Tenafly Middle School Organic Turf Management

School and Municipal Turf Management Services

Lincoln Landscaping was and is proud to be a part of the turf management program at the Tenafly Middle School in Bergen County. This soccer field restoration we undertook to bring back vitality to the playing fields incorporated several steps to attain.

Core aeration was of a necessity. Core aeration is basically the difference between living in a home that has 12 ft ceilings and one that has 5 ft ceilings. It is much harder to mover around, there is a lot less air and life generally becomes much more difficult. With regards to plants and turf, it is exactly the same thing. They have less air and water to toake in, their roots as a result no not grow and your neighbors (the earthworms with their useful and vital excrements) don’t visit.

After a core aeration we followed that up with a manual overseeding of the entire turf and athletic field area. We utilized over THIRTY (30) YARDS of top quality compost into the field to promote new growth and sustain this growth by feeding not only the turf but the soil itself. For more information about what is meant by the term “feeding soil” see our creating soil biology post.

The second group of pictures here shows another soccer field at Tenafly Middle School that we cut in a different pattern. Changing cutting patterns is a good cultural practice to follow.

The direction of mowing should be altered every one to two mowings. For this field we calculated a starting arc distance on both sides and mowed in an arc like fashion. Another way we change our patters is by mowing at right angles to the previous direction will help prevent the grass from repeatedly being pushed in one direction and laying over, an important consideration at high mowing heights. Also, if scalping areas of the field is a problem, the different mowing directions will help minimize continual scalping in any one area.