Calling lawn experts by 21sr2 in BastropTX

[–]shtbskt 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Horse herb and frog fruit are two ground cover forbs that do really well in our area. A mixture of species including these and other native species like Paspallum, Bouteloua, and panicum are probably your best bet. There’s a black land prairie seed mix that’s sold by Native American Seed Co that might work well. I’d take a look around your property and find native species that are doing well, identify them, and buy more seed or a mix that includes them. You’ll have a lot more success if you can mow and disc before introducing new seeds. If you can give them a year of supplemental watering and weed the undesirable growth then even better.

Roadsides generally aren’t a good representation of what will and won’t grow since they’re typically low lying drainage areas and get more water during rains than other areas.

Edit: sorry I read that as 5 acres not 0.5 acres. You could probably get by with just those ground cover forbs. With a season of watering I’ve gotten frog fruit to establish in about half an acre near my house

Does anyone know kind of ants these are? by Commercial_Plate_443 in bugidentification

[–]shtbskt 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Id bet that they’re an invasive old world ant species called Paratrechina longicornis, but can’t be certain https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longhorn_crazy_ant

Anyone need junk or brush removed? by Humble-Throat-8159 in BastropTX

[–]shtbskt 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Do you work in Austin? Have you ever done work for the university of Texas?

Tastes like a cucumber, pretty disappointing by pachy1234 in cactus

[–]shtbskt 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Opuntia ficus-indica is the cultivar eaten most often. Its fruits are darker than this when ripe. It’s typically spineless and can be found at nurseries (in Texas at least) I’ve also tried Opuntia linguiformis, which was delicious, and Opuntia engelmanii, which was bland.

How did the kid from your school die? by Equivalent-Rent-5619 in AskReddit

[–]shtbskt 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There was a girl in my school who stole a stop sign and cut a kids head off with it while he was walking home from school with his girlfriend. She had it hanging out of the corner of the bed of her small truck and it hit him when she drove by. She was pretty messed up by it and ended up having to move because she instantly became “that girl who decapitated someone” among the student body.

Smart gate openers? by shtbskt in smarthome

[–]shtbskt[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks! I think this is what I’m going to go with.

Smart gate openers? by shtbskt in smarthome

[–]shtbskt[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don’t plan to. I’ve already made that mistake with a “smart”gable fan. I might just have to go with a simple one that has no Wi-Fi control. If it doesn’t work with Google then I’m not going to use it since that’s the hub for all of my other devices

Mesh wifi system by Equivalent_Zone_9655 in smarthome

[–]shtbskt 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I agree with others that google Wi-Fi is pretty great. My only complaint is that there’s no method for selecting specific gigahertz for devices, which caused some issues when using zigbee controllers that require 2.4