Flowers

With the threat of frost now behind us, we have begun to plant the annuals around the club.  Blanchard Valley Center and their clients grew half our flowers again this year and have planted everything you see out there - including 16 hanging baskets and 20 pots around the building.

Karen, Nichole, Molly and Michael helped us for a few days, planting around the pool, river rooms and locker rooms.

Sonja and Molly are always here with a smile no matter what the weather.

 

Bill was one of the few that helped with the pots, along with Alex and Dustin.

The Grounds Staff has been using our extra time after our typical course duties are done to lay down mulch around the club.  This upcoming week we will continue to lay mulch around the course.

 

Seed heads

All grass species produce seed at some point in their life cycle, this time of year many of our typical cool season grasses are seeding.  Poa annua or Annual Bluegrass is a prolific seed producer and one of the few grasses that can seed at a variety of mowing heights - from rough height to greens height.

The greens at FCC are predominantly poa, some of the poa is more of a perennial biotype and produces less seed, some is more of the annual biotype (think #1 green) and produces more seed.  The older the green, the more perennial poa and typically less seed.

We are currently in the middle of the seed-head flush, within a few weeks the seeding will be complete.  During this seeding stage, greens tend to be a little slower and little bumpier due to the seed-heads in the way.  We try to limit the amount of seed-heads on the greens but there will always be some seeding that occurs.

The main strategy we use to reduce the seeding pressure is to apply growth regulators to the greens to slow down the growth of the plant and inhibit the production of seed.  This application is timed with 'Growing Degree Days', giving us a great tool to apply the regulator at the optimal time and give us the best chance of success.  We follow certain models that give us day to day readings in our zip code on where we are in the phonological calendar, once we hit the correct 'Growing Degree Day' we apply the regulator.

The suppression this year on seed-heads was a little above average, but we are still seeing seeds.  This natural process will conclude in a few weeks, leaving us great greens for the remainder of the season.

Extra help

It has been a few weeks since my last post, we have been quite busy, as is typical for this time of year.  It has been all hands on deck to keep up with the mowing and blowing off the clippings that we have abundantly produced lately.  Today we completed filling all the holes left from our winter tree removals, next week we will start preparing our landscape beds for mulch.

A few weeks ago we took on a new hire to help maintain the landscaping and flowers around the clubhouse.  Peggy Biolchini, who was formerly working in the club office is now with the Grounds Department filling this position.  Her love for the outdoors, flowers and plants makes this position a great fit.

 

We have also received a little extra help from our friends at Blanchard Valley Center.  We are using the Grounds Department as a resource for some of their clients to learn job skills that will make them marketable in the work place.  Pictured above is Michael, he has been helping us out with a few details around the course.

Today, Ian came to help us sweep out the barns for a few hours.  We wish them all the best as they search for the right positions.