Good Questions: Lawn Dethatching, Fires, A Clinton-Clinton Ticket
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) - Every Friday, we tackle a bunch of viewers' burning questions. This week, Heather Brown explores lawn dethatching, 3-alarm fires and a Clinton-Clinton presidential ticket.
Now that it's spring, Walter from Fridley wants to know: When can you dethatch your lawn?
"You shouldn't be dethatching in the spring," said University of Minnesota turf grass expert Sam Bauer. "Dethatching your lawn is when you're trying to pull of some of the organic material below the canopy of the grass."
Bauer says dethatching in the spring could let crab grass germinate. In fact, he says he rarely recommends dethatching, even in the fall, unless you have a serious thatch problem.
But, he does recommend the common spring practice of power raking, which can be done with a regular leaf rake or machine. It's meant to target the canopy to remove dead tissue left on the surface from winter. Bauer says now is a good time to power rake. You want to wait until you see life in your lawn, but not wait long enough that the dead tissue would be holding your grass back.
After this week's 3-alarm fire in North Minneapolis, Andrea from St. Louis Park asked: What's the difference between a 1-, 2-, and 3- alarm fire?
According to St. Paul Fire Marshal Steve Zaccard, it depends on how many people and pieces of apparatus are sent. That's determined by the weather, the size of the building, if anyone is inside and how far the fire could spread. In his 30 years with St. Paul, he says they've never had a 5-alarm, one 4-alarm and a handful of 3-alarms.
He says a 1-alarm is any structure fire where Fire Department would send three engines, one ladder, one rescue squad and one chief. A 2-alarm would add two engines, one ladder, one rescue squad and another chief. A 3-, 4-, and 5-alarm would go up in the same increments.
Dale from Stillwater asked: Could Bill Clinton be Hillary's running mate?
Experts say probably not, but it would make for an interesting constitutional question that's never been tested. The 12th Amendment says a person can't be vice-president if that person is "ineligible to the office of the President." Then, the 22nd Amendment -- the term limits amendment – says, "No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice."