SPAC aiming for healthier lawn

After the lawn at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center was reseeded last fall, crews put down a protective blanket. This photo shows the blanket covering the lawn after a snowfall in December.

Weather and huge crowds courtesy of acts like the Dave Matthews Band and Phish did a number on the lawn at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center last year. And while Marcia White can’t control Mother Nature, she’s doing what she can.

The president and executive director at SPAC, White said the venue is going to great lengths to ensure that the spacious grassy lawn will be as full and healthy as possible for the 2015 summer season.

“Working with the parks system, we took many samples of the lawn and conducted an in-depth analysis of the soil,” said White. “As a result of those tests, we added 250 yards of organic material into the soil with the goal of creating a stronger root structure and healthier turf. In addition, we placed a 20,000-square-foot evergreen blanket, the kind they use on golf courses and other playing surfaces, on the grass to protect it during its growth.”

White said that last year’s long winter and then large crowds, including back-to-back concerts by the Dave Matthews Band in May, made keeping the SPAC lawn in good condition just about impossible.

“We love our lawn, and we know that our audience loves our lawn,” said White. “But last year during the long winter it was hard for the seed to take, and then the winter just kept on going. Then we had a lot of rain. It just made maintaining the integrity of the lawn very difficult.”

White said the evergreen blanket was put into place in late October.

“The blanket creates a greenhouse effect, so it traps in the humidity while being permeable enough to allow water through,” White explained. “It creates a barrier, and it protects the lawn during the winter months and during the germination period in the spring. It’s something that seems to have worked well, so we thought we’d give it a try this year.”

The evergreen blanket will be taken away sometime in the late spring, according to White, hopefully revealing a healthy and natural lawn.

“I’m confident our 2015 season will be a great one,” she said. “This also is looking like a horrible winter, but we’ve used science, we’ve done our research and our homework, and in partnership with the parks we’re doing everything we can.”

SPAC is entirely within the grounds of the Saratoga Spa State Park, and park manager Michael Greenslade said his staff was happy to assist in the process.

“They are responsible for taking care of their grounds, but we did help them in the planning and reseeding of the lawn,” said Greenslade. “With the weather and the conditions last year, everything went bad, so our landscape architect and our engineering staff helped them out.”

The 2015 SPAC summer season begins on May 17 with the SPAC Rock & Run. The Dave Matthews Band returns for another two-night visit on July 3-4.