Making Turf Interesting and Stable

From In the Garden

Once upon a time a teen aged boy who drove a very big gas guzzler of the 80s era lived here with his wife. The gas guzzler was a huge ole black monster called Pontiac Grand Prix (circa 1980) and had big tires that made driving it very difficult for the wife. It was always a battle between the wife and car with the lawn winding up in the middle of the fight. You see, starting and shifting the car was most difficult for the wife and the car would sometimes lurch and move around on its own-while in its parking place. Old antique cars tend to do these sorts of things:) One such time the Pontiac made it into the section of turf you see pictured above-in the middle of a very wet season. Can you guess how deep the wounds were that the turf suffered? Six inch deep 10 feet long ruts come to my mind-okay maybe not that bad but pretty bad. Do you have any idea how much soil it takes to fill in such ruts? My daughter-in-law found out when she gamely sought to repair the damage caused by her battle with the Pontiac. I, on the other hand, sought to figure out how to lessen the damage to the lawn when errant automobiles tend to migrate to this spot.

The idea I came up with has been most pleasing. I took some plain concrete pavers and dug them into the turf area in a checkerboard pattern. It was my hope that should a large Pontiac (or other gas guzzler-er-antique much beloved old car) travel into this area that the concrete pavers would help to lessen the damage, all while providing some nice interesting patterns in an otherwise boring spot of turf. So far, my trick has worked and ruts have been kept to a minimum, actually they've been non-existent. Hmmmm, that might be due to the fact the Pontiac has been relegated to a storage area waiting for more glory days.

Mom-any ruts in your grass?:)

in the garden....



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In the Garden