Lawn Care Tips from “The Sod Father”

T-Mobile Park is eerily quiet this spring. No one knows when the first Seattle Mariners baseball game will be played there, but the emerald green grass, as lush as a thick carpet, will be ready.

Mariners head groundskeeper Bob Christofferson, affectionately known as “The Sod Father”, and his crew have been carefully tending to the field since it was installed just a few months ago.

“We’re going to put in a new home plate. There’s some work to do in the bullpens, but we’re 99% there,” said Christofferson.

Bob, like many of us, has been working from home these past few weeks. His trusty second in command, Tim Wilson, has been at the ballpark with a small crew of essential staff while Bob directs the operation from home.

For the first time in his long career as a groundskeeper, Christofferson isn’t spending his days, nights and weekends at the ballpark. With so much time on his hands, his attention has turned to his own yard, which he proudly says “looks pretty good.”

Then Bob offers a confession. Since he’s usually not home in the spring and summer, he finally broke down and hired a lawn care service a few years ago.

“I had one and they didn’t mow straight lines and it was driving me crazy, so I fired them. These guys are petty straight, but they’re not perfect. When I retire, I’ll mow my own lawn,” said Christofferson.

Even though he’s turned over most of the duties to someone else, Bob fertilizes and waters, and recently planted flowers that were promptly eaten by rabbits.

For those of us who now have time to tend to our own yard, Bob says there are three things that will help any lawn look as beautiful as T-Mobile Park.

“You have to mow it, you have water it and you have to feed it. The more you do of all of those, the better your grass is going to look.”

Bob recommends fertilizing a few days before there is rain in the forecast.

“The good thing about the Northwest this time of year is we get rain, and that’s probably the best water for your grass anyway,” said Christofferson.

Christofferson likes to feed his lawn every 4–6 weeks, mow every 7–10 days, and water when it’s needed. He likes to do it in the morning or after sunset. And he says get a schedule you can stick to. Either water for a shorter time more frequently, or water more deeply less often. The key is to be consistent.

As for mowing, he says most people cut their grass too short.

“You don’t want to cut more than half the length of the blade off, and in the summer time, you might want to raise the mower blades up a half inch so it will retain a little more moisture and it will look nice and pretty,” said Christofferson.

He’s not a fan of the Seattle habit of letting grass dry up and go dormant in the summer. “If you’re not giving your grass water by May, you’re going to wake up one day and it’s going to be brown, and to turn it back to green you have to give it twice as much water,” said Christofferson.

Because he’s been doing it so long, Christofferson knows by look and feel when the lawn needs water. For the non-Grass Whisperers out there, he suggests putting an empty tuna can under your sprinkler and timing how long it takes to fill it with an inch of water. That’s how long to run your sprinklers every time you water.

Green thumb or not, Christofferson says confidently that anyone who follows these guidelines and is willing to put in the effort can have grass as beautiful as T-Mobile Park’s.

“It’s like anything else, the more time you put into it the better it will be.”