The Holiday season is finally here. Thanksgiving gives us a chance to enjoy family, food and a little football. The golf course has seen a wet, warm autumn and most of the leaves have fallen. Due to the wet conditions, our staff is having a difficult time with leaf removal. It is impossible for us to use large blowers and leaf removal equipment so we must stick to smaller equipment. This obviously slows down the process but we are working hard to keep tees, landing areas, bunkers and greens leaf free. This is an impossible task.
The staff is busy with several other projects outside of leaf removal. The team has finished removing undesirable plant material from around the ponds and has begun removing the invasive aquatic plant, pennywort. We want to encourage a natural stand of cat tails, sedges, rushes and wispy grasses around the ponds but we still have to manage these areas to prevent contamination of invasive species. The pennywort is removed by hand and if left unmaintained would quickly take over the ponds.
 |
| Pennywort is the invasive aquatic weed pictured above. The plant floats and will quickly take over a pond. The sedges and cat tails pictured are desired but have to be managed as well. I am glad to capture native bird species in this picture including ducks and blue heron. We encourage a habitat for these species while trying to discourage the invasion of non-migratory Canadian Geese. |
Last night's storms brought us a considerable amount of rain and even though the golf course held up well, the surfaces are very wet. Even with a windy, sunny day today, I wouldn't expect to see cart path restrictions lifted for a few days. The recently saturated turf will take much longer to dry out due to these factors.
- Shorter days (less sunlight)
- Lower Sun angle (longer shadows, less sunlight)
- Colder temperatures (less evaporation)
- Dormant turf (far less water uptake than active growing conditions)
