The Dunster Road side of grass court 21 was overseeded with ryegrass last week. Pictured are Nate and Jeff preparing the seedbed, topderessing/overseeding and the ryegrass seedlings. We did this because this edge was worn thin from traffic throughout the season. Click on the title "Overseeding" for a short video explanation. 
The murky weather closed the courts for a little while, but we used the time to cut down three dead trees. This was an old hemlock along Middlesex Road.
We have been aerating the grass courts and there are always many questions on the procedure. Here is an USGA animation explaining aeration.
Dr Andy Newell of the Sports Turf Research Institute (STRI) in Bingley, England is the consulting agronomist for Wimbledon and he recently sent me these pictures. The STRI does a lot of the testing of grass species and cultivars and from these tests Wimbledon selects the grasses to plant on the courts. We do a great deal of similar testing here at state universities including UMass. These trials test for many attributes - for Wimbledon wear tolerance is obviously important. There can be huge differences in wear tolerance among grasses that seem similar. The bottom picture shows the machine that applies wear to the grass for testing.
