DETROIT -

Comerica Park in downtown Detroit hosted hockey in January, but now the field is being prepared for a full season of baseball.

Because of the placement of a hockey rink on the surface of the field, all of the sod in the stadium was taken out. Now it is going to be replaced .

This might be one of those projects with the admonition "don't try this at home."

Mike Thompson runs Hillcrest Sod Farm in Romulus. He says this is not the time of the year for a homeowner to be thinking about sod replacement.

"With the temperatures going down to the 20s, we think we will get another freeze again, we're not doing anything. Nobody in Michigan is doing anything right now," Thompson said.

But crews at Comerica Park will be doing something. Starting next week, 103,000 square feet of Kentucky Blue Grass will be shipped in from Colorado to re-sod the baseball field.

Thompson sees that installation as a challenge.

"You know that plant really likes warm weather. So it's definitely going to be challenging, so maybe something I wouldn't try to pull off," he said.

Installation of the new sod at Comerica Park is due to begin next Tuesday and take about two or three days to complete.

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Comerica Park set to get all new grass

Water experts offer conservation tips

Planting native grasses is one way to reduce consumption

By CHRISTINE COLBERT

For Wood River Valley residents gearing up to feel a potential pinch in water use this summer, there are ways to soften the effects of drought and conjunctive water management. Several ideas were offered Friday at a water seminar hosted by the Wood River Land Trust, The Nature Conservancy and University of Idaho Extension at the Community Campus in Hailey. One of the days workshops addressed the topic of drought-tolerant lawns, and how to install them correctly. This process involves eradicating existing bluegrass species and replanting a native mix that can tolerate drier conditions. Patti Lousen, project coordinator at the Land Trust, presented a video detailing some of the ways in which homeowners can remove their sod (the video can be viewed on the organizations website). There is a range of methods to consider when starting the conversion process. Residents can choose to tarp their lawn for an entire summer; cut their grass short and cover it with layers of wet newspaper; cut and flip the sod; or completely remove the existing sod and bring in new soil. Lousen also discussed the use of Roundup to kill off an existing lawn. [At WRLT] we chose to kill it with Roundup and then reseed it, said Lousen. The chemical is absorbed quickly by the grass, and breaks down quickly. It often takes several applications in order to completely eradicate the existing bluegrass. For more information about killing off water-dependent bluegrass, the organization has made educational material available on its Trout Friendly Lawns webpage. Restoration ecologist Steve Paulsen, from Conservation Seeding and Restoration Inc., also gave a how-to in replacing existing Kentucky bluegrass lawns with drought-tolerant grass. Advocating native restoration, Paulsen spoke about the importance of using a mix of locally native drought-tolerant grass seed, on soil that is completely devoid of any bluegrass species. Overall, Paulsen stressed the importance of making sure the unwanted grass is eradicated completely. Kill it dead, or remove it, Paulsen said, since any leftover bluegrass will essentially return and take over newly planted native species. Once a clean slate is achieved, the soil can be planted with a native mix, via seeding or planting of new sod. Those in the market for native grass seed should make sure they are buying a mix with a high percentage of live seed, and that the species is regionally based, he said. The process of switching to a new, drought-tolerant lawn takes time, patience and investment, the speakers said. A careful watering regime is necessary in the first few weeks. But the benefits of making the conversion can be many. Native lawns can require up to 50 percent less water to maintain and less mowing, rewarding homeowners with time and money. Less vegetative material deposited in landfills and significantly less wasted water are two other reasons Paulsen identified. As a society, there are lots of reasons to engage this, he said. The seminar also offered a workshop regarding irrigation systems. Irrigation auditor Kodi Farnsworth presented a variety of techniques that can save homeowners from overwatering their property anywhere from 20 to 60 percent. One of these techniques involves employing state-of-the-art irrigation tools such as sensors and controllers that can monitor the exact needs of the homeowners plants and soil. Knowing the existing type of soil and plant root depth are important factors to be aware of when watering. Over-saturation can cause disease among plants, Farnsworth said. When done properly, you can cut water usage significantly, he said. Residents can also decrease their water use by updating sprinkler heads, and making sure they achieve uniform water distribution. Poor uniformity leads to longer run times, Farnsworth said. Sprinkler type, spacing, flow rate and water pressure are among some of the key factors in making an irrigation system operate correctly, for maximum water efficiency and health of the landscape, he said. For homeowners interested in finding out how efficient their system currently is, scheduling an irrigation audit can help them discover how to better care for their landscaping. Depending on the size of the property and other controlling factors, the cost of revamping ones irrigation system can be high. Those with less acreage may not notice the return in their pocketbook for several years. But sometimes doing the right thing is doing the right thing, Farnsworth said.

Groundwater model on schedule Almost a year after it was begun, a model of groundwater flow in the Wood River basin is on schedule to be completed by the end of 2015, Idaho Department of Water Resources project director Sean Vincent told people attending a water seminar in Hailey on Friday. Tim Luke, water compliance bureau chief for the Idaho Department of Water Resources, said the groundwater flow model will help determine the extent of injury suffered by a surface water-rights holder in the event of a call on a groundwater user. The degree of injury helps to determine whether the call is justified. Jim Bartolino, a hydrologist at the U.S. Geological Surveys Idaho Water Science Center in Boise, said the Wood River aquifer is composed of sand, gravel and clay, and sits on top of basalt bedrock. It is 20-30 feet deep near the headwaters of the river, about 100 feet deep near Ketchum and about 350 feet deep under the Bellevue Triangle. Most of the aquifer is interconnectedthats called the unconfined part. But a separate part, the confined area of the aquifer, sits deeper down and is under pressure; water in wells drilled into that section rise to the level of the highest point in the aquifer, not to the level of the surrounding water. Most of the aquifer discharges into Silver Creek, though some flows into the Big Wood River in the vicinity of Stanton Crossing. Wells suck water out of a cone-shaped area that deepens and widens as more water is pumped out. With enough pumping, the wells can drain water from the river itself. Every well in the Wood River Valley is affecting surface water to some degree, Bartolino said.

-Greg Moore

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Water experts offer conservation tips

Del Mar's new turf course will begin getting installed with a brand new shade of green on March 17, St. Patrick's Day.

DEL MAR Del Mar is taking the wearin of the green to a new level on St. Patricks Day.

Del Mar Thoroughbred Club officials confirmed this week that the racetracks new turf will arrive from the Coachella Valley on St. Patricks Day, March 17, and that turf and landscape superintendent Leif Dickinson will oversee the placing of the new grass shortly after it hits the beach.

Last weekends rain cost Dickinson and his crew three days of work, but he told Del Mar media director Mac McBride that there was an allowance in the schedule for that sort of thing, so it wasnt a big kink in the process.

McBride said the new turf will be hauled from Coachella Valley by truck and arrive at Del Mar at 6 a.m. He said crews will begin laying down the sod about an hour later.

Joe Harper, Del Mars president and CEO, said recently that the main Polytrack will be torn out after the 2014 racing season to make way for a return to the original dirt surface. Del Mar is the only track in Southern California with a synthetic surface now that Hollywood Park has closed and Santa Anita has gone back to dirt.

Dickinson said recently that he foresees no problems with the new turf course and that it should be ready for racing by July. The wider turf course will allow for 14 starters, which is something Breeders Cup officials insisted upon before Del Mar could host the event.

Del Mar and Churchill Downs, both with strong bids, are considered the favorites to receive the next dates for the Breeders Cup. Santa Anita will host the world championships for the third consecutive year this fall. But 2015 and beyond are open as far as host tracks.

Breeders Cup officials are expected to name the next site for the world championships soon.

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Del Mar's new turf course ready for grass

BAKERSFIELD,CA- Local water districts including the East Niles Community Service District, are reporting increases in residential water usage.

"Last year if you look at the average consumption for January 2013 was 1,500 cubic feet for residential customers and January of this year, it went up to 1,900 cubic feet," said Tim Ruiz, general manager at East Niles Community Service District.

Ruiz says the culprit is irrigation.

"Watering everyday is not good for your plants, not good for trees, it's not good for anything and it's definitely not good for California," said Dale Edwards with Old River Sod.

Edwards says you can get the curb appeal you want with less water by training your lawn.

"The drought is a serious thing. We have to prepare now and not wait until the middle of summer because you can't transition your roots that fast," said Edwards.

It starts with getting the roots strong and healthy by using a core aerator to puncture holes to let your choice of soil conditioner in, which keeps the pores in the soil open and breathing. Edwards says healthy roots need less water.

Second, add days between each time you water. Edwards says nothing too structural, it's based on color. The color of the grass can give signs on its condition and adding water may not always be the remedy.

"I will look at my grass and it will turn this light color blue or little bit of gray color and then that means okay it's time to need some water. It starts turning a little bit of yellow, that's the time it needs a little bit of fertilizer," said Edwards.

Edwards waters his lawn every six weeks but its taken him ten years to train is lawn. But he says if you follow these simple tips, you can save up to two-thirds of water in less than a year.

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Train your lawn to use less water

NATHAN SKID / Crain's Detroit Business

New Kentucky bluegrass will be installed this month at Comerica Park in the first full-field sod replacement at the ballpark since 2007.

The Detroit Tigers soon will begin using plows, trucks and snow blowers to remove the layer of snow from the playing surface at Comerica Park so new grass can be installed and ready in time for Opening Day on March 31, the team said today.

As reported Monday by Crain's, the Tigers organization bought 103,000 square feet of Kentucky bluegrass from Fort Morgan, Colo.-based Graff's Turf Farm.

The turf is to arrive in refrigerated trucks beginning the week of March 17.

This will be first full-field replacement at the 15-year-old ballpark since 2007.

Since the initial set-up for the Winter Festival in November, when the grass was removed for a temporary ice hockey rink, the entire playing surface has been covered with a textile filter fabric that prevents debris and contaminates from entering the sub-surface, the team said.

The fabric also allows the Tigers' groundskeeping staff to remove snow without removing or displacing the root zone.

The infield and turf areas since Monday have been heated with surface-level construction-grade, 750,000 BTU trailer heaters, which blow warm air under large tarps, the team said.

Once the snow is gone, the field will be leveled.

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Tigers to truck out snow to make way for new Comerica Park grass

Photos by Brendan OConnor

Weve all heard this story before: An academic, hippie environmentalist moves into a middle-class suburban neighborhood where neighbors like their front yards tended and prefer their lawns to have conservative buzz cuts, just like their men. The new neighbor has other ideas, however, and upsets the balance. People start to worry about their property values, pests and the aesthetics of their otherwise quiet subdivision. Its the age-old tale of living in the burbs the neighbors grass isnt always greener, especially when its dotted with radishes and dandelions instead of bright green sod.

Shon Law is a 32-year-old tech start-up wizard who foundedsocial media website, Nebber, a few years back. Hes also a Longwood resident who refuses to mow his lawn. In fact, hes decided to stop interfering with his yard altogether in favor of planting edibles and letting it go native, a decision that his neighbors and the city are not happy about. Law is being fined $300 a day for abandoning the traditional grassy lawn for a quilt-like expanse of ankle- to knee-high tufty native grasses, weedy plants and isolated patches of vegetables. Law has placed a path of square cement blocks around the plot to try to make it look a little more civilized, but they really only emphasize how high and overgrown the grass is.

To date, Law has accumulated well over $130,000 in fines for breaking city codes, mostly dealing with the length of his grass and attracting pests. The city of Longwood has placed a lien against his property in an effort to make Law change his ways, but he says he doesnt plan to change a thing.

Video: Shon Law explains his farming philosophy

When asked why, he says he believes hes doing the right thing. This area is a food desert, which means no food is readily available here and it has to be trucked in from somewhere else, he says. Sure, I could move out to Bithlo, but I bought this house here, and I have a right to do what I think is best on this property. This is a free city, and we cannot bar a property owner from doing something on the basis of aesthetics. If something happened and food was no longer being brought to this area, all of these people would starve.

Law is practicing the art of permaculture, a method of agriculture rooted in natural ecosystems. His goal, like the goal of many permaculturists who went before him, is to bring sustainable, local sources of food closer to home.

Related: Watch more videos of Shon Law talking about his landscape.

Clashes between radical locavores and their more traditional neighbors have grown more common as interest in sustainable food production has increased. In 2012, a College Park couple faced fines of more than $500 a day after neighbors complained that their front-yard vegetable garden was against code. In response to the controversy, the city of Orlando eventually rewrote its landscaping code to allow city residents to dedicate a limited amount of their property to edible plants.

>Email Brendan OConnor

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Longwood front-yard farmer stands by his permaculture plot

If you are like most gardeners you have some green spots, weedy spots and bare spots in the home lawn. Now just as the spring growing season is about to begin is the best time to regreen the entire home lawn.

First decide what portion of the lawn can be saved. Then dig out or spot kill the weedy areas with Roundup, Finale or similar weed control products labeled for lawn renovation. After the weeds begin to brown rake out the dead portions and till these and barren areas several inches deep to prepare the planting site.

Quickly reestablish a new lawn using plugs or sod of St. Augustine and seed or sod of bahia grass. Keep new lawns moist and apply a first feeding in 3 to 4 weeks. Then follow these tips to keep the home turf attractive.

- Mow when the grass reaches the desired height.

- Water when spots of grass begin to curl the leaf blades and turn a pale green.

- Give new lawns a repeat feeding in early summer.

- Check weekly for insects and diseases that need control.

- Hand pull or spot kill weeds becoming established.

Spring is a great time to reestablish your lawn. Now is the time to feed most lawns too with a quality lawn fertilizer found at your garden centers. One lawn fertilizer is usually suitable for all lawn types. Just follow the information on the label to make the best application that regreens your lawn.

More here:
Put the Green Back In Your Lawn

Grass sod in the gutter. Wiltshire
This grass sod had been in this gutter for some time. We won in the end.

By: A Cleaner Group

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Grass sod in the gutter. Wiltshire - Video

NATHAN SKID / Crain's Detroit Business

New Kentucky bluegrass will be installed this month at Comerica Park in the first full-field sod replacement at the ballpark since 2007.

The National Hockey League, along with the Detroit Red Wings and Olympia Entertainment, are splitting the cost of the new grass field that will be installed at Comerica Park in time for the Detroit Tigers season opener on March 31.

The cost and how it's being apportioned among the three entities hasn't been disclosed. Olympia is the entertainment management arm of the Ilitch family's business holdings, which include the Wings and Tigers.

New natural grass fields at major league ballparks range in price from $100,000 to $250,000, turf industry insiders say.

The contract for the 103,000 square feet of Kentucky bluegrass, which will be the first full-field replacement at the 15-year-old ballpark since 2007, was awarded to Fort Morgan, Colo.-based Graff's Turf Farm.

The NHL agreed to pick up costs at Comerica Park as part of the deal it swung with Red Wings and Tigers owner Mike Ilitch to host its Winter Classic at Michigan Stadium instead of Comerica Park.

At a cost of up to $1 million, the NHL paid Kitty Hawk, N.C.-based Rink Specialists Inc. to build a temporary ice rink on Comerica Park's infield for the Hockeytown Winter Festival games at the end of December.

The Winter Festival was the downtown Detroit portion of the Winter Classic, which was played at Michigan Stadium between the Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs.

For the Winter Festival, all of the Comerica Park grass was removed. A woven barrier was put over the bare dirt to protect it until the sod is installed once the snow clears. The ice rink was removed last month.

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NHL, Red Wings to pay for replacement Tigers field at Comerica

American political culture always seems to be celebrating the anniversary of something, be it JFKs assassination (we just passed the 50th anniversary of that sad event) or the signing of some (mostly bad) legislation. The latest political activity to be enshrined with an anniversary is the so-called stimulus, the $800 billion monstrosity passed five years ago ostensibly to put America back to work.

Not surprisingly, the New York Times has editorialized that any criticism of the spending bill at least any criticism which says too much was spent is a Republican myth and falsehood. Not only was the Stimulus a legitimate piece of legislation, sniffed the NYT, but it also:

prevented a second recession that could have turned into a depression. It created or saved an average of 1.6 million jobs a year for four years. (Where are the jobs, Mr. Boehner.) It raised the nations economic output by 2 to 3 percent from 2009 to 2011. It prevented a significant increase in poverty without it, 5.3 million additional people would have become poor in 2010.

Like all examples of the Broken Window Fallacy, the spirited defense of this spending bill is based upon accounting methods that count the people hired through stimulus spending as new jobs but fail to note how others might have lost their own means of employment. Now, this was a bill that, among other things, had workers rolling sod into the grass median of I-68 (which is near my home) in an area where runoff collected from tons of salt thrown onto roads by state highway crews (our area receives a lot of snowfall). Not surprisingly, within a year, all of the new grass was dead.

I liken the stimulus to throwing a bit of lighter fluid onto a pile of soaking wet wood. The flames pop up for a few seconds, but then disappear as the effects from the fluid go away. (No, repeated douses of stimulus fluid do not ultimately gain traction and then lead to a miraculous economic recovery.)

If Beltway political culture permits any criticism of the Holy Stimulus, it is this: the stimulus wasnt big enough. Intones the NYT: The stimulus could have done more good had it been bigger and more carefully constructed.

The rest of the editorial is a compilation of near-plagiarism from Paul Krugmans columns and blog posts, and it reflects how Keynesian anti-wogic works. The logical narrative goes as follows:

Should one question the Keynesian premises of this awful syllogism, the standard answer is: America had full employment during World War II. (Robert Higgs has thoroughly debunked this enduring myth.) But, then, so did Germany and the U.S.S.R., according to Keynesian standards, but no one envies what people there experienced!

The problem that occurs when one wishes to interpret the results of the Stimulus is not due to bad politics. To put it another way, Stimulus spending always will confer political benefits, given that the money is transferred from taxpayers to preferred political constituents. Those footing the bill include both present and future taxpayers, since they will have to pay later for the public debt incurred to pay for present stimulus spending.

I make this point because the stimulus always has been presented as a government action that improved general or overall economic conditions, as opposed to being a political wealth-transfer scheme. The NYT editorial drips with what only can be a religious faith in the whole system, as though politicians seeking votes are going to carefully construct a process that is aimed at making certain political constituencies better off but at the expense of other constituencies.

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Anti-Logic and the Keynesian Stimulus