Pictures of new trees.

Here are the pictures of some of the new trees that I promised.

#3 green after two new trees and two transplanted trees.

The left side of #3 before the transplanted trees.

And finally, some areas on #4 where we planted some native grasses in our naturalized areas.  We aerified and then spread the seed.  The grass is growing in the holes from the aerifier.

New trees

Due to some of the trees on the course needing to be removed because of the danger they cause.

We had some new trees brought in and moved some of the smaller trees that were already on the course.  If you have not seen a tree spade at work, here is a video.



And a picture of the tree on the spade at it's new home.

(It is not actually the same tree, but one of the seven we moved.)

The new trees that we had brought in were from a Christmas tree farm. They were starting to get too big for them to sell. I will get some pictures of the new trees in place and post them soon.

Aeration of the fairways

For the most part, aerifing the fairways is the same as the way we do the greens. The changes are that we use a bigger machine, mounted on a tractor.  We also use a larger, stronger tine.  This is because the soil in the fairways has more rocks than the greens and the larger size holds up better.  The bigger holes are also less noticeable on a fairway, where we cut the grass higher (9/16 inch as opposed to 1/8 inch on the greens.)

Here are the bigger plugs.

Then, instead of removeing the plugs and replacing it with sand, we drag the plugs back into the turf. This is due to economics, with 22 acres of fairways, we could not afford to put down new sand.  We have three drag mats, a heavy, plastic model

and two smaller, metal mats.

We spend a long time driving around in circles in order to break up the plugs.

This is what we end up with.

All that is left is the thatch and leaf tissue, which we blow off the fairway and into the rough,

where we mulch up the plugs with our rough mowers.

Why do we aerate?

I have gotten more than a few questions on the reasons behind aeration of the greens and, to a lesser extent, the tees and fairways.  The following video does a great job of explaining the reasons.



The main takeaways from this video are:

1) Relieve compaction.

2) Reduce organic matter build-up.

3) Provide passageways for water and oxygen to move through the soil.

The sand top dressing also has the added benefit of smoothing the putting surface.

Aerification of greens

We have completed the aerification of the greens.  Leslie Park did the front 9 greens on Tuesday, September 14th and the back 9 on Wednesday.  If you are curious about the process we use, you can check some of the videos and pictures that I have.

First is the aerator, a Toro Procore 648.  It is self-propelled, 48 inches wide and has 30 3/8 inch tines.  The speed we use puts the tines down every 2 inches.  Here is the machine in action.

Here are the plugs that result

We then blow the plugs into the center of the green to make picking up the plugs easier.



We then pick up the plugs.  We pile the plugs up in our storage area and keep the pile turned over so the grass doesn't grow.  In the spring, we will use the material as we would use topsoil.



Here is a close of the green after we have picked up the plugs.



We then take a greens mower with special cutting units called "verticutters" installed.  These special units vertically mow the grass and basically cut grooves in the playing surface.  This stops the grass from growing along the ground and creates a  more upright plant.  This increases the speed the ball will roll along the green.

Here is a close up of the vericut units.

And a picture of the green after verticutting.

We then spread sand on the green with a machine called a topdresser.  The sand replaces the plugs that we have taken off. 

A picture of the green after the sand is put down.

We then use a large brush to move the sand into the holes.

After we are all done, the holes should be filled and the green should look like this.

A picture is worth a thousand words, so I wonder how many words video has saved me?

Aerification

Leslie Park will be aerifying greens beginning on September 14th.  We will be doing the front nine on Tuesday and the back 9 on Wednesday.  We hope to begin with the tees immediately following the greens.

Cartoons can do it, why can't you?

An animation from the USGA on how to repair a ballmark

I won't coment on the quality of the animation.  The information is good.