Metal Detecting Digging Tip: Making "Plugs" in moist soil that is often watered will still leave a dreaded "yellow eye" in the grass. The key to preventing this is aurating the plug after you close it up. People pay top cash to have someone come out and poke many holes in their yard. It stimulates growth big time. After closing the plug, stab the top with the sharp end of the digger quite a few times. This should in most cases prevent the dreaded yellow eye, while not aurating the plug top will certainly cause it. Grass is like fire. The more you stirr it up, the more it stimulates growth. Metal Detector users think they are doing a service by doing neat plugs, but, their plugs turn yellow after they leave. A plug compacts and isolates the grass on it's own island, where the sides wash out the next rain fall. If the plug is aurated and somewhat mutilated, it has a chance to share nutrients and mosture with the turf next to it. This allows for quick repair times, where a yellow eye can remain for weeks, or even months.
Makign a plug also compacts the edges of the dig hole. It certainly would be a surface to stab this area a few times as well with the digger. The compact edge also serves to create the dreaded yellow eye.
-neswiper (gardner / groundskeeper for almost a decade) |
