Word: sod
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Pretty soon, the maintenance workers will roll out the sod. But the ropes will stay up. It's all well and good that Harvard wants to preserve its tiny bit of "nature" against the unrelenting attack of "urban squalor." But what's the use if we can't sit on it, walk on it or play...
...down all the hydroturf and sod you want--after finals end. Let the reunion-goers deal with it. Or wait until the reunions are over. Maybe Harvard should just find a tougher variety of grass--one that doesn't need to be resodded every spring...
This new grass, called FX-10, is a variety of St. Augustine, the sod that is commonly used on the lawns of South and central Florida, the Gulf States and Southern California. But in contrast to the standard St. Augustine, which needs to be watered regularly, FX-10 (a cross of four African varieties) has an unusually deep root system -- deep enough to tap into subsurface moisture in some areas. That makes it perfect for places like Florida, where the water table typically lies no deeper than about 5 ft. Moreover, FX-10 seems to use the water it gets...
...South Florida, though, sod growers are confident of the new grass's potential. A total of 22 major growers, representing 85% of the state's St. Augustine grass-supply industry, have formed a cooperative venture that has obtained a license to begin cultivating FX-10. Since the grass does not proliferate rapidly, it will take a few years before growers can build up a big supply. But once FX-10 is in place on suburban lawns, the slow growth rate will offer several advantages to homeowners. They can skimp on fertilizer and will have to mow the grass no more...
...Irish will put up a good fight, even when they're shadowboxing. So Christy Brown had a head start in his battle against petrifying cerebral palsy. There were other crippling odds to buck. He was the tenth of 22 children born to a sod-poor Dublin bricklayer. For the first nine years of Christy's life, his siblings tended him as they would a houseplant: feed it, water it and keep it out of the way. Only his mother dared nurture him with her fierce, uncompromising love, and one day Christy stuck a piece of chalk in his left foot...