Grass

It's barely June, and you're already sick of mowing. How about grass that stays nice and green - and, best of all, short. It not only appears possible but perhaps even likely in the not-too-distant future. In a paper last month in the journal Nature, scientists at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute reported they have deciphered the signaling pathway for a class of steroid hormones that regulates growth and development in plants. "By manipulating the steroid pathway, we think we can regulate plant stature and yield," said Joanne Chory, an investigator at the institute's Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, Calif.

The Westminster City Council is scheduled tomorrow to consider changing its grass-cutting laws to shorten the grace period for property owners to get tall grass cut.The council will meet at 7 p.m. in City Hall.Councilman Damian L. Halstad plans to introduce an ordinance that would give a property owner seven days to act after receiving a city notice to mow his grass.On subsequent offenses, the owner would get just three days to have the property mowed after receiving a notice.Current law allows 10 days before the city steps in, mows the grass andbills the owner.

Remember when spring was the accepted time to reseed, renovate and fertilize lawns?If you have been listening lately, you know that turf grass specialists have been trying to get us to think fall when it comes to annual lawn maintenance.The evidence, in terms of healthy, attractive Howard County lawns, just keeps piling up in favor of doing most of these chores now, not in the spring.If a beautiful lawn is one of your priorities, it's time to get to work.Then there is the larger picture.Thinkback to the time when striving for a beautiful, well-manicured lawn was a homeowner given.

This may be the year that grass grows. I made this optimistic prediction the other day standing in the back yard. I was drawn outdoors by the appearance of a great fiery ball in the sky. I think it is called the sun.It had been a while since I had seen the sun, and even longer since I felt its warmth on my skin. And, as I stood in the sunny back yard, feeling both dazzled and drowsy, I took inventory. I checked to see what had survived the winter.The two small fig trees, which I had covered last December with a "parka" made of leaves, cloth and plastic bags, had made it.The big trees were fine.

So what is it? Do American men see grass and think they'll have to mow it? The U.S. male contingent was down to zero before the second week of Wimbledon even started. If it weren't for John McEnroe in the broadcast booth, American tennis men would go totally unrepresented. We already know U.S. men can't win on the clay courts of Paris, but now grass, too? Mr. Flip is guessing it must be something about natural surfaces. Now, if the green movement ever forces the U.S. Open to make a change from hard courts, this could get even worse.

In previous years, when the BASSMASTER tournaments have come to the upper tidal Potomac River, many competition anglers have targeted the river's grass beds, usually extensive and productive habitat.The word this week is that the river has changed for the $190,000 BASSMASTER Maryland Eastern Invitational that starts Thursday out of Sweden Point Marina on Mattawoman Creek in Charles County.The grass beds have been diminished by a wet, cool August and early September."There will be a lot of people scrambling to find a place to fish," said Florida pro Jim Bitter, who won the BASSMASTER BP Top 100 tournament out of Mattawoman in 1992.

The Pittsburgh Steelers gave in to their players' wishes and will keep the grass at Heinz Field, though it might not necessarily be the field that is currently in place. While the Heinz Field surface is regularly rated by NFL players as one of the league's worst, a large number of Steelers players lobbied the team to keep the grass because they are convinced it reduces injuries. "The majority of our players have told us that they prefer natural grass to any artificial surface," Steelers president Art Rooney II said in a statement yesterday.

Every spring I have the urge to sow seeds. When the sun is warm, and the wind is gentle, I go out in the back yard and plant grass seed.I rake. I fertilize. I scatter seeds. And I keep my fingers crossed and hope that maybe this year something will make it to the seedling stage before being trampled to death.The tramplers are my children and their buddies. And as happens in families, the kids have pretty much taken over the back yard.When we moved into the house, the previous owners, a child-free couple, had the back yard looking like a photo spread in Rowhouse Beautiful Magazine.

Rich Pollock, who as a member of the Coalition to Preserve Black Marsh has frequently criticized state plans for the 1,310-acre tract of woods, beach and marshland in eastern Baltimore County, joined forces with the state back in April to plant trees on Black Marsh property.Pollock was one of about a dozen volunteers who came out on a Saturday to help plant some 300 ash, oak and dogwood seedlings on a three-fourths-acre section of state-owned land at Black Marsh.It was all part of Gov. William Donald Schaefer's "Tree-mendous" program.

WIMBLEDON, England -- In the past, grass was her opponent.Arantxa Sanchez Vicario was raised to play on red clay, but when she came to Wimbledon, all she could see was green grass, and all she could do was hang on the baseline, executing the same old shots that would bring her victories at Roland Garros in France but defeats in England.This year was different, though. She decided to beat the English grass, attacking and improvising, advancing steadily through a draw, defeating reigning champion Conchita Martinez and reaching her first Wimbledon final.