October 30, 2010

Here is a picture of the 6th rough where we tilled and seeded earlier this month...even after 30 years of doing this, I still get excited to see the grass come up!

October 15, 2010

On hole # 6, left of the tee to fairway rough, there is an area where the turf has continually struggled to grow. The soil has been seriously compacted, worn down, and has lost its structure due to years and years of traffic. Whatever topsoil that might have been in this area, is gone. And to make things worse, the area is bordered by trees which block sunlight, and whose roots compete for water and nutrients.

This area indeed has a few challenges! On Wednesday, we did all we could to face them!

The first thing we did was to spread topsoil over the area, and then add peat moss. We then spread slow releasing organic fertilizer and gypsum (for calcium). The last thing we added to our “mix” was a product that supplies micro nutrients, sulfur, potassium, and manganese. After all these were spread, we roto-tilled the area five times to mix it in and to relieve all that compaction. What we were not able to do was remove the trees!

After the area was raked out and leveled, we seeded it with a mix of grasses that best tolerate shade, poor soil, and to a degree, traffic. And finally, we roped it off so that the seedbed would not be damaged.

It was quite a lot of work!

Now we just need to keep it moist and nurture it to grow. I will post blog updates on how the area progresses, so please stay tuned!

October 8, 2010

The weather seems to be returning to a more normal pattern…the temperatures are becoming more in tune with historical averages rather than record breakers, and needed rain has returned. Perhaps the last two weeks have been somewhat frustrating to some of us with the rain storms, yet the rain alleviated the current short term drought conditions and delayed the NJ DEP from issuing statewide water restrictions.

We have been very busy reseeding the few areas in the rough where we lost some turf. We are using a mix of bluegrass and creeping fescue on these areas – bluegrass for wear and drought tolerance along with disease resistance, and fescue for drought tolerance. In some areas we add a bit of ryegrass for quick cover, expecting that the blue will out compete it by next summer. This is the same overseeding program that we’ve done in the rough over the past five years. We’ve had a lot of success with these varieties.

Over the next few weeks we will be applying herbicides in the rough to reduce weed populations! Fall is the best and most effective time for weed control due to the cool growing conditions! We will also begin rough aeration too.

One other project that we are in the process of completing is planting a privacy screen of arborvitaes along the northeast side of the 13th tee.

So we are busy – using the fall to prepare for next spring…