Anyone seen Spring?

The clock has rolled forward and here comes Spring.  It sure hasn't felt like Spring in the Pacific Northwest, but we are pressing on finishing up a few projects before Aerification.  

ROUGH RENOVATION

We recently completed renovating all the areas we killed with Prograss this Fall.  Prograss is used on Ryegrass, it selectively kills undesirable species(i.e Poa annua) that contaminate a pure stand, in our case, Ryegrass rough. 

The picture below depicts the destruction Prograss causes.  The extended cold weather this winter helped the Prograss kill the species we were targeting.  The area not effected was due to limitations of the sprayer, it can't drive on the steep slope on the right side of #17.

Dead areas are renovated and cleaned up by hand, before ryegrass seed is covered with a layer of sand.  

Fifteen hundred pounds of ryegrass has been spread throughout the course to help rough quality and the definition we like to see.  If you're thinking about ripping out moss in your home lawn and putting down seed, this is a great time to get it done.  Covering the seed with a mulch source is a great way to help germination.  The rough was also fertilized this week to help push growth before the season starts.  If Spring finally shows up, these areas should fill in great.

TREE PRUNING

 This picture is worth more than a thousand words.  Last October we rented a tow-able man lift for pruning Specimen trees throughout the property.  The top photo was taken the morning before we started last October.  The bottom picture is from February 28th at the completion of tree pruning on 12 tee.  The goal of this project is two pronged:
                     1. Highlight views when possible
                     2. Improve playability and turf conditions
The plan moving forward is to rent this lift once per year and stay ahead of the necessary pruning.

MALLARD DUCK NESTING TUBES

Golf courses are a great place for wildlife to thrive and we have to do our part when possible to help the wildlife.  You probably noticed the new grass tubes on your drive into the club.  These tubes are for Mallard ducks.  If we have success with these tubes we could add one or two more next year.  This project is part of our effort to obtain Audubon Certification for Aldarra Golf Club.  Additional bird houses will be placed throughout the property in the coming Months.