Friday, October 24, 2014

It's starting to look a lot like Fall!

 
I know it has been a while since my last post but we really did not have a lot projects going on.  With our hands full just mowing grass I wanted to wait until the Men's Member Guest was over before we started do a lot of the cultural practices that we typically do in the fall.  During October we have groomed and topdressed the greens twice after an application of a granular fertilizer.  The tees have all been aerified and select ones were seeded with perennial ryegrass.  The tees that have a lot of bentgrass were verticut in two directions. We were doing well seeding fairways and almost got through the ones that we wanted to seed before our tractor that pulls the seeder had to have a repair done, so we are still waiting to get that back.  The fall annuals were planted around the clubhouse earlier in the month.     Following our second frost of the year we have started to see the leaves really change colors.  This past Wednesday with nearly .8 inches of rain a lot of the leaves and pine needles that are shedding have started to fall.  This is just the beginning of about a 4 to 6 week leaf cleanup season.  While the grass is still growing and our efforts are still focused on mowing which is our first priority and leaves are second, we will do our best to keep them mulched up as best we can.
 
If you look closely you can see lines of new shoots emerging after grooming the greens.  This is just another tool we use in trying to get the grass to stand up before we mow the green.  Brushing and topdressing are other practices that aid in this as well. 
 
 
 
 
Here you can see lines of the newly seeded perennial ryegrass growing.  Typically at first until the new grass matures some grows taller than the existing stand of turf.  This will go away as the grass matures and after a few cuts.
 
 
 
Newly planted pansies on the back patio
 
 
 
Some mums added as well
 
 
 
This picture was taken on October 22nd on the 4th green.  I'm not quite sure what has happened here but I know it is not oil or gas.  We are going to keep an eye on this area and plug out any necessary areas that need it.
 
 
 
Here we are verticutting the tees that have a lot of bentgrass growing in them.  We verticut in two different directions to help thin out the thatch which we have a lot of.  After this is completed we mow the tee and back ready for play.  In the near future we will topdress these tees to help firm them up.