University News

Landscapers Prepare Lawn for Next Act: Reunions

May 23, 2024 • By Matt Kelly, mkelly@virginia.edu Matt Kelly, mkelly@virginia.edu

Three landscapers work in front of the Rotunda to repair the Lawn

Landscapers repair the iconic University of Virginia Lawn after two graduation ceremonies on a rainy Finals Weekend. (Photo by Matt Riley, University Communications)

With Finals Weekend in the rearview mirror, the University of Virginia’s Lawn has only a few days to recover for Reunions Weekends.

Rich Hopkins, the associate director of Grounds, said rains on Friday night and Saturday morning of graduation weekend turned the ground beneath the Lawn to something like a sponge. People walking on it all day squeezed the water out, and then the soil pulled the water back in when they lifted their feet.

“As the day went on, it went from being clear water to being muddy water, as it was just pumping back and forth,” Hopkins said, noting that the chairs protected some of the grass. “When they took the chairs off, the Lawn looked striped.”

On the left, the beginning of the school processions during final exercises, on the right, croc or flip flop type shoes being sported in the mud by a grad walking during final exercises

After heavy rains, faculty and students marched on the center of the Lawn during the weekend’s Final Exercises, churning the soggy soil into a muddy mess. (Photos by Matt Riley, University Communications)

After Saturday’s ceremonies, landscapers had to prepare for the same experience on Sunday, filling some areas where water had pooled with mulch and stones.

“There wasn’t much we could do on Saturday because it was still steadily raining,” Hopkins said. “On Sunday, with no rain predicted, we put mulch down in all the mud puddles that we could find, or any place that was really soft we covered in mulch to lessen the amount of mud that was coming up under people’s chairs and down the walkway.”

The double-shredded hardwood mulch they deployed on Sunday only added to their workload Monday, as landscapers had to remove the mulch from the Lawn before reseeding it. “Now we’ve got to get all of that mulch off, because that is going to kill the grass and be a headache to us,” Hopkins said.

Landscapers will reseed the Lawn with rye grass, which will germinate in seven days and be plainly visible in another seven days.

“It’s a perennial array, a blend specifically used on athletic fields,” Hopkins said. “It’s a little more resilient and takes a beating. We’re going to be right on the edge of having newly seeded grass coming up in time for the first Reunions Weekend, but if not the first weekend of Reunions, then certainly the second Reunions Weekend it will be doing even better.”

After Reunions, in the summer, landscapers will seed Bermuda grasses on the Lawn to get a better warm-season mixture.

Among the tools the landscapers use is a lawn mower-mounted blower to raise the grass where it has been matted down.

Lanscapers blow the lawn to free the grass from the mud

Facilities Management landscapers Hunter Bolen (walking) and Travis Stevens use equipment to help separate the blades of grass from the mud on the Lawn. (Photo by Matt Riley, University Communications)

“It’s just trying to break the bond between the walked-on grass and the mud and get it to stand up in some capacity so that we can mow it,” Hopkins said.

Once the Lawn is cleared of chairs, cleaned of mulch and reseeded, Hopkins said that nature will do the rest.

“Once we get the chairs off and get sunshine on the Lawn, time will help,” he said. “We’ve got a good week of warm, warm, dry weather.”

And if it rains later, as is forecast later this week, that will help germinate the rye seed.

“Rain won’t slow us down. It’ll actually help us,” Hopkins said. “Mother Nature does a much better job watering than the irrigation system ever can. She gets every corner of it, which will help our seeds. And we will have the new seed down by then, so it will be more moisture for that.”

While working with the Lawn this weekend, Hopkins said landscapers identified some spots where they might install some additional drains to prevent water from collecting.

Hopkins does not worry about foot traffic disrupting what the landscapers are doing.

“It’s not really an issue. The students are gone. There are a few groups that are still wandering around, and the tourists are certainly still here, but they’re not going to have an impact,” he said. “We try to restrict access to the Lawn as little as we can. It’s five acres and people can spread out. They don’t tend to walk in the same place the way they do on graduation day.”

The center of the iconic Lawn was churned into a strip of mud after two days of heavy foot traffic during Finals Weekend. (Photo by Matt Riley, University Communications)

Landscapers stacked chairs and used tractors to move them off the Lawn, the first step in repairing the grass for the upcoming Reunions Weekend. (Photo by Matt Riley, University Communications)

Hunter Bolen uses a leaf blower to help separate the blades of grass from the mud, then sows fast-germinating rye seed to thicken the grass cover. (Photo by Matt Riley, University Communications)

An aerial view of the Lawn shows the center as a muddy path and grassy stripes where the chairs were located. (Photo by Julia Weaver, University Communications)

Turf supervisor Jonathan Racey uses a rake to remove mulch from mud in the work to restore the Lawn after Finals Weekend. (Photo by Matt Riley, University Communications)

Turf supervisor Jonathan Racey loads fast-germinating rye grass seed into a seeder. (Photo by Matt Riley, University Communications)

Stacks of chairs dot the Lawn awaiting pickup. The ground between the ramps has been left muddy by the passing feet. The sides of the Lawn are striped, indicating where the rows of chairs were set. (Photo by Julia Weaver, University Communications)