10-24-16

Good Morning,

What a successful week this has been at the golf course.  We have spent time mulching leaves and are nearing the end of the mowing season.  The tees were fertilized with the annual fall application.  Irrigation system ran very heavy last night to soak the course.  This morning, as sunrise took over, the golf course looks beautiful with nicely mowed turf and fall foliage.  That’s a satisfying morning.

The irrigation system has not ran a whole lot the past two months but it is working beautiful since the pump house repairs were completed.  There are still a couple of irrigation leaks that will be addressed this coming week.  We are getting very close to the end of the irrigation permit for 2016.

As we speak of water, it leads me into the standing water situation around #16 green and #17 tees.  My final deduction is the water table is so high, there is nowhere for the excess to go.  I pumped the sand traps and they filled back up with water in a short period of time.  This area is one of the lowest points of the golf course and appears it will be a problem as we head into colder weather.

The biggest project was the completion of moving trees and shrubs from Graham Tire to the golf course.  I moved two sugar maple, three red bud, five spruce, and 15 viburnum bushes to the golf course.  There were also two spruce trees moved from the driving range to the course.

Five of the spruce trees were moved to the left rough on number.  Two spruce trees were moved to the right side of number nine rough.  Two sugar maple were planted on the left side of nine rough.  All of these trees were planted to replace pine trees that died over the past four years.  They will help protect the layout of these two holes.

I moved three red bud trees to the landscaping area on hole seven.  The 15 viburnum shrubs were moved to the landscaping areas on one, three, six, seven, and ten landscaping areas.  These shrubs will help add some protection to these tee areas and also add some eye appeal to the landscaping.

The entire process started with dropping a plug off at Graham Tire, pulling the first tree, and planting it in the first spot at the golf course.  The next plug is dropped in the hole left from the first tree.  The process continued until the first plug was pushed into the last tree hole at Graham Tire.

The majority of the tree plugs had water fill the bottom of the hole during the moving process.  Some of the lower areas had four or five inches of standing water in the hole when the tree was planted.  This was another clue as to how high the water table is at the golf course.

I am very pleased with the entire tree moving process.  The new engine on the tree spade works hands down better than the old engine.  There might still be some trees to move from the right of way by the old Woodcliff area.  Also, I might move some trees to move around on the course.  Overall, it has been a success.

After the trees were moved, we staked several of the large ones, added more soil, and have applied plenty of water to each tree and shrub.  This coming week root stimulator will be applied with the watering schedule.

This concludes another week at the old golf course.  Please feel free to contact me with any comments, questions, or concerns.  Have a great weekend!