckers in your neighborhood with one. I'm 0:05:54.760 --> 0:05:56.920 just kidding. I actually have a real mower. I live 0:05:56.920 --> 0:05:59.360 in a Konda. Yeah, real mower's I mean you can 0:05:59.360 --> 0:06:02.400 still get him in. They're great and they have zero emissions. 0:06:02.400 --> 0:06:05.760 Which is really neat because a lot of lawnmowers, um 0:06:05.960 --> 0:06:11.080 are pretty bad offenders. Yeah, their internal combustion engines, which 0:06:11.120 --> 0:06:13.479 means they put out all sorts of greenhouse gasses. Yeah, 0:06:13.480 --> 0:06:15.359 and and they're not you know, it's not like a car. 0:06:15.440 --> 0:06:17.440 You know, they don't have catalytic converters and things like that. 0:06:17.480 --> 0:06:20.000 I mean, it's just straight up bad junk. So you 0:06:20.040 --> 0:06:21.840 can get a real more if you're into it. Um 0:06:21.880 --> 0:06:23.920 it is. You've seen them. It's a series of blades 0:06:24.320 --> 0:06:28.560 around a cylinder and uh it is. It's geared, which 0:06:28.640 --> 0:06:31.040 is the key to making it work. If you just 0:06:31.120 --> 0:06:34.480 pushed it and it traveled like the wheel did, you 0:06:34.480 --> 0:06:36.560 wouldn't be cutting a lot of grass. But there's a 0:06:36.600 --> 0:06:39.760 sixteen to one gear ratio, so when you're pushing it, 0:06:39.839 --> 0:06:42.160 your wheels are turning at this speed, but the blade 0:06:42.200 --> 0:06:45.200 is turning really fast. Yeah. That's sort of the secret 0:06:45.240 --> 0:06:50.240 how they work. And apparently, um Mr Budding said or 0:06:50.279 --> 0:06:54.320 he found another machine that was similar that was used 0:06:54.360 --> 0:06:58.400 to cut the nap on velvet. Yeah do you know that? Yeah, 0:06:58.440 --> 0:07:00.200 and that's kind of where he got the idea. And 0:07:00.240 --> 0:07:01.960 it took off like a rocket all of a sudden. 0:07:01.960 --> 0:07:03.960 People were like, hey, we can have lawns. Now, let's 0:07:03.960 --> 0:07:07.880 buy these things. Apparently there were somewhat affordable. In eight five, 0:07:08.120 --> 0:07:10.960 America built fifty thousand of these things and sent him 0:07:10.960 --> 0:07:14.560 around the globe. Yeah, that was the beginning of lawns 0:07:14.560 --> 0:07:16.840 in America. Really. Uh. And you know what else that 0:07:16.920 --> 0:07:20.760 got in vided? What the adjustable wrench? Is that? Right? Yeah? 0:07:21.680 --> 0:07:25.360 You dynamo or is they called it the adjustable spanner? 0:07:26.280 --> 0:07:29.400 Who called it that? Uh? The internet? And I was like, 0:07:29.400 --> 0:07:31.560 what the heck of spanner? And then it turns out 0:07:31.600 --> 0:07:34.680 it's a wrench spanner. This doesn't even make sense. Yeah, 0:07:34.880 --> 0:07:38.040 that may be an English thing. So um. The garden 0:07:38.040 --> 0:07:39.920 host comes around and that helps too. That was a 0:07:39.920 --> 0:07:42.400 big help as well. But even still you had this thing. 0:07:42.440 --> 0:07:45.760 It was kind of like, Okay, Richie, rich love your lawn, 0:07:46.360 --> 0:07:49.000 I don't really care. I don't need one. And the 0:07:49.040 --> 0:07:53.200 American Garden Club said, oh, yeah, it's the nineteen fifties. 0:07:53.280 --> 0:07:56.600 You live in suburbia. You have to have a lawn 0:07:56.720 --> 0:08:00.960 if you are a clean cut, decent America Rican person. 0:08:01.960 --> 0:08:04.040 And the American Garden Club had this whole thing where 0:08:04.040 --> 0:08:08.040 they had contests and publicity and p s a s 0:08:08.120 --> 0:08:12.200 and basically drummed it into the head of every American man, woman, 0:08:12.200 --> 0:08:15.520 and child that part of your civic duty was to 0:08:15.680 --> 0:08:20.920 have a perfect lawn sally. Yeah, and there was this, 0:08:21.120 --> 0:08:24.280 uh this article, man, I can't remember what the the 0:08:24.480 --> 0:08:26.920 article is, um or what the website is. I wish 0:08:26.920 --> 0:08:29.520 I could, because you know this, they did a great 0:08:29.560 --> 0:08:35.160 job describing the history. But they quoted an American garden club. Um, 0:08:35.200 --> 0:08:39.240 I guess stipulation that's an appropriate type of lawn was 0:08:39.360 --> 0:08:42.880 quote a plot with a single type of grass with 0:08:42.920 --> 0:08:46.080 no intruding weeds, kept moaning at a height of an 0:08:46.120 --> 0:08:50.760 inch and a half, too short, uniformly green, and neatly edged. 0:08:52.240 --> 0:08:57.880 And then today Americans spend about thirty billion dollars a 0:08:57.960 --> 0:09:01.439 year on lawng care, you know how like people are 0:09:01.520 --> 0:09:04.480 crazy for their pets and everything. Half a half a 0:09:04.520 --> 0:09:09.559 billion really thirty billion on long care? Yeah? Now is 0:09:09.600 --> 0:09:14.560 that long care? Is that outdoor care care? Ok? Yeah, 0:09:14.600 --> 0:09:17.720 I looked it up to just grass long care, not 0:09:17.800 --> 0:09:21.880 planning a zaleus. No. I imagine like just the whole 0:09:21.920 --> 0:09:24.600 total of outdoor stuff is sends it through the roof 0:09:24.640 --> 0:09:27.600 of thirty billions long care. I mean I looked because 0:09:27.640 --> 0:09:30.880 that that UM article we borrowed from way outdated. Well 0:09:30.920 --> 0:09:34.160 it was from like two thousand survey and it was 0:09:34.200 --> 0:09:38.160 like seventeen billion on all outdoor stuff, outdoor home improvement. 0:09:38.160 --> 0:09:43.200 I think they put thirty billion dollars on lawns. That's crazy. Yes, 0:09:43.400 --> 0:09:47.760 all right, let's get into grass. Um. It is the 0:09:47.880 --> 0:09:52.360 name for the Grandma gramina family of plants, of which 0:09:52.400 --> 0:09:55.760 there are more than nine thousand species. And uh, if 0:09:55.800 --> 0:09:59.559 you think, well, nine thousand species of grass, you might 0:09:59.600 --> 0:10:03.320 not realized that things like corn and rice and oats 0:10:03.520 --> 0:10:11.160 are grass plants. Bamboo is grass. Yeah, so building materials, plastics, room, sugar, 0:10:11.320 --> 0:10:17.080 all this stuff is made from grasses, corn grass, and 0:10:17.160 --> 0:10:20.160 some like if you look at a corn plant and 0:10:20.200 --> 0:10:22.560 then you get down on your hands and knees and 0:10:22.600 --> 0:10:27.880 look at your bermuda grass plants, because your lawn, although 0:10:27.920 --> 0:10:32.680 it looks like one large, single organism, and technically you 0:10:32.720 --> 0:10:34.840 could make the you can make the argument that it 0:10:34.920 --> 0:10:41.920 is really is a series of interconnected related grass plants 0:10:41.960 --> 0:10:46.920 that form a lush patch of turf. And if, like 0:10:46.920 --> 0:10:48.880 you said, if you get down and look at the 0:10:49.160 --> 0:10:53.480 little individual plants closely, it doesn't look so far off 0:10:53.520 --> 0:10:56.880 of a corn plant. Thank you for that thought for 0:10:56.920 --> 0:10:59.760 me obviously growing No, but what is corn but a 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:03.720 type of flower? Right? Yeah? I guess is it? No, 0:11:03.880 --> 0:11:07.520 it's the fruit of the grass. I guess okay, because 0:11:07.600 --> 0:11:10.640 corn does have like a flowery top. Yeah. And I've 0:11:10.640 --> 0:11:12.079 heard I don't know if this is true. I've heard 0:11:12.080 --> 0:11:14.400 that each corn stalk only grows one corn cob. Is 0:11:14.400 --> 0:11:16.800 that right? M I don't know. I'm not a farmer. 0:11:17.080 --> 0:11:18.480 We used to grow corn when I was a kid, 0:11:18.559 --> 0:11:23.160 but hated gardening when I was a kid. Man, I 0:11:23.200 --> 0:11:25.640 have to say, you remember we just recorded sushi, Yeah, 0:11:25.679 --> 0:11:29.679 and it made me want want sushi. This is like, man, 0:11:30.160 --> 0:11:33.400 I love gardening. Yeah. Yeah. I think when you get 0:11:33.400 --> 0:11:36.480 older you get into gardening because eventually, like you might 0:11:36.480 --> 0:11:38.480 own a home and then you want it to look 0:11:38.559 --> 0:11:40.720 nice and you want it to be a pleasurable place. 0:11:41.200 --> 0:11:44.720 And gardening is just really uh like that's why every 0:11:44.720 --> 0:11:48.840 old British rock star now just gardens out in the countryside, 0:11:49.080 --> 0:11:51.559 because it's just quiet and peaceful and it's just a 0:11:51.600 --> 0:11:55.040 really nice thing to do. Meditative. Yeah, very much. Um 0:11:55.160 --> 0:11:57.280 right now, though, So you know, I live in a condo, 0:11:57.360 --> 0:11:59.680 Like I say, I've got like a pretty nice little 0:11:59.679 --> 0:12:04.479 patty garden going. But I am combating this one squirrel 0:12:05.520 --> 0:12:08.320 who was driving me crazy. Is it the same one? 0:12:08.360 --> 0:12:10.440 Do you know? I believe it is. There was one 0:12:10.480 --> 0:12:13.320 that was driving me crazy. I thwarted him, send him packing. 0:12:13.800 --> 0:12:16.560 Now there's this I put up. So I have a 0:12:16.559 --> 0:12:19.520 bird feeder that squirrels love to attack. But I hung 0:12:19.520 --> 0:12:21.960 it in a way and cleared off branches around it, 0:12:22.200 --> 0:12:24.560 so this one squirl go dive for it, miss and 0:12:24.600 --> 0:12:28.079 go sailing. And one time he hit it and realized 0:12:28.080 --> 0:12:30.320 that he couldn't hang onto the chain and like fell off, 0:12:30.360 --> 0:12:34.120 and that was it. This new squirrel man, he is 0:12:34.160 --> 0:12:37.720 persistent TOAs squirrel. I'll look outside at any given point 0:12:37.720 --> 0:12:40.719 in time and he is hanging upside down by this 0:12:40.800 --> 0:12:43.839 chain with his feet eating out of my bird feeder 0:12:43.880 --> 0:12:47.679 safflower seeds, which squirrels aren't even supposed to like. And 0:12:47.720 --> 0:12:50.760 so that's just that he comes onto my patio. Now 0:12:50.800 --> 0:12:53.600 it's war. He just digs up stuff, and it's like, 0:12:53.679 --> 0:12:58.160 stop digging in my plants. But I'm really kind of like, 0:12:58.960 --> 0:13:00.800 you get a have a trap. I don't know if 0:13:00.800 --> 0:13:02.120 it's big enough for a squirrel, but you can get 0:13:02.120 --> 0:13:05.320 traps and then just drive them out to Piemont Parking. Yeah, 0:13:05.440 --> 0:13:08.080 or you can set the trap behind like the exhaust 0:13:08.120 --> 0:13:09.840 of your car and turn on your car for a 0:13:09.840 --> 0:13:13.120 little while. I want to kill a squirrel. No I don't, 0:13:13.120 --> 0:13:15.760 but man, this thing is pushing me. Yeah. I mean 0:13:15.800 --> 0:13:18.440 if you look on like getting rid of squirrel websites, yeah, 0:13:18.559 --> 0:13:21.680 that's pretty much number one. Yeah, I don't want to 0:13:21.679 --> 0:13:26.320 do that. No, all right, you murderous thug. Let's talk 0:13:26.360 --> 0:13:30.079 about you're a thuggy. I'm not, though, is the thing. 0:13:30.160 --> 0:13:33.640 I don't smoke cashi and I'm not. I don't. I'm 0:13:33.679 --> 0:13:36.720 not a band. Yeah, I just hate the squirrel. Let's 0:13:36.720 --> 0:13:41.360 talk about grass. The grass plant itself. Um, at the roots, 0:13:41.480 --> 0:13:44.160 they are a little fibrous thread like and they're gonna 0:13:44.640 --> 0:13:47.120 reach down to the ground like little fingers. They're gonna 0:13:47.600 --> 0:13:50.480 soak up water and nutrients, and they're gonna secure it 0:13:50.520 --> 0:13:53.360 to the ground and then fustly that ground is gonna 0:13:53.640 --> 0:13:56.600 be more secure as well. Yeah, because anywhere you have grass, 0:13:56.640 --> 0:13:59.520 it prevents erosion. Any type of grass is huge at 0:13:59.600 --> 0:14:02.840 preventing erosion. Yeah. And I would recommend, as we're describing this, 0:14:02.920 --> 0:14:05.000 actually go to the article on how stuff works dot 0:14:05.040 --> 0:14:09.920 com um about grass and pull up this great picture. Yeah. Yeah, 0:14:09.920 --> 0:14:13.120 it breaks it all down. Um at the base. Uh, 0:14:14.160 --> 0:14:17.199 the stem is called a calm, and the base is 0:14:17.240 --> 0:14:19.600 the crown, right, And the crown is like almost like 0:14:19.640 --> 0:14:23.800 this clump of matter that's above the roots that the 0:14:23.880 --> 0:14:26.840 roots are growing from that gives rise to the to 0:14:26.880 --> 0:14:29.480 the crown, yeah right, yeah, or to the um to 0:14:29.640 --> 0:14:33.920 the stem, the calm. Yeah, there's a lot of like words. 0:14:33.960 --> 0:14:36.880 I had no idea existed until this article came along. Yeah, 0:14:36.880 --> 0:14:38.680 always just called it the stem, but apparently it is 0:14:38.680 --> 0:14:42.960 a calm. And from the calm on the calm our nodes, 0:14:43.400 --> 0:14:47.000 which is I guess where new calm growth starts. But 0:14:47.120 --> 0:14:48.840 for the most part that stem is going to be 0:14:48.880 --> 0:14:52.120 hollow except that the node, which is kind of like 0:14:52.120 --> 0:14:56.720 a connective ball. Yeah. Like if you've seen bamboo and 0:14:56.760 --> 0:14:58.960 how it looks like it's segmented, those the little places 0:14:58.960 --> 0:15:01.760 where it's segmented, those are the notes. But it also 0:15:01.800 --> 0:15:05.240 happens in your backyard grass as well. And then you 0:15:05.320 --> 0:15:08.920 have the leaf, the leaf, Yeah, the stuff that we 0:15:09.040 --> 0:15:12.360 call grass. We're actually talking about the leaf and we're 0:15:12.360 --> 0:15:15.200 not even talking about the whole leaf. We're talking about 0:15:15.240 --> 0:15:18.640 the blade. So anytime you hear some old timer called 0:15:19.080 --> 0:15:22.680 grass blades, grass he or she is correct. That's right. 0:15:23.480 --> 0:15:25.000 The lower part of the leaf is the sheaf, and 0:15:25.040 --> 0:15:28.200 then the upper part is the blade. And then you're 0:15:28.240 --> 0:15:30.600 gonna have a leg ule l I g u l 0:15:30.720 --> 0:15:35.080 e um surrounding the connection of the sheath and the blade. Yeah, 0:15:35.120 --> 0:15:39.040 it's almost like the blade comes to the calm the 0:15:39.120 --> 0:15:42.440 stem and just wrap it around in a hug. And 0:15:42.520 --> 0:15:44.880 the hug is the sheath. Which makes sense when you 0:15:44.920 --> 0:15:47.560 see this picture because the stem it looks like it's 0:15:47.600 --> 0:15:51.800 growing out of the sheath that leads into the blade. Uh. 0:15:51.840 --> 0:15:54.400 And then you're gonna have a couple of other things, um, 0:15:55.000 --> 0:15:57.760 these additional stems that grow sideways that you you might 0:15:57.800 --> 0:16:00.360 have noticed. Um. If it's on the ground, it's called 0:16:00.360 --> 0:16:02.720 a stolen and if it's below the ground, it's called 0:16:02.720 --> 0:16:06.560 a rhizome. And this is where you're gonna get new 0:16:06.600 --> 0:16:09.840 grass plants. Yeah, this is how it spreads. Yeah. There's 0:16:09.880 --> 0:16:13.920 two ways that um grass reproduces. One is through seeds 0:16:13.960 --> 0:16:17.240 that are usually blown by the air um that are 0:16:17.240 --> 0:16:23.040 produced by their flowers, or through um basically moving sideways 0:16:23.400 --> 0:16:26.760 via a stolen or a rhizome, this kind of root 0:16:26.840 --> 0:16:30.440 system that just goes over and produces a new crown 0:16:30.520 --> 0:16:32.840 and new roots and a new plant. Yeah, if you've 0:16:32.880 --> 0:16:35.200 ever seen a new yard, um, then we'll get into 0:16:35.200 --> 0:16:37.200 this later. You can either just plant seed, you can 0:16:37.200 --> 0:16:40.800 do sod, or you can plant individual sprigs or plugs. 0:16:40.840 --> 0:16:44.160 If you've ever seen a yard that's all dirt and 0:16:44.400 --> 0:16:48.160 a ton of little individual plants like a foot apart, 0:16:48.520 --> 0:16:51.800 and you think, well, that's interesting looking, that looks very modern. 0:16:52.040 --> 0:16:55.240 Eventually that's gonna all grow together thanks to the rhizomes 0:16:55.280 --> 0:17:00.800 and the stolen and fill in and form a yard. Yea, 0:17:00.920 --> 0:17:05.160 So they are connected and because of that they are related. 0:17:05.200 --> 0:17:08.560 But really these are different plants, that's right. And it's 0:17:09.680 --> 0:17:16.280 because of chlorophyll photosynthesis, because all grasses is a photosynthesizing, 0:17:16.440 --> 0:17:21.359 sugar making little machine. That's right. Remember sugar powers the earth, 0:17:21.480 --> 0:17:25.119 that's right. So um chuck. There's probably a lot of 0:17:25.119 --> 0:17:26.960 people out there who are just like, just tell me 0:17:27.000 --> 0:17:30.479 how to improve my lawn. And we say, hold your 0:17:30.520 --> 0:17:37.000 horses because we're gonna take a message break first, Okay, 0:17:37.119 --> 0:17:39.760 we're back. And that wasn't such a bad way, No, 0:17:40.560 --> 0:17:44.560 I'm sure it was very helpful to Um. So we're 0:17:44.600 --> 0:17:48.000 talking how to take a lawn and make it into 0:17:48.440 --> 0:17:53.159 a world class American Garden Association approved lawn. Yeah, they 0:17:53.200 --> 0:17:55.080 still had a lot of neighborhoods still have that junk, 0:17:55.119 --> 0:17:57.960 you know, where they have the contests and you're very 0:17:58.040 --> 0:18:00.600 much expected to keep it up. It's to your civic 0:18:00.680 --> 0:18:04.960 duty for your neighborhood association rules. I don't live in 0:18:05.000 --> 0:18:08.919 one of those type of neighborhoods. There's no association, and 0:18:08.960 --> 0:18:12.360 there's a lot of crappy lawns like mine as a result. Alright, 0:18:12.359 --> 0:18:15.399 soil that is uh, I guess your first start. If 0:18:15.400 --> 0:18:18.560 you want a good lawn, you're gonna have some good soil. Uh. 0:18:18.600 --> 0:18:23.080 Well yeah, I mean you technically your soil is um 0:18:23.119 --> 0:18:27.480 what holds your nutrients, It holds your water, It gives 0:18:27.520 --> 0:18:30.159 stability to the roots and the plan itself. Soil is 0:18:30.160 --> 0:18:33.800 pretty important. Let's just come out and say it, all right, um, 0:18:33.880 --> 0:18:38.200 And so with the soil, apparently for most turf grasses 0:18:38.680 --> 0:18:42.239 in America, you want to have what's called loam, and 0:18:42.320 --> 0:18:46.840 loam is a sand clay soil mixture. Uh. And ideally 0:18:47.359 --> 0:18:56.720 loam would be sand silt and then clay. Yeah, it's um. 0:18:56.960 --> 0:18:58.399 You know, you want it to be sort of loose. 0:18:58.720 --> 0:19:01.880 Uh so things can spread around and breathe and water 0:19:01.920 --> 0:19:05.200 can get down in there, but not too loose. It's 0:19:05.200 --> 0:19:07.720 got to be the right combination. And you also want 0:19:07.720 --> 0:19:11.040 a pH of about six and a half to seven. 0:19:11.720 --> 0:19:13.520 And um, this isn't something you can look at your 0:19:13.600 --> 0:19:16.840 lawn and be like, uh five point three. Well maybe 0:19:16.880 --> 0:19:20.040 if you're like the grass the soil whisper. Maybe if 0:19:20.080 --> 0:19:22.240 you are like that, then you should be charging people 0:19:22.280 --> 0:19:23.600 for that kind of thing. I would think you'd at 0:19:23.640 --> 0:19:25.439 least have to stick your finger in it. Right, If 0:19:25.480 --> 0:19:28.080 you have like a wacky disco ghost that follows you 0:19:28.119 --> 0:19:30.199 around and it's really the one that's telling you the 0:19:30.200 --> 0:19:33.200 pH of different soils, you'd better be making money from that. 0:19:34.320 --> 0:19:36.400 Uh So the pH you can get a home test kit, 0:19:36.520 --> 0:19:38.320 or you can have you can pay for someone to 0:19:38.320 --> 0:19:41.520 come out and test your pH level. That's the more 0:19:41.560 --> 0:19:44.520 typical way of finding out. Yeah, it'll either be acidic 0:19:44.600 --> 0:19:47.800 or basic, and you can add various things to correct that, 0:19:47.880 --> 0:19:49.639 like sulfur or lime. Yeah, if you want to make 0:19:49.640 --> 0:19:51.640 it more acidic, d sulfur, if you want to make 0:19:51.680 --> 0:19:55.000 it more basic headline, Yeah, and I've never done my 0:19:55.119 --> 0:19:57.440 pH trading my soil. I've got you know, George is 0:19:57.440 --> 0:20:00.760 famous for red clay. It's pretty awful. It's actually good 0:20:00.760 --> 0:20:05.520 for growing, not not this. I mean, it's got to 0:20:05.520 --> 0:20:08.920 be a mixture. So I've seen like clay. I think 0:20:08.960 --> 0:20:11.520 I think you're just just this is what I think 0:20:11.600 --> 0:20:14.520 is going on. Oh boy, I know. I think your 0:20:14.520 --> 0:20:18.160 soil is compacted. Yeah from I mean, have you ever 0:20:18.200 --> 0:20:23.119 aer rated? Uh? Okay, Uh. You also have a lot 0:20:23.160 --> 0:20:25.440 of trees, so there's a lot of shade. Front yard 0:20:25.520 --> 0:20:29.159 is way too shady, and um it's dry. Yeah. I 0:20:29.200 --> 0:20:31.840 think if you fix those three things, you would have 0:20:31.880 --> 0:20:34.520 a fine yard. Well, here's what we're gonna do. We're 0:20:34.560 --> 0:20:37.920 gonna forget about grass in the front yard and zero 0:20:38.040 --> 0:20:43.520 escape it. Oh yeah, cacti and just small plants and rocks. Yeah, 0:20:43.560 --> 0:20:45.679 we're gonna go that route because it's too shady. And 0:20:45.720 --> 0:20:49.520 then in the backyard. I have no excuse other than um, 0:20:49.560 --> 0:20:52.200 just not spending the kind of time you need to spend. 0:20:52.280 --> 0:20:55.280 The backyard seemed fine to me. Well, if you have 0:20:55.400 --> 0:20:57.160 enough leeds and you cut them down, it can give 0:20:57.160 --> 0:20:59.680 the appearance of a green lawn. Oh, I got you. 0:20:59.760 --> 0:21:01.680 But it's not it's not real grass. All right, let's 0:21:01.680 --> 0:21:03.359 get back to it because we're gonna solve your problems 0:21:03.440 --> 0:21:05.840 just by explaining the rest of this to everybody. Okay, 0:21:05.840 --> 0:21:08.520 by the way, to improve your soil, um, not only 0:21:08.520 --> 0:21:10.200 can you use the lime to get the right pH, 0:21:10.280 --> 0:21:13.000 but you can amend it with compost or fertilizer top 0:21:13.040 --> 0:21:17.080 soil as well. Yeah, you can use manure, you can 0:21:17.240 --> 0:21:22.159 use whatever. Just go out there and poop. Actually, I 0:21:22.240 --> 0:21:25.240 looked into this. You want to use composted manure. You 0:21:25.280 --> 0:21:27.280 don't want to add just poop to it now, that's 0:21:28.080 --> 0:21:30.879 all right. And you can just spread that stuff with 0:21:31.000 --> 0:21:34.199 like UM fertilizer spreader. Yeah, you just have to use 0:21:34.240 --> 0:21:36.720 more of it because it's organic, that's right. It means 0:21:36.760 --> 0:21:41.040 it's weak. Yeah, and we'll get into some some cleaner 0:21:41.080 --> 0:21:44.560 options too if you're not into chemical herbicides and stuff 0:21:44.600 --> 0:21:47.600 like that. So you've got you've got your soil. You're 0:21:47.640 --> 0:21:50.720 thinking about your soil, now, share a little bit of 0:21:50.760 --> 0:21:54.399 brain space for the actual kind of grass you want 0:21:54.440 --> 0:21:59.560 to plant. So like UM. If you in America, there's 0:21:59.600 --> 0:22:02.840 basically two types of grasses that we use, warm season 0:22:02.920 --> 0:22:07.240 grasses and cool season grasses, and then there's a transition 0:22:07.320 --> 0:22:08.800 zone in the middle. And by the way, you and 0:22:08.880 --> 0:22:10.840 I live smack dab in the middle of this transition 0:22:10.960 --> 0:22:14.919 zone where you can considerably grow. Either the winters are 0:22:15.040 --> 0:22:19.680 mild enough and the summer's used to be not so 0:22:19.920 --> 0:22:23.280 hot that either one was prohibited. You could use both, 0:22:23.880 --> 0:22:27.520 so that like, uh, cool season grasses like Kentucky blue 0:22:27.560 --> 0:22:31.639 grass a k a. Euro grass, warm season Bermuda grass, 0:22:31.960 --> 0:22:35.040 and that's the one that turns brown in the winter, right, 0:22:35.200 --> 0:22:37.159 I don't like it. It looks great in the summer, 0:22:37.200 --> 0:22:39.280 but I don't like it in the winter. No. I mean, like, 0:22:39.359 --> 0:22:43.520 if you've ever driven through a subdivision in Georgia in January, 0:22:44.280 --> 0:22:49.320 it is a depressing site. It's just this kind of mustardy, 0:22:50.400 --> 0:22:55.040 light brown khaki field with houses that all look exactly 0:22:55.119 --> 0:22:58.640 alike right next to one another. But it looks great 0:22:58.680 --> 0:23:02.280 in the summer. I mean, Bermuda is soft and uh 0:23:02.720 --> 0:23:05.359 it's great to walk around on barefoot and lay in 0:23:05.480 --> 0:23:08.240