Meet the man who keeps the grass green at Miller Park

If things look a little greener around here this April, there's a good reason. Our editorial staff is busy expanding the ideals of Earth Day into a month-long celebration of energy conservation, alternative transportation, recycling tips and about a million ways you can be a better friend to the planet. Welcome to Green Month, Milwaukee.

For many people in Milwaukee, lawn care is a chore. For others, it is a hobby -- if not an obsession.

To Gary Vanden Berg, it is a profession and a way of life.

As director of grounds for the Brewers, Vanden Berg has spent more than a quarter-century working on the grass at Miller Park and its predecessor, County Stadium. We caught up with Vanden Berg before a recent home game and talked about what it is like to take care of the most famous lawn in Milwaukee.

OnMilwaukee.com: In terms of snowfall and general misery, we just finished one of the harshest winters on record. Are you happy with the condition of the field, all things considered?

Gary Vanden Berg: I'm not unhappy with it. I'd like it better if it looked like it was the middle of June. We had a difficult winter. A lot of people have got the idea that we've got a heating system underground and some kind of controls to control the weather in here. We really don't. We're pretty much limited to whatever the ambient air temperature is and whatever sunlight we can get in here. Sometimes, that's not too much, depending on how much the roof is closed.

OMC: Does having a roof allow you to get the grass ready more quickly than you could at County Stadium?

GVB: The grass almost always is better in Miller Park in April, but I would clarify that only in the sense that it's much more difficult to grow grass here. The grass was always stronger at County Stadium than it ever was here.

We had exhibition games in March. If we opened up in March at County Stadium, with all the snow we had, it would have been difficult to have it playable. It would really have been a challenge for us.

OMC: I know that it's tough to grow grass inside, when the park doesn't get consistent sunlight, so it almost seems as though the roof allowed you to trade one set of headaches for another.

GVB: That's kind of true. It is a tradeoff. You don't have as much sun as you'd like, but on the other hand I don't deal with a tarp anymore. That was something that was routine to do. The hours are not as bad (in Miller Park) as they used to be. I used to have to come in at 6:30 or 7 in the morning to get the tarp off so it didn't burn the grass. Now, I don't have to do that. But, the grass we have now is not as good as what we used to have. It's OK. It isn't terrible.

OMC: Several players have told me over the years that your infield dirt is among the best in the league. Is it true that you brought some of it over from County Stadium?

GVB: That's true. I'd say 95 percent of what you see over there was brought over from County Stadium. We still work it every year. We tweak it a little every year. When you add a calcine clay that we use as a top dressing, it usually gets better and better. You have to be careful that you don't add too much to it. It'll get a little bit too beach-y. We keep an eye on it. If we need more clay, we'll add more. It's a little fussy.

OMC: What kinds of headaches do you experience that might surprise the average fan?

GVB: I would say the little wear and tear areas we have, like the areas in front of the mound, behind the mound and the area between the mound and home plate. I'm still at a loss as to why that wears out in a straight line there like it does. It has to have something to do with batting practice and then the games. It doesn't seem like you'd have enough wear and tear from a catcher and a pitcher that it would wear out, but it does. That's amazing. I still haven't quite figured it out.

OMC: After the exhibition games, some players talked about their desire for artificial turf or a hybrid grass like they have at Lambeau Field. Could that happen some day? Would that make your job easier or tougher?

GVB: We looked at that. We looked seriously at that. What they have (in Green Bay) is much more of an application for football than it is for baseball. It wouldn't keep me from having areas that are thin and unsightly. It would always keep good footing, but you'd still have the bad areas and you can't re-sod it because you've sewn all the fibers into it.

I just don't think the application for baseball is as good as it is for football. In football, if it gets worn out, that's OK as long as the footing is good and it plays well. Here, I think the aesthetic look is a bit more important.

In baseball, the expectations for how the field looks are a little different. Players want it to play well. They want to be able to cut and move without having to worry about the turf giving way. That's why the fibers are huge. They make a great surface to play on. But, I don't think it would work as well in baseball.

OMC: At County Stadium, you and former assistant Dave Mellor were pioneers in putting patterns onto the grass. Dave does a lot of them in his role as groundskeeper for the Red Sox at Fenway Park and it seems like most clubs have followed suit. How do you decide which ones to use?

GVB: We used to do more fun things at County Stadium because the turf was stronger and could handle some of the wear and tear. Putting patterns, at least intricate patterns like we used to do at County Stadium or Dave does in Boston or some of the other people do is kind of intrusive on the grass. You're constantly going back and forth and back and forth to make it really stand out and look nice. It takes a long time and you just wear the grass out.

All that patterns that I do, I make my turns on the dirt and the track I don't do anything where I have to make a turn on the grass.

OMC: The sun hits the ballpark at different angles. Is the light that filters through the glass when the roof is closed any different than the direct sunlight?

GVB: Light is light. Grass does a little better with the blue spectrum, but light is light. There is a huge difference between what it gets with the roof closed. We have a photosynthetic light meter that measures light that the grass uses. If you hold it in full sunlight, you will reach a number of about 1,500. With the roof closed, it'd be about 30. That's a huge difference.

OMC: This is green month at OnMilwaukee.com. Have their been any "green" advancements in your field?

GVB: The most environmentally friendly thing, the DNR has a rule called NR 151 that doesn't allow anyone that takes care of at least five acres of grass to put down any phosphorous without a proper soil test. We fall into that. We take all of our soil tests. If we are allowed to put phosphorous down, we so.

Other than that, it's just a matter of being smart, more than anything else, with how you do things. A lot of people think more is better it's not usually the case, especially when you talk about fungicides and pesticides and even fertilizers.

OMC: That brings me to my next question -- one you probably hear a lot -- do you have any lawn tips for the average homeowner?

GVB: Number one is always get a soil sample. A lot of people don't like to deal with that, but it's really worthwhile because you aren't going to waste any fertilizer or put any thing on that you don't need.

Once you have a test done, if you have a problem with reading it or understanding what the results are, call the local extension office and they are more than willing to help you decide what that means and what you need for your lawn.

Getting a soil test is number one. And then, doing the cultural things like airifying your lawn if you can. Bluegrass is a tremendous thatch-maker. It's just a thatch machine.

Most people develop that thatch in their lawns. If you don't have some type of practice to get rid of that, you can get thatch three or four inches thick and it can cause all kinds of problems.

You also need to fertilize. If you don't fertilize, your lawn is not going to get thick. If the lawn is not thick, you're going to have problems with dandelions and other weeds.

OMC: Are weeds a problem at Miller Park? I never see dandelions.

GVB: I've never used an herbicide here, ever. It's only because the turf is thick enough that it weeds out the weeds, all by itself. The weeds need to have more light. If the grass canopy is thick enough, it doesn't allow for that.

OMC: What other things do you do to keep the grass healthy?

GVB: Some of the things we've done is overseeding it with some of the better cultivars that have come over. A lot are improved in terms of shade tolerance, wearability and ability to green up quicker in the spring. We keep altering the types of bluegrasses we put in here each year. Some are doing better than others, then that helps us for the next year. It's helped us create a better turf than we had four or five years ago.

OMC: Do most homeowners cut their grass too short? How often do you cut the grass at Miller Park?

GVB: Most of the time, people do cut their grass too short. Bluegrass does real well at 3 or 3 ½ inches high. Here, it's not a good application to cut it that long. We're cutting ours at about an inch and a half, but we're taking care of it a little more intensively than the average homeowner would do.

When the team is in town, we cut the infield every day. When the team goes out of town, we try to give it a little rest and go every other day. We also use growth regulators. That has been a huge help for us. That cuts down some of the top grown that you have.

OMC: There aren't many people in your field. Do you talk to golf course superintendents when you need advice?

GVB: I have a lot of respect for golf course superintendents. Some of those guys who I trust the most about stuff are my golf course friends. Those guys have had tons of experience with growing grass, they're using the latest products and they're great to talk with.

OMC: Golf course guys have to deal with members. You have to deal with players. Have you ever had any weird requests from players or managers?

GVB: Not really. (Brewers manager) Ned (Yost) is really good about letting me do things. If he thinks the grass is getting too long, he might say something. Usually, he lets me do whatever I want to do to make the grass as good as it can be. My goal is to make it so the players don't even think about it. If they're not talking about it, that's great.

OMC: How is the ivy coming along in center field?

GVB: It's really filled in nicely. We have Boston ivy out there. We had English ivy when we first started, but we changed over to Boston and it's filled in. Miranda Bintley is my landscape manager. She treats that. It's a big deal for her.

OMC: You're responsible for the areas outside the park, too, right?

GVB: Yes. We've got about 265 acres here and it's all pretty intensively landscaped. I trust most of the outside landscaping with Miranda. The little league park is used a tremendous amount. We have two people over there almost every day all summer long. Inside the ballpark, we've got about 85,000 sq. ft. of grass. If you count the warning track area, it's probably over three acres.

OMC: One thing you haven't had to worry about in a long time is getting the field ready for baseball in late October. Could this be the year?

GVB: That'd be wonderful. I hope that happens. It's going to be a challenge. I don't know how it's going to be. It makes a huge difference late in the year when you cut down on the amount of light that it gets. It'll be interesting to get it as good as we can get it under conditions that aren't great for growing grass.

But, I'm looking forward to it. I've been doing this for a long time. When I first started in 1981, we went to the World Series in '82 and I thought we'd be doing it every year. It's been a long time. I hope it happens.