5 Grass Varieties That Are Very Useful

Did you know that there are more than 7,000 kinds of grasses? Of all these grasses, there are 5 large groups that are commonly used by people and grazing animals.

Cereal Grasses
These are grasses that have been domesticated as grain crops. Wheat, rice, oats, corn, rye, millet, sorghum, and barley are examples of such.

Sweet Grasses
These are usually grown for the sweet sap they contain. Hollow stems of sweet sorghum and sugarcane are cut, pressed to extract the sweet juice, and then cooked to yield molasses, cane syrup and sugar.

Woody Grasses
These grasses have hollow culms and are usually found in tropical and subtropical environments. These include bamboos and their relatives. Some can grow 100 feet tall or more. In most tropical countries, bamboos are very important because they are being used for constructing buildings, fences, weapons, furniture, and food.

Pasture Grasses
These might occur naturally in a certain area or be intentionally sown. These are hardy, sod-forming perennials that can survive the effects of mowers and hoofed animals.

Turf Grasses
These are vigorous, low-growing, and sod-forming grasses that can withstand frequent mowing and very heavy foot traffic. These include creeping grasses and common lawn grasses.

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Most Common Types Of Lawn Pests Found In Texas

Pests, both big and small, can be found anywhere in Texas. Pests, including bugs, however, are more drawn to lawns. Whether the insects are creepy crawlers or flying ones, you will see a lot of them outside on your lawn.

In Texas, the most common varieties of bugs or insects found in lawns include the following:

1. Ants. Various species of ants can be found in Texas. These include fire ants, carpenter ants, and sugar ants. Ants prefer open, sunny areas such as lawns, pastures, and parks and are more prevalent in spring and fall. Although ants do not cause any damage to turf grass, their mounds in lawns can become unsightly and they bite when they are disturbed.

2. Mosquitoes. Like ants, mosquitoes do not cause harm to grass and plants but they carry possibly deadly diseases including yellow fever, dengue fever, and chikungunya. Mosquitoes are prevalent in Texas since there are plenty of standing water in this state and the general humid weather conditions.

3. Chinch bugs. These pests primarily attack grass. Their favorites are St. Augustine, zoysia, and Bermuda grass. They cause expanding, irregular patches of dead or stunted grass surrounded by a halo of yellowing, dry grass. You’ll end up having a dead, unsightly turf if you fail to control this type of pest.

4. Snails and slugs. Although small and slow, snails and slugs attack the leaves, flowers, and stems of plants. You have to get rid of these pests immediately if you have an organic garden since they can easily devour young vegetable plants.

Info source: www.lawncaresolutionsaustin.com

Interesting Facts About Infinity Pools

Infinity pools are also known as negative-, vanishing-, disappearing-, and zero-edge pools. They appeal to just drop off into the horizon on a certain edge, resulting to a seemingly infinitely extending horizon.

With an infinity pool, an ordinary spot can be transformed into an oasis. The fading edge turns the entire pool into a kind of mirror for the scenery.

How To Create The Infinity Effect

An infinity pool will feature 1 or more walls coming to water level instead of above it. These walls will slope downward away from the pool, which creates that tranquil waterfall effect.

Where does the water go? The overflowing water falls into a catch pool, a basin sitting beneath the vanishing edge. From here, the water will be pumped backed into the main pool. But there are different components that the infinity has to make the view stunning.

View – The vanishing edge must be properly positioned so that you cannot see the catch pool from the prime viewing spots.

The depth of the basin – The catch pool must be deep enough to accumulate all the spillover water. But this should not be so deep that the water level is always low.

Water pump – The catch pool must have its own pump and filter to make sure that the water keeps circulating into the main pool. The filter will make sure that the pool itself is debris-free.

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Interesting Roof Facts

Roof is the overhead covering of a building, which includes its supporting framework. The flat roof is characteristic of arid countries such as Egypt. In fact, most modern buildings have this kind of roof. In Roman and Greek architecture, the pitch is slight; however, in Gothic architecture, it might become very steep.

The gable roof slopes upward from opposite walls to the apex or ridge. On the other hand, a hipped roof slopes upward from all 4 sides. A gamble roof, which is usually seen on barns, has 2 slopes to either side of the ridge, the upper of slight pitch, or the lower one steeper. Roofs are commonly sheathed in shingles, either wood or artificial, but might be covered with slate, tile, sheet metal, or thatch.

Roofing Facts

Roofing is the material used to cover a roof and helps keep the house protected from the weather. In northern climates, roofing materials are carefully chosen in order to resist snow and rain. In hot climates, on the other hand, they shield the house from the sun’s rays.

The most commonly used roofing material is asphalt shingle because of its low costs and the ease with which is can be applied. Wood shingles and shakes, often made of red cedar, are used on expensive properties but not in crowded places because of the danger from fire. Large buildings usually make use of metal roofs of copper, lead, or terne because these materials are durable.

Trivia Info Resource: gtroofingandguttering.com.au

Some Mulch Facts You Must Know

Mulching is a great way of saving money as well as conserving water supplies, which is the most precious resource today. Did you know that an average household will make use of 240,000 litres of water every year or about 5 times an average swimming pool? 36% of all household water is being used on gardens. Adding a mulching plan can help save up about 73% of what may be lost through evaporation.

Aside from saving water, mulching is also a fantastic weed suppressant. Indeed, this is the key to a low maintenance garden. The right selection of mulch will increase the level of nutrients in the soil.

Applying Mulch

Experts highly emphasized that mulch is very simple to apply. All you have to do is weed the garden bed, water and spread some mulch around. Bear in mind though to leave at least 10cm clearance around the plant’s base. After application, do not forget to water well. If you choose to use the mulch as a fertilizing agent, consider applying a nitrogen supplement as this will help in decomposition.

Be aware that the faster the mulch breaks down, the better it will be for the soil. But if long-term mulch is necessary, slower decomposition is a better option.

Did you know that things will break down based on the carbon/nitrogen ratio? If the carbon to nitrogen ratio is lower, the materials will be broken down faster and the nutrients will be released to the soil instantly. Such levels can be estimated by merely looking at the mulch. If the structure is denser, it means that it contains higher carbon level and it will take a bit longer for it to be broken down.

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Some Amazing Facts About Trees And Forests

Trees are very incredible. They can live for plenty of years as well as grow hundreds of meters tall. All species on the planet owe their existence to them.

Largest Land Habitat on the Planet – This is the Boreal forest or otherwise known as Taiga. It runs across northern USA and Canada, southern Iceland, across Finland, Norway, and Sweden, through Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Russia and northern Japan. This region has experienced dramatic temperature increases.

Largest Tree-Dwelling Mammal – This are the orangutans. As compared to other primates, they spend most of their time in the trees rather than on the ground. They actually build tree nests to sleep in. Also, they make use of sticks to probe logs for honey.

World’s Largest Tree – This is called Hyperion, a coast redwood from California that measures 115.61m tall. But when it comes to volume, the world’s largest tree is the General Sherman, a giant sequoia that has a 10m trunk and an estimated 1486 cubic metres of wood.

The Trembling Giant – This is a colony of quaking aspen trees, also known as Pando. This group of trees is a single organism and is connected by a single massive root system. Pando is also believed to be approximately 80,000 years old.

Did you know that the forests are the lungs of the planet? They play a huge role in establishing global climate as they convert carbon dioxide into oxygen.

Trivia Info Resource: www.cstree.com

Fascinating Concrete Facts You Must Know

Concrete is the most useful material in the world when it comes to volume. It can be poured into place as a liquid but it hardens to resemble a material such as natural rock, which makes it the perfect building material.

Historical Facts About Concrete

Ancient Egypt originally made use of concrete as an infill material for the pyramids.

The ancient Romans, on the other hand, were the first to use concrete as a building material. Builders have mixed water, lime and volcanic ash – they called this “pozzolana”. They actually built the Pantheon using concrete. Up to now, Pantheon is still the largest unreinforced concrete dome in the world.

In 1874, an Englishman working as a bricklayer tried his best to create his own cement. After plenty of trials and errors, he was able to make cement for which he received a patent. He called this “Portland Cement” since the color was the same with quarried stone from the Isle of Portland off the English coast.

Concrete ears or sound mirrors are huge concrete dishes that were built during the WWII in order to detect any approaching aircraft. Microphones were suspended at the dishes’ focal points.

Today, most construction company are making use of scented form release agents in order to impart a pleasant smell in concrete – bubble gum being the most famous.

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Some Interesting Snow Facts

Snow is not white but translucent. This means that light can’t pass through it easily. Rather, light it being reflected. It is actually the light reflected off the faceted surface of the snowflake that creates its white appearance.

People see snow as white because some wavelengths of light are being absorbed while others are reflected. Due to the fact that the snow is composed of so many tiny surfaces, the light that hits it is scattered in different directions. The light bounces around from one surface to the next.

Other Snow Facts

Did you know that there are other forms of snow aside from snowflakes? These are graupel and sleet. Graupel, otherwise known as snow pellets, is opaque ice particles that are formed when ice crystals fall through freezing cloud droplets. On the other hand, sleet consists of rain drops that freeze into translucent, small balls of ice as they fall from the sky.

Is it true that no 2 snowflakes are the same? This is a myth. A scientist found 2 identical snow crystals in 1988. They came from a storm in Wisconsin.

Do you know the size of the largest snowflake? It is actually 15 inches wide. This fell during a snowstorm in January 1887 at Montana’s Fort Keogh.

Trivia Info Resource: www.lawnandsnowbros.com

Interesting Facts About Your Yard Staple – Grass

If you have ever left your house before, then you would have already seen grass. Most of us can’t so much as leave the house or look outside the window without ever seeing the lovely yard staple which is the grass. And since these are what most of us see in a day to day basis, you may not have thought about it too much. However, there are actually some interesting facts about grass that you may not know.

• Grasslands are estimated to make up over 20% of Earth’s vegetation.
• Grasses can be found in some of the foods and drinks we consume. This includes beer, whiskey, and bread which are in the form of wheatgrass and barley.
• The largest variety of grass can grow up to 151 feet tall – the Giant bamboo
• A 2,500 square foot lawn produces enough oxygen for a family of four.
• The grass producing industry has become a multimillion dollar business due to the high demand of artificial grass for places such as sports arenas.

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Three Main Ingredients Of A Fertilizer

Taking care of your lawn requires time, money and effort. While this is true, having an excellent lawn with lush green, carpet-like grass perfect for afternoon relaxation or extracurricular activities with your kids is always rewarding.

One of the most basic lawn care maintenance practices which is fertilizing is practice that requires assistance from professionals. The following is an important fact you need to know about fertilizers.

Fertilizers have three numbers prominently listed on the package, and these numbers are important in telling a great deal about what fertilizers will do.

Nitrogen – helps with plant growth above ground. It promotes green leafy growth of foliage, and provides the necessary ingredients in producing lush green lawns.

Phosphorous – establishes growth below ground – the roots. It helps improve the health of the root systems as well as promotes the flower bloom and fruit production.

Potassium – helps in the overall plant health. It has the ability to build strong cells within the plant tissue that allows plants to withstand various stresses such as heat, cold, pests, and diseases.

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