Cornell University turfgrass expert Frank Rossi discussed lawn care with Martha Stewart during an episode of “Martha’s Garden.” Photo courtesy of Frank Rossi
How long does it take to earn your own 15 minutes of fame?
For Frank Rossi, Ph.D., it depends on how you look at it.
The longtime academic at Cornell University had an opportunity to provide some expertise this spring to a really big name — Martha Stewart.
Rossi traveled to Stewart’s Bedford, N.Y., estate to provide some turfgrass expertise in March during a filming of “Martha’s Garden,” which first aired on Roku TV on May 13.
“It wound up being about an 18-minute conversation that they condensed into about 6 minutes,” Rossi says.
And while Rossi, associate professor in Cornell’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and turfgrass Extension specialist for the state of New York, jokes that his moments with Stewart gave him his 15 minutes of fame, it was hardly the first
time the well-known turfgrass expert has worked with high-profile clients or been in front of the camera. His background includes appearances on the “Today” show, ESPN and Golf Channel. He has provided turf expertise for New York’s
Central Park, the New York Yankees and U.S. Open Championships. In fact, the hundreds of hours of video on the Cornell School of Integrative Plant Science’s YouTube channel — including the “Cornell Turfgrass Show,” which Rossi
has co-hosted with Cornell Extension Support Specialist Carl Schimenti since 2020 — helped demonstrate to Stewart’s producers that Rossi clearly knows how to connect with an audience.
And as a seasoned communicator, Rossi was able to deliver some key messages to the viewers.
“I will say this, I really liked the way they wound up putting the piece together. You never know if what you’re trying to accomplish is going to resonate,” says Rossi, who emphasized the quality of the soil and urged Stewart to consider
reducing the amount of soil disturbance and inputs on the lawn areas of her farm, which are predominately Kentucky bluegrass.
“What you see in the piece that I think is most important, when she and I are making the exchange about the soil, she says it was a pasture, it was a farm field before it was this lawn,” Rossi says. “When you’ve got a really old
soil that’s had grass on it for a long time, it doesn’t need very intense maintenance. In fact, if she lowered some of her fertilizer use, she probably wouldn’t have to do some of those supplemental practices because she doesn’t
get a lot of traffic on that lawn.”
Rossi says the estate lawn is probably mowed at 3 or 3½ inches and was dormant when he visited in March. “You can tell it is vigorous lawn that gets a lot of inputs,” says Rossi, who was able to point out that turf really doesn’t
need to be dethatched or core-aerified as long as it isn’t getting much traffic. Instead, those practices can be reserved for any high-traffic areas that might get compacted.
“I was able to promote a more precision, modern-based approach to managing a lawn, which is maybe more sustainable than constantly feeling that you have to apply either products or a fossil-fuel-intensive process like aerifying or dethatching that
in the end isn’t really necessary,” says Rossi, who was honored in 2018 with GCSAA’s President’s Award for Environmental Stewardship.
Rossi hopes that message resonates with turf managers such as superintendents, pointing out that it’s better to target aerify and try to avoid disturbing the soil.
“This is very progressive thinking in the golf turf community right now, where more guys are thinking about less and less disruption of our playing surfaces and allowing them to choose, where needed, to implement practices more on a site-specific
basis rather than uniformly over 45 acres of fairway,” he says. “It’s that same idea on lawns: Why do it if it’s not needed?”
Was Rossi pleased with the experience?
“I got my 15 minutes. Right? That’s pretty much all it is,” he says. “You work your whole career — I got my Ph.D. in 1990 — I’ve been at this for 34 years, and it took that long for Martha Stewart to find me.
And I have to tell you, I’ve never had more notoriety, especially from women and men who worship Martha Stewart. A lot of people like her. She’s an enormously popular figure. I have a lot of admiration for her.”
Darrell J. Pehr is GCM’s science editor.