The Lady Cardinals' new facility has been making great strides in recent weeks, with only 3 more weeks remaining ntil they take the field for their home opener. Photo taken Tuesday, February 10, 2015 Kim Brent/The Enterprise Photo: Kim Brent

The Lady Cardinals' new facility has been making great strides in...

Luis Amezcup lays sod near the third baseline as work continues on the Lady Cardinals' new softball stadium. Construction of the facility has been making great strides in recent weeks, with only 3 more weeks remaining until they take the field for their home opener. Photo taken Tuesday, February 10, 2015 Kim Brent/The Enterprise Photo: Kim Brent

Luis Amezcup lays sod near the third baseline as work continues on...

Luis Amezcup lays sod near the third baseline as work continues on the Lady Cardinals' new softball stadium. Construction of the facility has been making great strides in recent weeks, with only 3 more weeks remaining until they take the field for their home opener. Photo taken Tuesday, February 10, 2015 Kim Brent/The Enterprise Photo: Kim Brent

Luis Amezcup lays sod near the third baseline as work continues on...

Lamar University head softball coach Holly Bruder stands at home plate of the Lady Cardinals' new stadium. Work on the facility has been making great strides in recent weeks, with only 3 more weeks remaining until they take the field for their home opener. Photo taken Tuesday, February 10, 2015 Kim Brent/The Enterprise Photo: Kim Brent

Lamar University head softball coach Holly Bruder stands at home...

The Lady Cardinals' new softball stadium has been making great strides in recent weeks, with only 3 more weeks remaining until they take the field for their home opener. Photo taken Tuesday, February 10, 2015 Kim Brent/The Enterprise Photo: Kim Brent

The Lady Cardinals' new softball stadium has been making great...

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LU softball stadium to open in March

DENVER - The Denver Broncos will be playing on real grass, instead of a synthetic-grass blend, next season at Sports Authority Field at Mile High.

Team officials said workers began removing the field surface on Monday and plan to have the new grass field in place in early April.

The surface has been a synthetic-grass blend put in place when the stadium opened in 2001. The new surface will be 100 percent Kentucky bluegrass sod. Officials said the sod will be grown by Graffs Turf Farms in Fort Morgan.

The first event on the new field will be the Denver Outlaws home opener against the Charlotte Hounds on May 3.

"After completing extensive upgrades to the stadium in recent years, our focus now is providing the safest and best possible playing surface at Sports Authority Field at Mile High," said Zach Myhra, Director of Facilities for Stadium Management Company.

Read more here:
Broncos changing to real grass at Mile High

Blue Jays president and CEO Paul Beeston discusses the prospective move from artificial turf to real grass in Rogers Centre by 2018

Researchers will receive $600,000 as part of the agreement, and a year-long study is now underway. The goal is to have natural grass installed with a dirt infield by the start of the 2018 season.

"We are thrilled to partner with the Toronto Blue Jays on this exciting project," said Rene Van Acker, associate dean with the Ontario Agricultural College and a professor in the Department of Plant Agriculture.

"The challenge of developing a natural turfgrass field for the Rogers Centre is very unique, but we are confident that the combination of the Blue Jays' commitment and our special expertise and research capacity will produce a facility that players and fans will love, and that will meet the challenges of the Rogers Centre as a world-class multiuse facility."

The Blue Jays and Rays are the only two franchises in Major League Baseball that play their home games on an artificial surface. Beeston has made it one of his top priorities to make the switch to natural grass, and while the process is expected to be very complicated, the initial stages of that plan have been approved.

The project will be overseen by Eric Lyons, who is a professor in the Department of Agriculture and a leading turfgrass expert. Lyons has been tasked with determining which strand of grass would be able to grow indoors under artificial light. Other aspects that need to be examined are the humidity levels, air circulation, water and durability to survive an 81-game home schedule.

Lyons has been asked to recommend a specific strand of grass by spring of 2016. From there, it will be up to the Blue Jays to determine whether such a move is feasible and what type of upgrades would be required to make it happen. Rogers Centre currently is not equipped with proper drainage, and substantial renovations would be required even if the right type of grass can be identified.

"I am certain that we can do this -- find suitable grass species and ways to ensure they will flourish inside the stadium," Lyons said.

"The question will be whether it's feasible for the Blue Jays to do it, and that's what we're going to help them answer."

If the project continues after the initial year, the grass will be grown at an Ontario sod farm and then tested in a simulated environment under artificial light before possibly getting the go ahead for the 2018 regular season.

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Blue Jays looking into installing grass at Rogers Centre

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. -

"Gold is the New Green" and "Stay Sandy Santa Barbara" are two catchy slogans that have popped up during the record drought.

But two new phrases are drawing the attention of local landscapers: "Bold Innovation" and "Eco-Mat."

The Eco-Mat system is a way to keep your grass green, year round, from the roots up. Think of it as a waterbed of sorts, with holes in it for the roots of your lawn.

The underground watering system is manufactured and sold worldwide by Hunter Industries.

The poly-propelene felt blanket evenly disperses water laterally, not from above, but beneath grass.

"The roots of the sod actually come in and attach to this mat, and they get a lot of the water," said Kim True, owner of True Nature Design in Goleta. "They can go down below it as well to get deeper water."

The installation process is fairly easy and arguably, less time consuming than installing a traditional sprinkler system. But, it is not a one person job.

The Eco-Mat comes in a roll measuring 295 feet long by 38 inches wide. Pre-drilled emiter tubing, spaced every 14 inches, runs through channels in the fleeze. The mat system is installed three inches below sod, with a layer of amended soil in between.

A growing number of local contracters and landscapers say this type of sprinkler system is quickly becoming a "must-have" in a variety of turf settings, including that strip of grass between the street and sidewalk.

See more here:
Subterranean Sprinklers Not Saturating The Market, Yet

Mandy and Bob Harrison survey the chafer beetle damage in the back yard of their Rochester Avenue home.

image credit: SARAH PAYNE/THE TRI-CITY NEWS

Bob Harrison and his wife, Mandy, have lived in their Rochester Avenue home for 30 years, having fallen in love with the view that stretches all the way to the Fraser River, the flat, expansive back yard and the creek flowing beside the house.

Never in those 30 years did they expect to be dealing with a pest the likes of the chafer beetle.

In the past few months the Harrisons have watched their carefully tended lawn turn into an apocalyptic battle scene the crows pecking away at great chunks of grass, turning it into bubbled balls of turf, and the raccoons laying waste to entire swaths, nosing the sod up and rolling it back with nary a root in sight.

"We had a beautiful lawn here for years and years," Harrison said, shaking his head as he surveyed the damage in his back yard.

And after months of trying to battle the chafer beast, Harrison is throwing up his hands in defeat.

"What do we do with this? It's totally ruined," he said of the more than 6,000 sq. ft. yard.

The couple's grandson did a bit of online research for them and came up with coyote urine as a possible antidote, so Harrison picked up a small bottle from an outdoors store in Bellingham. He sprinkled some on a test patch of grass and tied a urine-soaked rag to a stake that he set out in another area.

"That night the raccoons came back, sniffed around it didn't bother them at all," Harrison said. "The next night the crows came back as well."

Read more:
Chafer beetle wreaks havoc on Rochester back yard

Virginia Eadie never needed the city's help, but she got some shovel service anyway.

Video:Omaha plow dumps dirt, grass in woman's yard Monday night

"I was virtually in shock," Eadie said.

An Omaha plow driver missed the mark, dumping dirt and grass all over her driveway Monday night.

Eadie called the city to complain and then called 7 Can Help.

"She was telling me it's our responsibility for the sidewalk and I said, 'How can we be responsible for what your trucks have been doing?'" Eadie said.

Moments after KETV NewsWatch 7 arrived to record the damage, a city plow drove by and cleaned much of it up. The crew said that situations like this happen sometimes.

"That much snow, you really can't feel the curb from your plow so they run up and scalp it," the crewman said.

"We really appreciate the attention and the service, and I think your coming had a bearing on it and it could be too that we called the mayors hotline that might've also sped the process up a little bit," Eadie said.

The city said it will put sod where the plow tore up the grass, but not until the spring when the ground thaws out.

See the article here:
Omaha plow dumps dirt, grass in woman's yard Monday night

Grass sod lawns are a large part of the grass lawn industry in New Jersey and New York. The selection of creating a lawn from new sod is that you almost instantly have a growing green area where nothing was the day before. Sod lawns are planted by seed or other vegetative methods at commercial farms, and grown generally for one to three years to create your new instant lawn.

If you want a nearly instant lawn then consider CF Gardens for your lawn grass sod supplier. We offer grass sod delivery or visit our garden center.

- Sod Prices per Roll $4.25

- Local Sod Delivery $25.00

- We will have sod available every saturday Only!

- We will be able to deliver any other day of the week as long as the order is 140 Rolls and over.

Landscapers and wholesale, please call for discounts.

Sodding is many time described as being like installing a new carpet, with the exception that your new lawn will need to be tenderly cared for until it re-establishes itself in your soil.

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Buy Grass Sod with Delivery, New Lawn Grass Sod for Sale ...

Established in Marlboro, NJ, in 1906, Brookrest Sod Farm is a third generation family farm. Potatoes and vegetables were the original crops, supplying Northern NJ and NYC markets.

The farm evolved over time, producing a wide variety of crops including vegetables, field corn, soy beans, hay and straw. In 1970, sod was added. In the early 1980s, total crop production exceeded 1200 acres.Today, the Stattel family concentrates their production on sod, ornamental crops, bedding plants and grain.

Premium high quality sod production has been a specialty here since 1970. Only turf grass varieties that are tested and recommended by Cook College of Rutgers University are grown. A combination of university recommendations, and three generations of their own knowledge, enables Brookrest Sod Farm to produce the highest quality turf in the tri state area.

Presently, our farms are located in Monmouth and Burlington Counties, and we are proud to serve the Central New Jersey and New York Metro area with premium quality turf grass sod.

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Brookrest Sod Farm Marlboro, NJ

Its not yet spring, but it is harvest time for sod.

Theres plenty of zoysia on its way to market, but it's a different story for Bermuda grass this year.

We feel that were just low (on) our overall supply heading into the peak season of 2015, said Brad Hubinek, owner of Super Sod in Raleigh.

He said the entire sod industry in the Southeast is having supply problems with the increasingly popular grass. The problems began during the recession of 2007. When construction plunged, so did the demand for sod. Thats when a lot of growers switched their fields to other crops.

Now, construction has rebounded, and so has the demand for sod. Higher sod prices are expected this season as the industry works through the shortage.

The sod industry really follows construction very closely, said Grady Miller, a crop scientist at North Carolina State University.

His best advice to homeowners this season is to be patient.

But if they need grass, they may have to choose another grass other than Bermuda grass, Miller said.

Hubinek said zoysia is a good alternative.

Zoysia is a fantastic grass, a warm-season grass like Bermuda, he said. If a homeowner wants to have the best looking yard in the neighborhood, that's the option to go with.

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Low supply pushing up prices for popular Bermuda grass

At Triangle Turf Company, our primary goal is to produce the highest quality turf grass available anywhere. The extra care we put into our grass to make it the best is something you will see every spring for years to come. When you are ready to buy your sod ask your dealer if the turf came from Triangle Turf Company. This is quality you can trust. And remember, when it comes to the first in quality turf grass the grass really is greener on our side of the fence.

The grass is really greener on the Triangle Turf side of the fence! Do you want your neighbors to notice how your lawn stands out every spring? At Triangle Turf Company, we are dedicated to producing the high-quality St. Augustine grass, Bermuda grass, and Zoysia grass that will make you the envy of your neighbors and have them asking you for lawn care tips. Our quality turf grass sod is used in first-class installations in San Antonio, Austin, and throughout most of the rest of Texas. Call toll-free, 1-800-753-5182 for more information and a free quote.

When youre ready to begin a sod installation project, ask your sod dealer if his turfgrass comes from Triangle Turf. An affirmative answer means that your sod dealer focuses on quality work and it will assure you that youll have a lawn to be proud of for many years to come.

Our grasses are grown to a standard of 95% purity or better!

Please spend some time looking through our website. Weve provided information that we hope will help you choose the right grass for your location and installation. Triangle Turf Company specializes in growing sod that performs well in the demanding climates of San Antonio and Austin, so if youre looking for first-quality turf grass developed to thrive in your area of Texas, give us a call at 1-800-753-5182. We can deliver sod pallets directly to your project site in San Antonio or Austin.

For more information about St. Augustine grass sod, Bermuda grass sod, or Zoysia grass sod, please visit those information pages.

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St. Augustine Grass, Zoysia Grass, and Bermuda Grass Sod ...