Turf Update
We are making progress . . .
Thanks to all of our members who are waiting patiently for the SWCDP Fall re-opening. We are getting close – and should have a definite date announcement very soon. We are tentatively looking at October 28. Although SWCDP has been closed for play purposes – some of us have remained very busy with both on-site and behind the scenes improvement work. Plenty of dog park news coming in the upcoming months – but today we are focused on the turf – and getting back to some serious play time with our friends!
St Louis City Forestry really came through for us. With short notice – they came as requested on 9/21/20 to grind out the stump in Main. Doing the work the day after we closed for turf renovation was very timely and helped SWCDP stay on schedule. Grinding out the stump and adding additional dirt prepared the area for the aeration and seed scheduled for the following day.
TruGreen aerated and planted a tall Fescue (Falcon IV) seed on September 22. TruGreen selected Falcon IV for SWCDP because of it’s high quality (99.63% pure seed) and its high germination success (90%). Also, Falcon IV has a fast germination period — 10 days or less. Sure enough….we started seeing tiny sprouts of grass within that time frame. Simply amazing – and impressive – how quickly the seed germinated!
We did a weed and feed on September 8 – which gave us a jump start on our war against weeds. And, we have an organic fertilizer application scheduled for October 20. These two applications play a big part in improving our soil and reducing weeds. Reduction of weeds has been dramatic….we have plenty of new grass areas without weeds – but – we do still have some. Weed reduction will be an ongoing effort – and necessary, because left unchecked – the weeds ALWAYS snuff out the grass and die off with the first cold weather….giving us the dreaded mud.
Why is SWCDP not open yet?
Turf looks green & ready as we look at it from outside the fence!
Well ….. It’s true we are excited about the progress – but in addition to aforementioned tender grass status – we have several areas that are struggling. We do not expect to correct all the issues before we re-open but we are working on some of the problems with hopeful resolution. Take a look at a sampling of some of our “hot spots”.
