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Show O . . , -mi 1 i 1 m i n i' n f ' m i m 1 I I 1 ' I i i n r r r f r r ' ' f m ' 1 ' ' 1 Page A14 Thursday, July 2, 1987 Park Record Mountain (Gardens Learn to have a lawn as gorgeous as the local golf course by KRISTEN ROGERS Record guest writer If you hang around people who take care of golf courses long enough, you're bound to learn a thing or two about grass. I did and I have and, thanks to Pace Erickson, Park City Golf Course Superintendent, Superinten-dent, I have some lawn advice to share with you. So if you have a patch of grass somewhere, you might want to read on; here, on this very page, is Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Lawns, (Until (Un-til You Started to Think About It and Came Up With More Questions). It's simple, of course, to have a beautiful lawn: you cut it, water it, fertilize it, and dig the two or three dandelions that come up in the spring. spr-ing. So why do we average homeowners have such a hard time gettting our lawns to behave? The secret lies in cutting, watering, and fertilizing correctly. Cutting: Cut your lawn to stand 2 to 2 12 inches tall. If you insist on cutting it shorter, don't make it any shorter than 1 12 inches. Short lawns require more fertilizer and water, you see; golf course greens, for example, require 12 pound of nitrogen every two weeks. It's been said that once you mow a lawn below one inch, every eighth inch less will double your maintenance costs. Watering: Don't overwater! It's time to water when the grass begins to wilt, and not before. You'll know it's time when the grass turns a blue-green blue-green color of when you can see your footprints on the lawn. If you water upon wilting, your grass will grow stronger, more disease-resistant, and more cold-hardy than the lawn that gets water every day. You won't get annual bluegrass (a pest) encroaching en-croaching on your lawn. The grass will develop a deep root system, and require even less water; if your grass can develop foot-long roots (yes, it's possible!) you should only need to water once a week. Those of you with automatic systems should monitor your timing closely. Make certain the grass begins to wilt before the water goes on. You must also water deeply 8 to 10 inches to establish deep roots. In mid-summer, a lawn may need 1 12 to 2 inches of water per week, but the frequency of water, and therefore the amount given per application, may vary from soil to soil. Watch the grass. It will tell you when it needs water. Important points to remember, then, especially since watering in Park City will be restricted this year: 1. Mow the grass no shorter than 2 inches, and it will require less water, and be healthier, too. 2. Water upon wilt, not every day, which will help produce a deep root system, reducing the lawn's water requirements, at the same time giving giv-ing you a hea lthier lawn. 3. Fertilize with potassium to encourage en-courage growth of the root system. 4. Water in the early morning. Watering during the day will waste water; watering in the evening may encourage disease. 5. If you're serious about wanting to water less, establish grasses other than bluegrass. Buffalo grass and fescues are particulary drough-tolerant. drough-tolerant. Fertilizing: The typical lawn needs 1 to 3 pounds of nitrogen per 1000 sq. ft. per year, but it's better to fertilize with less fertilizer more often than to put it all on at once. You'll get great top growth with a single large application of nitrogen, but none of the growth will go to the roots, and good roots are the basis for a great lawn (isn't that true in Life itself?). So you need to keep the level of nitrogen constant throughout the growing season. And you must not give the lawn too much nitrogen or it will become more susceptible to disease, heat stress, and drought. (This is beginning to be a familiar refrain: not too much water, not too much mowing, not too much fertilizer. fer-tilizer. This philosphy of temperance could also be applied to Life, but there's no sense in wearying you with profound maxims. After all, you merely wanted to know about lawns, or you wouldn't have read this far.) In practical application of this principle, if you put a high-nitrogen product like Ammonium Sulfate on your lawn it will grow beautiful and green for about two weeks, but it's all top growth, and two weeks is all it will last. You must get to the "root" of the matter for a long-term beautiful lawn. One way to do that is to apply potassium. "I've learned real quick that potassium makes strong plants," says Pace. The grass around the putting cups used to look pretty worn before he gave them extra ex-tra potassium, and now that grass can stand the traffic a lot better. Potassium will help the roots grow deeply (so that they require less water), and strengthen the plants to stand up if they have a tendency to mat down. Most Park City soils have a deficiency defi-ciency of potassium, but an overabundance of phosphorus. Therefore, we don't need to apply as much phosphorus as people in other places do. Too much phosphorus can cause excessive thatch in the lawn. The fertilizers to use, then, should have slow release of nitrogen and be balanced with potassium and less phosphorus. 10-0-16 is a good choice (the numbers mean that the fertilizer fer-tilizer contains 20 percent nitrogen, 0 percent phosphorus, and 16 percent potassium); also 32-4-8 or, occasionally, occa-sionally, 16-16-8. Since a home lawn requires 1 to 3 pounds of nitrogen per year per 1000 sq. ft. and since a pound of 20-0-16 fertilizer contains 15 pound or 20 percent nitrogen, you would have to apply a minimum of five pounds of 20-0-16 fertilizer throughout the summer. $T95t00 NOW $1 15,000 fffccTi-o Interest: 9 to 9.5 Terms: 30 Year Fixed Rate (10 Year CalO I REDPINE ONDOMIWMS AT PARKWEST Great Recreation Amenities -Pool, Spa, Tennis, Skiing On-Site Realtor: Arline Dean 649-0378 Broker Participation Welcome Ride ParkWest Bus from Park City to Redpine Condominiums 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Dinner 6 a.m. Midnight 7 days a week N MONDAY Spaghetti Dinner $3.35 Tossed green salad, vegetable, garlic bread. CAFE TUESDAY Chicken-Fried Steak $4.95 Whipped potatoes, vegetable, tossed green salad, dinner roll . & butter. WEDNESDAY Prime Rib 8 ounce $6.95 Baked potato, tossed salad, vegetable, dinner roll & butter f THURSDAY 2 Large Pork Chops $5.45 n i I ... i Diikcu pmaiu, appicsuutc, i tossed green salad, dinner roily All dinners include a dish of ice cream or yogurt. Park City friendly family restaurant. As good as the best, better than the rest. We also serve a breakfast and luncheon special daily Private parties. No substitutions Specials Jet. 224 & 248 East Park City 649-9868 ' FRIDAY N Halibut Steak 8 ounces $6.50 Baked potato, tossed green salad, vegetable, dinner roll Abutter. r SATURDAY T-Bone Steak 12 ounce $6.95 Baked potato, tossed green salad, vegetable, dinner roll & butter. j ' SUNDAY One half Fried Chicken $5.95 Baked potato, tossed green salad, vegetable, dinner roll & butter. j Some more fertilizer tips: a New lawn needs twice as much fertilizer as an established lawn: don't fertilize fer-tilize after the middle of September, because the snow mold fungus, which produces a circular ring of matted grass, feeds on nitrogen; if you have a problem you can't solve, try sending a soil sample to a laboratory, perhaps your soil has a deficiency or an excess of a certain minerals. The Park City Golf Course, for example, has a copper toxicity on the fairways of holes five and six. An overabundance of zinc in the soil makes the plants absorb too much copper, which results in yellow spots and makes a very interesting in-teresting problem for Pace and his crew. If you water, cut, and fertilize right, you're well on your way to a lawn as gorgeous as the one you golf on. But, there's a bit more to learn, and next week we'll get to it. In the meantime, for those of you who need some grass clippings for mulch (which will help preserve the soil moisture so you can patriotically patriotical-ly water less and help preserve the fire flow capacity in our water system) you can pick up bagged clippings from the park on Wednesday Wednes-day afternoons at the library. The city ci-ty would rather see them go to good use than go to the dump, so come on by about three o'clock. Announcing the opening of the Backstage Dance Studio (located at the Main Street Fitness Studio) Summer Dance Classes Ballet Jazz Tap Musical Comedy Yoga For all ages- beginner through advanced Register Now! Classes begin this week, July 6th for information call Deborah Wing 649-2925 or 649-6808 r OMAHA SteakHouse PRIME RIB STEAK SEAFOOD The finest beef of the Midwest's golden plains comes to the mountains of Park City with the opening of the new Omaha SteakHouse. Excellent, yet affordable, dining featuring steaks, prime rib, and steak soup as well as mesquite chicken and blackened redfish. Dinner from 6 to 9 pm daily Monday thru Thursday, to 10 pm Friday and Saturday, Closed Sunday. Children's Menu Available. Breakfast (Free to Radisson Cueslsl Daily from 7 am tc 10 am, Sunday from 7 am to 11 am. j Radisson Park City UlPf 2121 Park Avenue, (801) 649-5000 J LUXURY HOME IN THAYNES CANYON ADJACENT TO 15th HOLE OF THE PARK CITY MUNICIPAL GOLF COURSE EUROPEAN CHARM AND ELEGANCE 6800 SQUARE FEET OF LIVING SPACE ON ONE ACRE LOT $695,000 2406 Morning Star Court, Thaynes III Subdivision, Park City ir In IS f' 5 Bedrooms (Master suite has fireplace and sitting area) 5 Bathrooms (Master bath has steam, suana) Living room has fireplace, carved mantle, stained and beveled glass Family room has full wet bar (refrigerator, ice maker, dishwasher) Kitchen features all built-ins, oak center island, custom cabinets, tile counter tops Outdoor hot tub Central vacuum system, central alarm system and intercom system Built-in gas bar-b-que Lighted playhouse, heated doggy condo Landscaped with automatic sprinklers-partially sprinklers-partially fenced with large paved patio Custom interior by Canterbury of Newport Beach, California 4-car heated garage with automatic door openers Extensive rockwork outside and on floors Wine cellar with security vault Exercise room, workshop, butler's pantry, mud rooom with sink Extensive storage throughout Five fireplaces-formal dining House is adjacent to Rotary Park with 90 foot open corridor to north. No homes may be built around it. Listing agent: Craig Masters, 649-8442 (residence) CUMP&AYERS ;idows,p'a" 1500 Highway 248 East REAL ESTATE INC. 649-8550 A LOT OF PEOPLE ARE OF TWO MINDS WHEN IT COMES TO BUYING A CAR. FORTUNATELY SO IS ONE CAR: THE SAAB SOO TURBO. Ken Garff Saab 543 South State St. SLC, Ut. 841 1 1 355-6057 a. The most intelligent cars ever built. 1 |