The Lawn is the emerald carpet of the University of Virginia’s Academical Village, and it is a longstanding ritual of Final Exercises for graduates to process down its center.
But the Lawn requires a great deal of care and preparation before those exercises. Rich Hopkins, associate director of Grounds at UVA Facilities Management, and his crew are busy this time of year making those Finals preparations.
“The turf on the Lawn is the pallet that the Academical Village rests on,” Hopkins said. “It’s part of the image that comes to mind when you think of UVA.”
This year, the Lawn has been seeded with perennial rye grass, which germinates quickly, and was fertilized several times this spring to improve the lushness of the grass carpet. Workers mow frequently to keep the grass at its proper height.
Employees of Big O Tree Service prune dead limbs from trees on the Lawn, one of the many tasks on the pre-Finals Weekend checklist. (Photo by Lathan Goumas, University Communications)
Trees are also a vital part of the Lawn, and they receive care as well. Besides replacing the mulch at their base, Hopkins also brought in a private contractor to examine the health of the trees on the Lawn and look for limbs that died over the winter.
“Big O Tree Service worked for a week, pruning the trees on the Lawn,” Hopkins said. “They identified one ash tree that had died over the winter, and they removed it.”
Hopkins’ crew also pruned and mulched the Lawn’s shrubbery. “We replaced the shrubs along the Rotunda on the Lawn side,” Hopkins said, “We removed boxwoods, planted about 10 years ago, that were showing their age, replacing them with a variety of Japanese holly.”
About a dozen landscapers were involved with the Lawn maintenance work. Crews from throughout Facilities Management then set up the metal ramps that allow the processing graduates to traverse the terraces on the Lawn, then install roping and fencing, and finally set up the chairs.
