If you don’t know him, please meet Mr. John Reilly of Longboat Key Club in Sarasota Florida. John shares how he successfully battled the sodium war at his club on light sandy soils. John is a student of matrices and looks at many different data points to help him make agronomic decisions on a daily basis. He talks about a complete transition to paspalum grasses on his course. A great conversation!

Listen to the a recap of the 2021NFL season from the perspective of Sean Kauffman, Director of Stadium Field Management,The Baltimore Ravens. This talk gets into all of it: the use of technology, transitioning from warm season to cool season, and even pre-germinated seed. When you host a full year of high pressure events you have to get creative. Sean didn’t hold back and we have a great conversation.

I had the honor to interview Mr. Ron Read, former official of the USGA. His final 24 years were spent announcing players on the first tee of many USGA championships, including the US Open. Ron and I first met when I was the superintendent at Desert Forest GC in AZ almost 30 years ago. We discuss golf history, championship golf, conditioning and environmental issues facing golf. Ron has always been a fan of the contributions golf course superintendents give to the game. We start with a short intro about the history of Ron’s time as a starter for USGA Championships. Then we discuss his book, Starting the US Open, that is bound to bring back memories for many of you who have been around the game for as long as I have. We hope you enjoy the conversation.

Bob Ranum, Superintendent (retired) of Atlantic Golf Club talks about the best place in the world for golf, the east end of Long Island New York. Bob shared many of the tricks he used to be a successful superintendent and last in the business for over 40 years. Now in retirement he stays busy working for Golf Magazine rating the top 100 courses. Lots of laughs, as always, with Bob.

Randy Booker joins us again for a recap on a recent intensive program on Regenerative Agriculture. Listen to how he plans to apply what he’s learned at Otter Creek GC. Our first podcast with Randy has remained one of our most popular because he’s been willing to look at how we grow turf in a completely different light. We cover the definition of good compost, how to reduce inputs through fostering healthy biology in the soils, and many other topics.

Carl Samuelson is one of the most innovative parks directors in the country. Managing the city parks of Newtown, Connecticut is not without its challenges. Carl talks about those challenges and how he started by focusing on one of the most visible sites in town. He proved that with a little effort all fields could be in championship conditions.He also shares a story of how he took a pile of road sweepings and built a couple of sports fields out of that waste. Great conversation for any turf or landscape manager.

This podcast dives headfirst into the Energy and Infrastructure Sector. Solar farms are a growing source of electricity on the USA power grid, and we, the Turf and Ornamental Industry, are playing a big part! Our guest Joe Belmonte reveals how the T&O Industry is rewriting the standard protocol for vegetation establishment on very large scale construction projects.

https://www.earthworksturf.com/hydroseeding-program/

Tony Leonard, the Director of Grounds for the Philadelphia Eagles, has one of the best stories in the NFL. His twenty plus years as a grounds manager started by managing dirt fields on the stadium parking lot, maybe the WORST practice facility in the NFL. In the 2000 he moved to what is one the very BEST practice facilities in all of football. Today he manages grass fields in both his practice facility and at the Linc, the stadium field. A great conversation with a friend of many years about football, sports turf management and of course there are always a few funny stories.

Mistakes made, lessons learned, and a chance at a golf course start up…for the second time. Join us this week as we talk with Ben Wilmarth, Superintendent at the Osprey Meadows GC At Tamarack Resort. He had the opportunity to re-start the venerable Robert Trent Jones II course built in the early 2000’s and then shuttered in 2016 due to bankruptcy. We also discuss many of the common mistakes turf managers make and the importance of talking about them to help others avoid similar pitfalls.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Monday mornings at EarthWorks have been a geek session for our agronomy team. After discussing business issues, we spend another hour learning. Lawrence Mayhew, our chemist and internationally recognized humic substance expert, joins us and we talk “dirt”. After 30 plus years in the business if learning wasn’t still our first priority and passion, we would have failed our clients and ourselves. Take this opportunity to be a fly on the wall and hear how we navigate some tough science.