IF the original poster and participants in the videos want to PM me. I'll explain exactly how a plug should be taken and how to find targets without the damage that occurred. It's not rocket science. For the first several years I used a Proto gasket scraper as my cutting tool. But... the first cut I made in grass was a 3 sided cut. I do remember going through a park at that time and finding large circular holes with a divot of grass off to the side. It just made sense to not draw attention to yourself or what your were doing by 'vandalising' the area. New concept huh? If you do it right, it's called coin/treasure hunting. If you do it like they did it's flat out vandalism. The authorities don't need to keep all of us out of public areas. They just need to cite those who are vandalizing the property and tell em not to return.
I did contact about 8 universities who have "turf grass" programs and asked about how to best do a plug. There was some debate about the shape of the plug from the professors in charge of the programs, but they all agreed the best thing you could do was water the plug, after you dug it if the ground was dry, and it wouldn't hurt the area at all. They said the grass grows from the surface upward so taking as deeper plug would keep more of the basic plant structure together for regrowth.I don't think many of us would carry a gallon of water, at 8.5 Lbs/gallon, so I just limit my plug cutting when the ground is dry. The 3 sided plug, whether a round or rectangular plug, would logically seem the best. A mower is less likely to kick it out when maintenance is done.To keep what we have we have to learn to monitor and educate or own. Jim
