Where the grass isn’t always greener

Andrew Glazer

COSTA MESA -- The six soccer fields at the Farm Sporting Complex will

finally open this July, one year later than city landscapers originally

forecasted, the city’s parks manager said this week.

“It was a nice fall, and the grass has grown in nicely,” said parks

manager David J. Alkema. “I’d say it’s about 99% filled in.”

But Brian Carey, the Farm’s project manager, cautioned that there’s still

much to be done before the fields are ready for cleats. Carey has watched

the grass grow at the Farm since last March.

“Brian is very conservative, and we’re glad about that,” Alkema said.

Earlier this fall, city officials said they hoped the grass would be

ready by spring.

The city bought the 18-acre land for $7.5 million three years ago with

plans to open six soccer fields by the spring of 1999.

But, Alkema said, bad fortune prevented the grass from growing on the

field. In late September 1998, city landscapers seeded the fields with

Bermuda hybrid, a durable turf designed for playing fields. The grass

needs warm soil to thrive and the fall and winter of that year turned out

to be cool.

“We were taking a chance with the winter,” Alkema said. “We were really

hoping for an Indian summer like we have once in a while.”

Carey said it was bad timing.

“I wouldn’t have done that, gambling that it would be a mild winter,” he

said. “In my opinion, they weren’t ready to plant the grass.”

Carey also said the soil hadn’t been properly cleared for the grass.

“We found rocks and wires and pipes there,” he said.

Six months after Carey signed onto the project, the grass looks thick,

even and brown. He said it’s sleeping for the winter and should turn

green again in the spring.

Then he will begin fertilizing, aerating and rolling the turf flat. He

wouldn’t predict whether all six fields would be 100% ready by the coming

summer. But he did say they would probably be playable.”In the worse

case, they will look far better than every other field in town.”