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September 2014 41 is much faster for the turf, it's easier to main- tain once it's established, and it takes a beat- ing much better than regular turf." To prepare the field sites, workers pre- pared the dirt sub-base before adding the sand layer. The sand was wetted for com- paction, and lasers were used for grading to make sure the surface was solid and smooth. For approximately 75 percent of the grass, crews applied stolons, or cuttings of per- ishable plant material mixed with mulch, water and fertilizer that was 'shot' onto the ground with hydroseeding equipment. "With stolons, your water volume and water usage is almost quadrupled here in Arizona, because the evaporation rate is so quick," Rhode said. "We were literally running cycles of water on the stolons every 12 minutes." Rhode had crewmembers on site around the clock during the stolon application and watering process to make sure the embry- onic turf survived the installation and grew enough to survive the dormancy period that begins in mid-October. At the height of the grow-in period, Earthscapes applied about two million gallons of water per day to keep the stolons growing. Once com- pleted, daily irrigation needs were tapered off to about 150,000 gallons per day. Challenges The greatest obstacle to construction was managing the desert conditions, for the plant material and working crew alike. Earthscapes had as many as 65 workers on site, often in shifts, to manage the input of the new grass. Above Left: The Copper Sky Recreation Complex in Maricopa, Ariz., is a 110-acre facility that has become the "crown jewel" of the city's park system. Features include more than a dozen sports courts and fields, playgrounds, an aquatics center and a fishing lake. Earthscapes, a full service landscape and maintenance company founded by Haydon Building Corp. in 2006, installed many of the park elements, including the sports fields, dog park, landscape plantings and a pedestrian path. Above and Bottom Right: Earthscapes installed approximately 35 acres of grass in a tight five- week window that was alternately affected by monsoon storms and brutal Arizona heat. About 75 percent of the grass was installed via hydrostolon application, in which sand-based tiff way 419 cuttings mixed with fertilizer, mulch and water were shot from hydroseeding equipment onto a graded and pre-soaked sand base.