Thursday, August 25, 2016

Another dry spell?

Take a look at this long-range forecast:

 
I typically consider detailed long-range forecasts to be inaccurate, but if this pans out, it looks like September will be a great month for golf.  Time will tell if we truly go 4 weeks with no rain.

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Its green!

The course has really come back to life over the last week due to the rain we received, and by that I mean lots of growth.

 
We could mow this course every two days right now and it wouldn't be enough.  Eventually the surge will subside. 

Monday, August 22, 2016

Seeding the old 10 tee

Today we seeded the old 10th tee with a bluegrass / ryegrass blend.  We had to seed this area as the bentgrass that the old tee was covered with was not suitable for higher mowing heights. 

 
This area will make a great spot for small tents during outings and events. 
 

Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Careful what you wish for

While we needed rain, we now have more water than we can handle.  With the slow soaking rain from yesterday and another batch of storms moving through over the night, the ground is now saturated in areas that are typically irrigated.  We are currently sitting at 3.05" over the last 5 days and more rain moving through today.

Puddles are prevalent on the fairways.  We were not able to mow the greens today as we were pushing water with every pass. 

With little opportunity to get mowing done, we focused on a few projects.  Here we trimmed back the river bank in front of 9 green. 

The landscaping around the old 10th tee was also removed.  This area will be seeded into rough and make a great location for small tents during events and outings. 

Friday, August 5, 2016

BVC award

Last month I attended the Blanchard Valley Center board meeting to accept the Community STAR award for our collaboration with the BVI Greenhouse. 

 
Thank you BVC, we look forward to our continued partnership. 
 
The Grounds Staff will be hosting a lunch on August 17 for all the clients that have helped us this year.  It sounds like we are going to have a great turnout. 

Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Tree tour

Yesterday I had Cathy Smith, Findlay's own 'Tree Lady', visit FCC to look at our tree population.  We toured the course looking at a few specific problems with some of our trees; but the main purpose was for another eye to view our trees and point out issues that we may be missing.

There are a few trees on the property that are failing and I wanted to get Cathy's opinion on the cause of decline.  A small Spruce along 4 has a bacterial disease that is unavoidable (this may spread to other Blue Spruces on the course), and two trees on 8 and 9 are dying due to stress.

This Sweet Gum along 9 died this spring after leafing out.  There are no evident signs of cause, it most likely died due to stress - flooding and extremely cold winters.  It finally just gave up.  I suppose we could say the cause of decline was 'the wrong tree for that location'. 

This Norway Spruce on 8 is declining due to stresses that it just couldn't handle anymore.
 
Cathy also gave us great reminders on proper planting, watering, mulching and tree care techniques that can keep our younger trees healthy.  While we are a golf course, our trees are very important to us.  We take a long range approach to our trees, the trees we plant today will be the trees that will show their true potential 50-100 years from now.