Fertilizer applications, sharp mower blades, 9 woods wrap up and deck powerwashing

As a continuation of the discussion of annual bluegrass (poa) and bent I took a couple of pictures of some poa seed heads since we are in the throws right now and is easy to see which grass is which.



clearly visable whitish patch to the right of 150 disc




close up of seedheads on green or collar height


We fertilized the entire place, except greens, with a slow release fertilizer and crabgrass preventative. If this is not the first time we have done this it has been over a decade since we have. I know I spread a granular preventtative in the tall grass areas the first years i was here but cannot remember if I ever did fairways. anyway I hope to see less crabgrass and know we will be happy with the fertilizer as I was always happy with it years ago when we used this type. It gives great color and when we were tissue sampling in the past I noticed higher iron content which would account for the darker color.

shredded leaf blades, white strands

white streaks and poor appearance

One of the benefits of fertilizing is a thicker stand of turf. Also a steady growth rate. All this means is more mowing. It it crucial to keep your blades sharp or you will do more harm than good by stressing the plant with all those ragged edges. see pictures above. We do this on a regular schedule but will fall behind with the weather or the seedheads and stalks seem to dull the blades more quickly. This is something most homeowners negelct is regular sharpening. I would say at least once a month minimum unless you have rocks or sidewalks that are nicked then more often.

Kevin powerwashing clubhouse deck

Kev and I started the annual powerwashing of the clubhouse deck and rails this week. Figured it was a wet job and not too many players to dance around. We accomplished most of it and will continue this in the future.

Rock picking

Right side of 9 complete

We also wrapped up the right side of 9 fairway woods project. The trees have been removed stumps ground and we cleaned up the mess. We picked a bunch of rocks that were exposed a bit and posed a threat to golfers and mowers alike. Some were basket ball size and others much larger. We filled the holes added topsoil to a few areas and then seeded and rolled. The goal is for this to be a nice rolling fescue to match many of the fescue area of the course. Hopefully we caught enough of the rain this week to get a good catch. Please keep carts out of this area because the seedlings will not tolerate traffic and we discourage carts in the tall grass anyway.