The science behind restoring the White House South Lawn after UFC Freedom 250

The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company is committing $1 million to help restore the White House South Lawn after Sunday’s UFC event at the White House.

Following the June 14 Freedom 250 event – a centerpiece of the nation’s 250th anniversary celebration – the company will provide funding, products and technical expertise to the National Park Service as it restores the historic lawn.

For investors, the high-profile White House project serves as a showcase for Scotts’ research and development division. It comes as the $3.3 billion company navigates a stagnant U.S. housing market where traditional lawn ownership faces headwinds from flat homeownership rates and changing urban demographics.

“The scale and scope of our R&D department is impressive,” Nate Baxter, Scotts Miracle-Gro chief operating officer, told FOX Business, noting that the company is leveraging its research muscle to expand into organic and biological alternatives to synthetic fertilizers. “I do believe Scotts Miracle-Gro has the horsepower in terms of the investment we make in R&D, to bring naturals and organics, to bring biologicals.”

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The upcoming mixed martial arts event has drawn considerable attention regarding the physical impact on the White House grounds, which currently feature a massive, 92-foot-high temporary venue known as “the Claw” erected on the turf.

Because the grounds are managed by the National Park Service, Scotts is structuring the contribution as a philanthropic donation.

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The restoration is more complex than a standard landscaping project. Washington, D.C.’s climate presents unique challenges, with freezing winters and hot, humid summers.

To navigate these conditions, Scotts brought its research team to the White House to review proprietary seed options with President Donald Trump, who brought his own turf-management experience to the meeting.

“The president knows a lot about grass. I think his history and past with golf courses,” Baxter noted. “It was really interesting to watch our tour scientists, and President Trump, talk through each of these.”

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Scotts presented multiple seed varieties before settling on a customized four-seed blend engineered to withstand heavy staging equipment and helicopter landings.

“Creating a proprietary blend for the White House’s unique conditions presented a distinct set of challenges,” Matthew Koch, R&D Lawns Research Fellow at Scotts Miracle-Gro, said in a press release. “It is a functional lawn that has to stand up to hundreds of events and thousands of people each year.”

The physical restoration will roll out in phases over the next year. The National Park Service will first disassemble the UFC infrastructure, followed by a previously scheduled public infrastructure project on the grounds.

By July, Scotts will begin restoration by installing mature sod to quickly stabilize and re-green the space before transitioning to its custom seed blend later in the year.

“We’re gonna work, we’ve chosen a sod, and it’s not the same as the blend, but it has some of the same cultivars, we’re gonna help them restart, and get a piece established,” Baxter said.

Once cooler autumn temperatures arrive, technicians will overseed the lawn with the custom four-seed blend selected for the project. A final round of overseeding and fertilization in spring 2027 will complete the restoration.

While the exact White House mixture is a one-time donation to the National Park Service and will not be commercialized, Scotts confirmed that the underlying cultivars are present in their retail product lines.

By spring 2027, the company expects the restoration to be complete, bringing the South Lawn back from a weekend of UFC fights to its more familiar role hosting state ceremonies, public events and Marine One landings.