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From YouTube: EcoChat | How to Create a Healthy and Sustainable Lawn
Description
Mike Todd of The Community Academy talks about his experience making his own lawn more sustainable and gives tips for you to do the same.
A
I'll
just
speak
briefly
about
my
experiences
at
my
house,
so
I'm,
the
crazy
guy
in
my
neighborhood
and
trying
some
different
things
with
my
lawn
and
you
know,
I
think
a
big
piece
of
it
is
what
I
see
in
the
news.
So
I
was
the
most
altered
landscape
biologically,
and
then
my
students
have
worked
on
projects
related
to
that
and
that
really
hit
home
for
me
as
a
homeowner.
A
I
want
to
do
something
different
I
moved
to
my
neighborhood
because
of
some
of
the
features
that
are
there,
but
the
turfgrass
lawn
is
really
something
that
that
impacts
things
a
lot:
water
quality
and
whatnot
habitats,
a
big
piece
right.
You
know,
eighteen,
hundreds
or
lady
notes,
Iowa's
80
percent,
Prairie
right
and
that's
that's
a
habitat.
That's
a
it's:
a
ecological
biological,
water
filter.
Now
it's
0.1
percent
of
our
prairies
left
right,
one
one-thousandth
and
that
changes
a
lot
of
things
related
to
water
quality
habitat.
It
looks
like
this
right.
A
There's
water
coming
off
us
off
our
lawns
off
the
impervious
surfaces.
Where
are
the
insects?
Gonna
live
to
feed
the
birds
and
all
the
wildlife
right?
Most
of
that's
gone.
You
don't
everything
you
experience
on
a
daily
basis:
it
isn't
what
it
was
like
in
the
early
1800s.
Nothing
is
like
it
unless
you
drive
by
the
High
Prairie,
so
my
neighborhood
is
pretty
much
like
the
rest
of
Ames.
A
In
some
ways
right,
we've
got
irrigated
lawns,
non
irrigated
lawns,
turf
grass,
that's
non-native
to
Iowa,
but
we
also
have
Prairie
strips
ruleset
Prairie
strips
in
the
backyard
that
go
and
drain
to
a
pond
and
help
filter
some
of
the
water
and
I
really
liked
that.
But
my
turf
grass
was
my
last
thing:
I
wanted
to
really
change,
and
so
I
started
out
like
this
in
2011.
You
know
similar
grasses
to
everybody
and
I
wanted
to
minimize
it.
A
Here's
my
backyard
I
wanted
to
minimize,
in
my
amount
of
mowing,
try
to
incorporate
native
plants
for
habitat
and
water
cleansing,
but
also
change
this.
This
is
a
native
non-native,
turf.
Grass
has
eight
inch
deep
roots
right
and
that's.
The
sponge
I
have
buffalo
grass
these
two
varieties
that
I
used
at
a
stock
seed
Nebraska
they
have
three
foot
or
more
deep
roots.
That's
a
big
sponge
for
water
right
and
that's
I.
Can
change
my
lawn
into
that?
A
We
have
native
ones
too,
but
they
love
the
water
times
and
so
spring
when
it's
cool
they
grow
and
start
growing
early
and
greening
up
and
in
the
fall
they
grow
in
the
summer
they
tend
to
go
dormant,
warm
season,
grasses
stay
dormant
for
a
while
grow
during
the
summer
and
then
and
then
green
up
or
sorry
go
dormant
again.
In
the
winter
here's
buffalo
grass
it
spreads
like
a
strawberry.
Most
of
our
non-native
turf
grass
is
spread
by
their
roots.
A
This
spreads
over
land
and
you
can
see
the
little
runners
with
the
buffalo
grass,
and
so,
if
you
have
any
spots
it
fills
in,
can
also
see
my
contractor
grade
soil
here
with
all
the
rocks
in
it
that
it
was
growing
in
and
it
did
great.
So
this
is
the
early
part.
You
can
see
down
here.
I've
got
some
dates,
so
April
23rd,
2017
I,
can
see
the
stripes.
That's
I've
sprayed
glyphosate
on
there
to
try
to
start
to
kill
the
grass
and
I
tried
I.
A
Did
it
in
multiple
different
ways,
so
I've
got
multiple
treatments
that
I
was
trying.
This
is,
after
this
dies,
I'm
going
to
I
tilled
it
up,
and
here
you
can
see
a
little
while
later
I've
tilled
it
up.
I'm
gonna
try
to
remove
most
of
these
clumps
and
prepare
a
seed
bed.
You
can
see
I
I,
locate,
I
had
an
Iowa
one
call.
You
know
so
they
locate
my
utility.
A
So
I'm,
not
you
know,
damaged
anything
there
and
then
I
start
to
put
in
my
beds
and
in
my
smaller
spaces
that
I'm
not
actually
gonna
put
this
buffalo
grass
turf
into
you
have
to
prepare
the
soil.
So
now
we're
talking
in
May,
14th
I've
got
the
soil
prepared.
This
parking
area
on
both
sides
I,
actually
seated
it
right
away
when
the
soil
got
to
be
sixty
degrees,
warm
season
grasses.
You
can't
seed
early
like
you,
can
cool
season
grasses
so,
but
the
problem
is
the
warm
season.
Grass
is
also
seed.
A
A
So
I
had
two
different
trials.
I
was
rolling
here,
and
this
was
all
direct
seed,
put
the
seat
on
the
soil
and
kind
of
get
it
contacted.
This
is
June
of
that
first
year.
So
by
April,
so
two
months
later
you
can
see
this
area
is
already
growing.
Pretty
thick
buffalo
grass
and
the
area
in
the
parking
is
full
of
buffalo
grass,
but
also
a
lot
of
crabgrass.
A
It's
an
annual,
so
I
knew
how
to
deal
with
it
the
second
year,
but
you
can
also
see
my
native
plant
beds
were
coming
along
nicely,
but
they
take
a
few
years
to
establish
as
well.
So
I
got
three
different
treatments
here
in
my
front
yard:
parking
area
with
the
direct
seed
right
when
soil
temps
reach,
60
the
direct
seed
after
first
flush,
the
warm
season
grasses
and
then
I
won
I
didn't
get
to
it.
A
You
can't
seed
this
thing
in
the
fall
like
cool
season,
grasses
I
had
to
wait
till
the
next
year,
so
I
seeded
oats
as
a
cover
crop
hold
the
soil,
provide
some
organic
matter
and
it
would
die
over
the
winter
anyway.
So
a
year
after
I
seeded.
Basically
it
started
this
process.
You
can
see.
Buffalo
grass
will
be
yellow
in
the
winter
when
it's
dormant,
I
see
a
lot
more
yellow
here,
I
see
less
here,
which
means
I
had
a
lot
of
stuff
to
fill
in
for
these
to
go
runners
and
fill
in
verses.
A
The
crabgrass
I
put
pre-emergent
down,
which
kills
the
seed
from
when
it
starts
to
germinate
from
the
the
annuals,
but
by
June
of
that
year,
I
had
pretty
good
coverage
of
buffalo
grass
in
that
site
and
that
in
that
second
site,
but
in
the
first
site
by
the
end
of
the
first
grow
or
the
second
growing
season,
it
had
filled
in
too
so
it
just
takes
a
little
longer.
If
you
do
it
the
way
or
it's
harder,
but
you
could
get
good
coverage
in
the
first
growing
season
with
that
method.
A
So
in
my
other
area,
where
I
did
the
oats
I,
it
was
a
lot
faster.
So
I
had
the
oats
die
off
over
the
winter
I
plugged,
the
buffalo
grass.
So
this
had
group
plugs
in
a
greenhouse
and
I
put
them
in
the
ground
in
May
and
then
not
too
long
later.
Those
plugs
start
spreading
and
you
can
see
in
my
next
photo
that's
going
to
come
up.
This
is
on
a
timer
of
20
seconds.
You
can
see
the
plug
bite
by
June
22nd.
A
The
plugs
are
already
starting
to
fan
out,
spread
by
runners
and
by
September.
That's
a
year.
I
see
I
plugged
it.
It
was
already
basically
in
so
plugs
are
the
way
to
go.
If
you
want
to
get
it
the
first
year,
although
I
did
pretty
good
with
the
direct
seed
to
and
and
just
to
give
you
a
sense
of
what
it
looks
like
you
know,
after
its
established
in
the
winter,
this
is
my
lawn
now
you
can,
you
know
credit
trim
it.
A
It
looks
pretty
good
come
my
neighbor,
who
is
you
know,
cool
season
grass
and
in
the
winter
you're
gonna
get
a
yellow
look
to
it.
This
has
a
few
leaves
from
the
trees.
There's
a
few
brown
spots
from
the
leaves,
but
in
general
it
does
look
different.
It
goes
yellow
faster
in
the
winter,
but
yeah.
Overall.
This
is
my
experience
and
if
you
have
questions
I'd
love
to
talk
about
it,
you
can
drive
by.
Like
you
know,
people
from
the
city
do
so.
Thank
you.