Today was almost like a real winter day on the golf course. We had a heavy frost this morning which kept our staff inside for some necessary painting and equipment maintenance. We have not had much indoor time this year and the work is starting to pile up. The staff paints on/off posts, hazards stakes and other amenities while staining benches. A few staff members helped John, our Equipment Manager, install new reels into the fairway cutting units. Ruben started grinding stumps immediately as frost does not impede this work.
Once the frost lifted the staff began work in the first fairway bunker on 12, applying a pre-emergent herbicide, bringing up the irrigation system and cleaning up behind Arborscapes. Arborscapes is here again crown cleaning the Willow Oak trees around the clubhouse. This week looks bad for golf but good for work so we are going to take full advantage.
The irrigation system will be running as we are watering in the pre-emergent herbicide. This is a necessary evil in the process of preventing goosegrass and crabgrass. Bringing the irrigation system on-line went off with minimal hiccups this morning and no leaks. Each of the new irrigation heads that we have installed worked perfectly. We still have 7 more to install.
The pre-emergent herbicide application is going out about three weeks early due to unseasonably warm temperatures. Monitoring soil temperatures and phonological indicators such as forsythia bloom tell us that conditions will be conducive for weed germination earlier this year. This winter has been very unusual but has allowed our team to get a lot of work done. Tomorrow looks to be a decent day for golf once the frost lifts but this weekend might be better spent on the indoor tennis courts.
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| Kevin and Ryan applying the pre-emergent herbicide. One great feature about this sprayer is that it has a training seat so Kevin can ride shotgun and train Ryan on the finer details of spraying. |
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| You should plan on seeing water running this week as this product has to be watered in to reach the soil. Pre-emergent herbicides prevent weed germination. |
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| Ruben is beginning the slow process of grinding all of the stumps on the golf course. |
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| Our team is finishing the renovation of this bunker on #12. |
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| Arborscapes is finishing up the trees in the parking lot and behind the building today and next Monday. |
