jjg's posterous

My Recent Experience with Square

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Slacker guide to organic lawncare

(download)

Click here to download:

Slacker_guide_to_organic_lawnc.zip (3.41 MB)

The take-away is that the way I do this isn't going to result in the "carpet of grass" sort of lawn you might find on a golf course or a "treated" lawn. What I can say is that while it takes time (I'm on at least year 5) improvements do happen, but don't expect perfection (it's not desirable anyway).

So without further ado, here's my annual lawncare programme:

When the snow melts (did I mention that im in Wisconsin?) and the first Iris appear, I apply corn gluten to the yard using a broadcast spreader:

(why corn gluten? Lots more info here: http://www.hort.iastate.edu/research/gluten)

This was the cheapest name-brand one I could find and it was about $30.00. I don't think you need to spend a lot on these tools, but I do favor buying things that are low on features but build to last. The only way I've found to reliably determine reliability is to personally inspect the build quality of the tools I'm purchasing or alternatively to talk to someone whose owned the same tool for a decade.

There are other types of spreaders, including ones that don't have wheels and probably electric ones, but as I understand it you need to use a broadcast one with corn gluten (or at least last I checked there wasn't anyone selling it in a form that worked well with the "gravity feed" type spreaders). You could probably find a cheaper hand-held spreader (which would also be easier to store) but it seemed to me to be easier to keep track of where I had been by using something with wheels.

The corn gluten does two things:

1. It provides a little nitrogen
2. It prevents germination

It might sound like #2 is not helpful if you're trying to grow grass but check this out: by combining corn gluten's ability to prevent germination with properly-timed application of seed, it stops the stuff you don't want growing from germinating and then when the effects of the corn gluten wear off, you plant the stuff you want to grow and it has a leg-up on those other bastards.

The effects of the corn gluten wear off in about six weeks, so once that time has elapsed, clean out your spreader and overseed the whole yard with grass seed.

This is what I'm using now. Supposedly you can determine the right type of seed based on where you live but in my case it was a lot of trial and error. You can probably coax any grass to grow anywhere, but I've found that once you find the right type for your lawn, it's pretty much on autopilot. I guess if you want a specific type of grass then its worth the trouble to try and convince it to grow, but remember this is the slacker guide, so let's avoid making any more work than we have to, OK? Try several different types of grass seed around the yard throughout the year and see what takes; this is especially easy if your yard has "bald spots"; just take pictures and remember so write down the type you use in each spot so when you find something that works you what to buy more of. Patching is a little different from overseeing (when you overseed you just fill up the spreader and throw seed over the existing lawn). Patching usually requires a little more seed and it's extra important that you keep the spot wet while the grass seeds germinate and take hold in the ground (lest they blow away, etc.). I water the crap out of mine and try to keep it damp for at least a week or two, this is the result of finding the right seeds and keeping them wet:

One more step you can add before overseeding is to aerate the lawn. You can use big expensive equipment to do this or you can use one of these:

The idea is to "open up" the soil a bit to get water and air in there and loosen up the dirt so roots and such can get around easier. I would avoid any sort of aerator that doesn't remove dirt (spike-style devices that can be rolled or worn on shoes, etc.) as these actually compact the soil around the holes and kinda defeat the purpose.

Aeration doesn't need to be done every year and doing so kinda stresses out the grass, so do it every-other year at most or if you're properly slacking, once every three years.

Now there's not much left to do but mow. I use a reel mower (two actually); this one is my favorite:

This might not seem very slackerly but check it out:

A reel mower requires very little maintenance and never requires fuel. Yes you have to push it but unless you're buying a tractor, you have to push a gas powered mower as well and they are a lot heavier than reel mowers (you can pick a reel mower up with one hand). They do require sharpening (usually every-other season unless you abuse them) and need a quick shot of WD-40 before you hang it up after mowing to keep the moisture and rust away, but there's no need for fuel, oil & filter changes, etc. and like I said you can hang it up so they even take up very little garage space. They are also incredibly simple machines and therefore easy to repair if you do manage to break it. I did wear out the stock handle on one of mine, which my father replace with some custom-bent conduit as you can see here:

So throughout the summer you mow, and I like to let my grass grow a bit long (since its better for the roots), which means I end up mowing once a week on average. I also don't water (unless I'm trying to get some seed started on a bare patch as discussed earlier) so when it gets hot the grass grows slower and I mow even less.

At the end of the season I do one more application of corn gluten (as late as I dare before the snow flies) which gives the grass something to munch on to hardy-up over the winter and have some energy to get started in the spring). Then I clean up the mowers and wait for spring.

I could write more (especially about reel mowers) but I think this is enough. If you'd like me to elaborate post a comment and I'll follow-up with more specific topical posts.

When N.A.S.A. closes a door...

http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920021605.do

I started reading this a few weeks ago and it's already inspired a new project. I even have selected a primary and secondary mission. Stay tuned...

My second "practical" RepRap print

A New CCC

Esmeralda

It's Electric!

Windows, Portals and a replacement for the Internet

I would prefer to write on something with a "real" keyboard but I am getting very used to the " virtual" or "soft" keyboard of the iPad and I find that I can type at a respectable pace without too many errors. In fact, if I could have the sound turned on and keep my fingers out of the way of reading the output of my typing, I could probably approach the speed at which I can type on a physical keyboard.

But enough of this, I didn't decide to write tonight to talk about keyboards (although that topic is just as important as any other I suppose), but simply to write using the Pages app and to appreciate the fact that I can even do such a thing using a device like the iPad.

The best thing about this device is also deceptively simple. With nothing more than a slate of touch-sensitive glass, any two-dimensional user interface that can be imagined becomes possible without incurring additional hardware cost. The benefits of this approach were probably not even within the imaginations of those who originally brought the device to market. In fact, I believe the only way to improve such a device is to further simplify the hardware by removing the remaining buttons and any other differentiation between devices this and similar devices, and perhaps creating a shared standard for these devices so that they may all be capable of running the same applications. Imagine if you will, a simple device which is nothing more than a window into a shared network of tools. This could easily be imagined as a web browser but I want to avoid any hang-ups we have with the current idea of a browser that might interfere with our ability to imagine such a device. Our window or "portal" does nothing more than provide a robust connection to this network and a two-dimensional surface on which the user interacts with using touch.

It's tempting at this point to begin considering the "operating system" of such a device and how this O/S might inflict user interface standards and conventions which flow down into how individual applications (or "apps") might behave. I'd like to eliminate this consideration and instead describe a tool which provides no such standards or constraints; a device which simply opens a portal to a shared environment where interactive elements are defined and manipulated. If there is to be any sort of "standards" they will be in the form of the properties defining this "portal" or "terminal", in a similar way that HTML defines standards for web pages (that is to say, not really at all).

To take it a step further, this "shared environment", or network need not take the form of what we are already familiar with. Instead of a centralized "internet", these devices (and their users) are better served by a dynamic, ad-hoc network which does not depend on centralized resources under the control of private entities or governments as such a networks are prone to bottlenecks and outages unless extensive and expensive redundancies are implemented; all of which are unnecessary in a dynamic mesh-type network. In the mesh network, information is routed through nodes determined available at the time the message is sent, removing the need for retransmission. If the path is interrupted while a message is in transit, alternate paths are discovered dynamically to route the message to its destination and when the destination is simply unreachable (if for example the destination has been shut down) messages are queued until the destination can be reached (and queue status information is relayed to the originator of the message).

Through a combination of dynamic (composed simply of these portal devices) as well as established static nodes (deployed voluntarily or via mandate of building codes), a reliable network is established exceeding the connectivity of traditional centralized networks without the limits, dependencies and shortcomings of networks under central control.

This combination of simple, flexible, devices capable of rendering applications defined using open standards and the availability of a dynamic, distributed network reduces the cost-of-entry for both the consumer as well as the producer of equipment, software and content, and eliminates the need for costly "middle men" which interfere with both the usability and affordability of systems currently in place. What is lacking from our proposed system is a means for non-creators to benefit from the work of those generating hardware, software and content, and there are many entities whose business model depends on this ability who will oppose this model. It is important to understand this relationship, and to consider the position of those who consider our approach flawed. While there may be specific technical challenges which prevent the immediate delivery of the devices and services described here, let it be known that the "commodity" nature of the systems currently in use is only possible due to their wide acceptance and decades of effort in establishing and distributing these standards and philosophies. A similar effort, carried out by the consumers and producers of this proposed system, is more than sufficient to establish parity in the cost and functionality of these two systems.

Full Circle