SILVER CITY >> The Gila National Forest Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) Team announce the completion of emergency treatment and stabilization of areas burned as the result the Signal Fire, which started 10 miles north of Silver City on May 11, according to a news release.

In the aftermath of the Signal Fire BAER Team members moved in quickly assessing the burned areas and recommending emergency treatments to minimize threats to life, property and natural and cultural resources. BAER's first-aid immediate stabilization treatments reduce downstream values at risk from wildfires.

The BAER Team assessed and has completed the following:

Installing water erosion bars on FR154-Signal Peak Road and FR 855A-Lockney road to provide drainage and reduce negative effects to the roads

Cleaning and clearing road ditches to allow water to move freely through them

Removing drainage culverts and replacing them with drive-able low-water crossings

Installing a closure gate on Signal Peak Rd. and Meadow Creek Rd. for public safety during monsoon rains

Installing warning and hazard signs at area entry points

Aerial seeding high severity burn areas

The road work on Signal Peak Road is intended to prepare the road for increased erosion and runoff from the fire area during monsoonal rains. The installation of the low-water crossings and removal of drainage culverts allows water and debris to flow freely across roadbeds and not clog up the culverts and wash out the road. Road storm patrol and response will continue throughout the monsoon season.

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Signal Fire burn area stabilized

More than a week after music fans rocked out at Lollapalooza, two mud-slopped fields in Grant Park remained closed to the public for the repair work that is set to begin Wednesday. The price tag for the post-fest repairs is estimated at $266,000, the Chicago Park District announced Tuesday.

Thanks to rain during the fest, concertgoers left the turf fields torn up, particularly at the southern end of Grant Park where about 30 acres of the park was blocked off Tuesday.

The three-day music festival, which was held Aug. 1-3, is hosted on 115 acres of Grant Park. The entire park is 325 acres including the high-traffic areas of Millennium Park and Buckingham Fountain.

On Tuesday, chain-link fences surrounded the swampy Lower Hutchinson Field from Balbo Avenue to 11th Street where headliners Eminem, Outkast and Kings of Leon performed on the Samsung Galaxy stage. Also closed off was mushy Upper Hutchinson Field from Balbo Avenue to roughly 8th Street where Iggy Azalea and Chance The Rapper graced what's known as Perry's stage.

The rest of Grant Park was open to the public, including Buckingham Fountain, the gardens and Butler Field where puddles, mud pockets and dozens of geese were spotted at the park's north end.

"For all intents and purposesI was at Grant Park yesterdayit's basically open other than the one area down at the south," said Bob O'Neill, president of Grant Park Conservancy. "People are using it as if nothing happened there," he said of the rest of Grant Park.

A day after the fest, Lollapalooza promoter C3 Presents said it saw more damage to parts of Grant Park compared to 2013 due to heavy rains Aug. 3. Last year, the Chicago Park District estimated the repairs to cost $210,000 to $220,000.

But it wasn't as bad as 2011, when it cost roughly $800,000 to repair Grant Park after three inches of rain soaked festgoers, O'Neill said.

Representatives from C3 and the park district as well as an independent third-party contractor assessed the condition of Grant Park before and after the festival.

Under the terms of the concert agreement, C3 is responsible for picking up the repair tab.

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Repairs to Grant Park after Lollapalooza could cost $266,000

DAVID LEADBETTER will officially open his new Leadbetter Golf Academy at Spain's five-star La Manga Club resort in September, and Golfmagic will be in attendance.

Regarded by many as the leading golf instructor in world golf, Florida-based Leadbetter is set to fly in to perform the opening ceremony on Monday September 15 at his latest academy, which provides the centrepiece of a 1million redevelopment of La Manga Clubs extensive teaching and practice centre.

Among the new facilities on offer, the new academy the only such facility in mainland Spain will have two tuition rooms, both equipped with the latest technology including Trackman, SAM PuttLab and K-VEST.

The first David Leadbetter Golf Academy was established in 1983 and the opening of the new La Manga Club facility means that there are now 28 full-time David Leadbetter Golf Academies spread across 13 countries.

Jose Asenjo, general manager at La Manga Club, said: Its a great honour and privilege for everyone at La Manga Club that David Leadbetter has interrupted his busy schedule to open the new academy. His reputation precedes him as one of the worlds foremost golf coaches and I cant think of a better and more fitting way to officially open our new world-class teaching and practice facility.

The significant investment that has taken place in the new state-of-the-art facilities here at La Manga Club will help to ensure that the resort is truly in a class of its own in terms of golf and sports coaching facilities, enhancing our reputation as the destination of choice for top amateurs and professionals.

During a coaching career spanning more than three decades, Leadbetter, 62, has taught some of golfs biggest stars including four former world number ones Sir Nick Faldo who he famously helped to win six Majors after rebuilding his swing Greg Norman, Nick Price and Lee Westwood.

His players have amassed more than 100 individual worldwide tournament victories and his current crop of stars include Rafael Cabrera Bello and ladies trio Michelle Wie, Lydia Ko and Suzann Pettersen, who are all ranked inside the world top ten.

As part of his visit to La Manga Club, Leadbetter will also give a series of one-to-one tuition sessions to a limited number of resort guests, local juniors and selected members of the media, where they can experience the award-winning venues outstanding new practice facilities.

Over the last nine months, La Manga Clubs practice centre has undergone a dramatic transformation and, as well as the new Leadbetter Academy, it also boasts four short game areas for bunkers and chipping, three large putting greens and four teaching classrooms which are ideal for visiting professionals on tuition breaks.

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News: Golf Courses

More than a week after music fans rocked out at Lollapalooza, two mud-slopped fields in Grant Park remained closed to the public for the repair work that is set to begin Wednesday. The price tag for the post-fest repairs is estimated at $266,000, the Chicago Park District announced Tuesday.

Thanks to rain during the fest, concertgoers left the turf fields torn up, particularly at the southern end of Grant Park where about 30 acres of the park was blocked off Tuesday.

The three-day music festival, which was held Aug. 1-3, is hosted on 115 acres of Grant Park. The entire park is 325 acres including the high-traffic areas of Millennium Park and Buckingham Fountain.

On Tuesday, chain-link fences surrounded the swampy Lower Hutchinson Field from Balbo Avenue to 11th Street where headliners Eminem, Outkast and Kings of Leon performed on the Samsung Galaxy stage. Also closed off was mushy Upper Hutchinson Field from Balbo Avenue to roughly 8th Street where Iggy Azalea and Chance The Rapper graced what's known as Perry's stage.

The rest of Grant Park was open to the public, including Buckingham Fountain, the gardens and Butler Field where puddles, mud pockets and dozens of geese were spotted at the park's north end.

"For all intents and purposesI was at Grant Park yesterdayit's basically open other than the one area down at the south," said Bob O'Neill, president of Grant Park Conservancy. "People are using it as if nothing happened there," he said of the rest of Grant Park.

A day after the fest, Lollapalooza promoter C3 Presents said it saw more damage to parts of Grant Park compared to 2013 due to heavy rains Aug. 3. Last year, the Chicago Park District estimated the repairs to cost $210,000 to $220,000.

But it wasn't as bad as 2011, when it cost roughly $800,000 to repair Grant Park after three inches of rain soaked festgoers, O'Neill said.

Representatives from C3 and the park district as well as an independent third-party contractor assessed the condition of Grant Park before and after the festival.

Under the terms of the concert agreement, C3 is responsible for picking up the repair tab.

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Lolla park repairs to cost $266,000

Incidentally, the mutabile part of the name, meaning variable, refers not to its performance but to the colour change of the flowers, which, as you say, open pale yellow and gradually fade to a mauve-ish pink.

It is an extremely beautiful wallflower, but alas as you and I have found, variable in quite the wrong way.

Mole spurge

Q: Were hoping you can help us. We first noticed a curious seedling when it was about 2in high. It is now some 5ft high and 3ft across with odd green flowers. We have no idea what it is or where it came from, and have been unable to find it in our reference books. Can you shed any light on what it might be, please?

Jill and Derek Watkins, via email

A: The plant in the picture that accompanied your email is called mole plant (Euphorbia lathyris), and is generally regarded as a weed of waste ground. Even if you are enjoying it (from the tone of your email, it seems that initial curiosity has given way to a certain amount of alarm), you should take care around it because the milky sap is a skin irritant. It is a biennial (just leaves in the first year, rapid expansion and flowers in the second, followed by the shedding of masses of seeds and death). If you let it seed around this year, you will get a small forest of seedlings next year that will flower in 2016.

Some people really like this wild plant and encourage it to grow in gardens because it has a certain architectural quality, especially in its leafy first year.

There are those who mistakenly believe that somehow its presence in the garden will deter moles (the in-the-ground type). The truth is that the common names mole plant or mole spurge came about because in former times the irritant sap was used to burn off moles (the on-the-skin kind).

Those nasty caterpillars again

On the July 26 subject of readers nasty little caterpillars (destructive in the foliage of birch and alder trees). Andrew Halstead from the RHS has gently pointed out to me that I have got my bugs and thugs a tad confused. The little black beetles and their offspring on the alder are Agelastica alni, while the loopy caterpillars responsible for the birch leaf devastation are the larvae of geometrid moths. The bit I didnt get wrong was the fact that neither is life-threatening to either tree. My apologies for the error and thanks goes as always to all those observant readers like Andrew, who really do deserve to be called experts.

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Thorny problems: why won't my wallflower flower?

With the 2014 PGA Championship in the books, the action is beginning to leave Valhalla beginning Monday.

A massive undertaking is underway as crews strip away some of the stands and risers that you can see in the back ground and repair the greens back to tip-top shape.

Its a years worth of work coming down to be put back up for the next PGA event.

Its been years in the making for this PGA Championship and in just seven days it all has to come to an end.

Once we start building its a long process, its about, for this PGA it was about two-and-a-half months to construct it and today taking it down another two months, said Sal Urso, operations manager for PGA Championship

Its all hands on deck taking down scaffolding and risers from the PGA Championship.

Everything gets packed up, moved out, and on the next leg of the PGA events.

But the course itself needs some attention after the greats have played on it for over a week.

We do our best to be proactive and create a list of possible things and help everyone as quickly as we can to get things going, said Urso.

With more than 40,000 people a day, Urso says, The course is in better condition than they expected.

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Crews begin massive cleanup at Valhalla

Published: Monday, August 11, 2014 at 11:58 a.m. Last Modified: Monday, August 11, 2014 at 11:58 a.m.

It took someone with a little TLC who knew their ABCs about XYandZ vegetables to create a productive garden in a 20x30 plot.

Elizabeth Simmons appeared in timely fashion to come up with the right formula.

She works as a peer counselor for breast-feeding moms at the Davidson County Health Department and actually stumbled across the opportunity when she made a trip to the county recreation department to set up a support group for her clients.

"I looked out the window and thought, what a shame to let that spot go to waste."

She was eyeing a small, fallow section of property behind the Davidson County Parks and Recreation Department's gym. "It had leaves and grass grown over it. It just looked abandoned," she recalled.

Simmons, who grew up gardening, was unaware that a couple of years age the county health department, the Lexington, Thomasville and county recreation departments, and Davidson County Cooperative Extension received a grant to fund community gardens.

County employees, through their Blue Cross/Blue Shield health insurance, could earn wellness points for seeding and tending a 4x6 section of the garden.

"Twenty minutes of gardening can burn up to 200 calories," Simmons offered.

Last year there was no garden.

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Community garden yields food for needy

Overgrown appearance of Southampton Old Cemetery divides opinion

7:00am Sunday 10th August 2014 in News By James Johnson, Senior Reporter

CHILDREN laugh and play, running about and riding their bikes.

Elderly people walk together in the sun, admiring the flowers and looking for squirrels in the trees.

Dragonflies, butterflies and birds sit in the trees and fly through the air.

The only sound other than the plants rustling in the wind is the hum of an occasional car driving past.

These all sound like hallmarks of an idyllic park in the countryside or a nature reserve but instead theyre features of an unusual cemetery in Southampton.

The citys Old Cemetery, at the southern end of the Common, divides opinion among nearby residents and those who walk through it.

Some are enamoured with the untamed foliage and animals that scuttle around, while others consider the lack of maintenance disrespectful to the thousands of dead who lie there.

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Is overgrown cemetery a wildlife haven or an insult to the dead?

Dear Angie: What's the best way to reseed my yard so I don't destroy the grass that has started growing? We used a grass that grows well in our hot and humid climate, and in partial sun. Much of the seed "took," but the grass is patchy and thin. I'm thinking we didn't lay down enough seed. I need advice on the best reseeding method. Jessica M, Greenville, S.C.

Dear Jessica: Rest assured that spreading seed over grass won't hurt your existing lawn. But if the new grass isn't growing well, you likely didn't properly prepare the soil or keep the seed sufficiently moist the first few weeks.

In other words, it takes more than simply tossing out grass seed and hoping for the best to transform thin turf into a lush lawn.

If you're experiencing only a few small bare spots, spot-seeding may be your best solution. Rake the bare area and lightly spread the seed.

For larger patchy areas, it's better to perforate or aerate the soil and then spread seed or slit-seed. A "slit seeder" or "slice seeder" is a gasoline-powered machine that slices even rows into soil and drops seed into the rows, for more soil-seed contact and a higher percentage of germinated seed than you'll get with just spreading seed. Slit seeders are most typically used to apply seed over an existing lawn, where mature grass or weeds may block new seed.

After seeding, add a quality starter fertilizer. To protect seed and help keep it moist, cover with a thin layer of topsoil, compost or other weed-free organic material.

Early fall is generally a good time to reseed a lawn, but review instructions for the specific type of grass you want to grow. For best results, new grass needs a month or more after germination to grow strong before the first frost. Seeding can also be done in spring, if grass has time to mature before the height of summer heat.

While adding seed won't hurt existing grass, be careful not to walk on newly germinated seed until the plant is strongly established.

Common mistakes to avoid include over- or under-watering. The lawn layer that contains the seed must be kept moist, but not soaked, for the several weeks it takes to germinate. Water about three times daily, at late night or early morning, midday and late afternoon.

Once the seed germinates, water regularly and deeply until the grass plant matures, usually an additional couple of weeks.

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Ask Angie: How to reseed a thin, sparse lawnBest way to reseed depends on the condition of your lawn

Although August usually brings hot, dry days that remind us that summer is not yet over, this month is a very good time to begin thinking about fall maintenance of your lawn. Labor Day weekend is right around the corner and typically signifies the start of fall activities designed to help ensure a lush, healthy lawn, including a minimum of pest issues, for the coming year. Maintenance activities encompass three primary practices.

Aeration involves pulling plugs of soil to open the surface for better nutrient and water movement. Crumble the plugs and let the soil fall loosely into the holes. This procedure helps reduce thatch as well as compacted soil throughout the yard. Aeration is an excellent frontrunner to fertilizing since it allows the nutrients in fertilizers to move more readily into the root zone of your lawn. Aeration helps cool season grasses recover from summer stress and vastly improves grass density and color.

Aeration equipment is available from local rental stores. Keep in mind that machines differ in design. Some aerators use spoon tines to pull soil plugs three to four inches deep on three- to four-inch centers and are considered by lawn care authorities to do an excellent job. However, aerators that force hollow tines into the soil are deemed even better. Regardless of the type of aerating equipment used, any amount of aeration of the soil is better than none.

Over-seeding is the practice of spreading additional grass seed to an established lawn. Use of a power rake prior to over-seeding is recommended to improve contact with the soil, which in turn improves seed germination. Even if your entire lawn does not require reseeding, power raking the small areas where the grass is sparse or completely gone is worth the effort for optimum results. In some instances it may be appropriate to renovate the entire lawn. If so, spraying with an effective weed and grass killer in August will control existing vegetation until the area can be power raked in early September.

Numerous over-the-counter seed products are available to homeowners including both cool-season and warm-season grasses. However, the most prevalent for this part of Missouri are cool-season grasses which are primarily limited to three options: (1) turf-type tall fescue, (2) Kentucky bluegrass, and (3) a blend of the two with a ratio of 90 percent fescue to 10 percent blue grass recommended.

Fescues grow well in full sun to partial shade, develop deeper roots, and thus generally require less water. The Kentucky bluegrasses provide deep color and finer texture. A combination of the two offers the strengths of each while masking the weaknesses of the other. Be wary of any blend that includes 20 percent or more ryegrass; ryegrasses are neither heat nor drought tolerant and they are susceptible to many turf grass diseases.

Before applying any type of fertilizer, begin with a soil test to determine the needs, if any, of the soil in your lawn. Soil pH is important because it affects the availability of nutrients to the grass. Results of a soil test will report nutrient levels, soil pH, and information about lime requirements. Soil test kits with instructions are available at your Pettis County Extension Office.

A wide variety of fertilizers are available including both organic and inorganic types. Look for fertilizers with a good balance of N-P-K (nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium) and with slow-release nitrogen. Fertilizer released into the soil over a longer period of time requires fewer applications and allows the grasses more time to efficiently utilize the nutrients.

For cool-season grasses (not warm-season grasses such as zoysia or Bermuda) apply 2.5 to 3 pounds of nitrogen per 1,000 square feet. Spread the total pounds over two or three applications throughout the fall. For example, after aeration and over-seeding, apply one pound of nitrogen (per 1,000 square feet) in early to mid-September, a second pound in October, and the third pound in November.

These fall practices for lawn maintenance offer a deeper root system and a significant improvement in weed control throughout the following season. Call the Master Gardener Hotline at 827-0519 or contact your local Extension Office if you have questions about the health and beauty of your lawn.

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THE GARDEN SCENE: Prime time for fall lawn maintenance