When it comes to baseball, natural turf is a home run! While astroturf was used on a few Major League Baseball fields in the past,  a myriad of problems arose that helped owners to go back to natural turf. Many players incurred injuries caused by the abrasive and unforgiving astroturf from days past. Currently, West Coast Turf provides the natural turfgrass for several MLB ballparks in California. Those parks include: Angel Stadium in Anaheim, Oracle Park (formerly AT&T Park) in San Francisco, Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, and RingCentral Coliseum, in Oakland.

For Angel Stadium, we use Tifway 419 bermudagrass and is the only ballpark in the MLB to sit atop its natural soil (rather than sand) since there is virtually no threat of a rainout. At the legendary Dodger Stadium, they use our homegrown bermudagrass hybrid, which is overseeded with rye. The rye is better able to tolerate the cool temperatures early in the season and by summertime as temperatures heat up, the heat-tolerant bermudagrass supersedes the rye.

A lot goes into the research and decisions for which type of sod is used on which ballpark. Much of that is environmental factors, but each park has its own unique needs. West Coast Turf has the native knowledge of turf – from Arizona sod, bermudagrass, ryegrass, to Kentucky bluegrass – to best and most effectively provide the turf needed to any ballpark. In addition to major league baseball and their Arizona spring training facilities, we also provide the turf for NFL fields, professional training facilities, college baseball and football, racetracks, Major League Soccer, colleges, high schools, amusement parks, golf courses…and too many others to name. Head to our website to check out our list of clients and our unique qualifications to help with your sod!

https://www.westcoastturf.com/

Summer is the perfect time for a backyard barbeque and Labor Day Weekend is the pinnacle of the outdoor party fun. While everyone is enjoying themselves eating, grilling, standing around talking to friends, and playing cornhole, your beautiful sod lawn may be suffering under the foot traffic (and paw traffic from the four-legged party-goers). Follow our tips for keeping your sod lawn in tip top shape and keeping the damage minimal.

Tip #1: Musical Chairs is more than just a game

Large items, such as furniture, create damage to your sod when they are on it in one spot for too long. The sod becomes deprived of the oxygen and nutrients it needs to flourish and will often turn brown as the grass dies. To prevent this, move these heavy objects around every other day to different parts of your yard. For your outdoor parties, this goes for the grill, backyard games, furniture, and all other heavy objects.

Tip #2: Mulch ado about nothing

Mulch can be used in a number of ways in your yard, one of which is a space filler. If you have spots that need covering or want to keep them from forming, mulch is a great solution and looks nice in your yard.

Tip #3: Bed of roses

Make sure your flowers won’t be trampled on by party goers! Decorative fences or other landscaping to separate your flowers from the rest of your sod lawn will keep people from walking where they shouldn’t and ruining your beautiful florals!

Tip #4: Get in touch with West Coast Turf to repair any damaged sod or to install a new sod lawn that’s sure to impress at your Labor Day BBQ, or any other outdoor parties!

While technically the calendar says spring, it feels like summer here in the valley of the sun. As we go through the transition period in California and Arizona from ryegrass back to bermudagrass or paspalum I want to touch a little bit on getting your mower ready for the season. It’s always a good idea to start each season off with a clean, sharp, and ready to use mower. There is nothing worse than going out to cut your lawn and pulling on the lawn mower cord a dozen times only to find the mower won’t turn over. There are some simple things you can do to keep it running well and last for several years.

Before I go into maintenance of your mower I will touch on the two different types of mowers on the market. You can choose between a rotary mower and a reel mower. The reel mowers I will refer to will be self-propelled mowers instead of push reel mowers. The reason I’m skipping on the push reel mowers is because it’s tough to push through thick bermudagrass during the summer months. While it can definitely be done, its just not my favorite thing to do on a 115-degree Arizona day.

There are several brands of reel mowers on the market so deciding which one to buy is going through the various options and deciding what is most important to you. Some of these choices include desired height of cut, number of reels on the mower (the mower reels, the tighter you can mow), weight of the mower, cutting width, and deciding if you will be collecting clippings or letting them lay on the ground. Most of the new reel mowers have a front bucket attachment but there are still a few on the market that drop clippings out the back of the mower.

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Outdoor Halloween Decorations That Won’t Damage Your Turfgrass

Halloween is right around the corner, which means, it’s time to start getting out the end of year decorations. However, if you just overseeded your lawn for the fall, you’re probably wondering how you can decorate without damaging your newly seeded lawn. Before you get out the graveyard scene and inflatable pumpkins, consider how you can protect your newly overseeded turf from damage by taking a more strategic approach to decorating this year.There are a variety of options for Halloween lawn decorations that will preserve the health of your turfgrass. Read the rest of this entry »

Backyard Design Trends from Arizona Sod Experts

If you’ve recently found yourself itching for a new backyard, you’re not alone. Here at West Coast Turf, our Arizona sod pros are always looking for the next big thing in landscaping so that we can provide our customers with a forward-thinking approach to designing their perfect lawn. Read the rest of this entry »