Hello,
As most of you know a lot of the common areas around the District have issues with grubs from a tough, dry winter killing some of the grass in those areas.
The District maintenance crews recently applied a grub product “Merit” on all the tracts. Also, at the same time put down an application of fertilizer. Then the tracts with grub issues are being seeded, along with other tracts that looked a little thin or needed some help.
Now the District is going to be watering 80% of the property under a new seed program going on several times a day and night. This will go on for roughly two weeks or extended if needed. We want to give this new seed and existing grass a chance to grow.
Stating this, the maintenance crews are holding off on the mowing once all the Merit and seed has been put down. The grass will grow long and look unkempt in these areas, but this will really help the project as a whole. Also, at this time the District cannot spray for weed control for 3 weeks after seeding. This means you will see some weeds grow a lot taller than the grass, but again we have to hold off on placing any chemical control products for 3 weeks after placing new seed.
This heavy watering of the whole site and allowing the grass to seed, will really help the project. The grass which is a dura turf (not Kentucky blue), can use this extra water and growth, which will allow for the grass still living to seed out. Then the mower is not coming in and mowing over newly sprouted grass.
After the seeding and watering, the site should come back to life. If any areas around the site do not come back as quick as hoped, the maintenance crew will re-seed those areas.
As a side note, when the District is watering the site under normal conditions, we use the pre-soak method. The irrigation will go on for roughly 15/20 minutes depending on the size of the area and sun exposure, then turn off for roughly 1 hour. Then the zone will turn on again and sometimes a third time, again, depending on the area. This allows time for the water to soak in to those areas, and not run off because the ground did not have time to absorb the water.
Keep in mind most of the common areas are fully exposed to all the elements all day long. No solid fence for shade, no house shade protecting it from the sunny part of the day. Most of the common areas are fully exposed all day, so they take a little more water and the pre-soak method works on these areas.
If you see an irrigation issues, please e-mail a picture and description of the problem, and the location of the issue to the District. We will investigate it, and repair as needed.