Wildflowers and sunrise

Some pictures I took the other day in my travels around the golf course.

Honey bees on spotted joe-pye-weed (Eupatoriadelphus maculatus)

Joe-pye-weed (Eupatoriadelphus maculatus)

Blue Vervain (Verbena hastata)

Goldenrod (Solidago spp)

Evening Primrose(Oenothera biennis)

Joe-pye-weed and other plants in the buffer strips along Traver Creek

Irrigation running on #9 at 6:45 AM

Regrowth

After the long period of hot and dry weather we had at the end of June and through most of July, a lot of areas in the fairways were turning brown. Most of these spots were patches of Poa annua (Annual Bluegrass) which tends to have a shallow root system and, like the name suggests, acts as an annual plant and dies off when under stress.

We have gotten almost 3 inches of rain in the month of August so far and most of these areas have greened up. Some, like the area above, did not do as well. Last week, we got out the slit seeder and used this as an opportunity to increase the amount of bentgrass in the fairways. We put about 75 lbs of seed into the weak areas in the fairways. This includes all of number 9 fairway, as this was a hole in which we have always had problems due to the high amount of Poa.

As you can see from the pictures, the seed is starting to grow in straight lines where the slit seeder cut a slit and dropped the seed. Because of the nature of Creeping bentgrass, it will spread from those lines and, hopefully, fill in the bare and weak areas.

Halfway there.

We just got the letter from Audubon International telling us that Leslie Park has received certification in 4 of the 6 categories required for full program certification. The categories we have achieved are Water Conservation, Chemical Use Reduction and Safety, Water Quality Management and Environmental Planning. We have to complete Wildlife and Habitat Management and Outreach and Education in order to become a certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary.

July 2011 Weather Summary

July was hot and, until the end of the month, dry. Although we had 4.55 inches of rain in the month, until July 27th, we had only had just over 3/4 of an inch. In fact, from June 23rd until July 27th, we only had 0.83 inches. June was 2.2 inches below normal rainfall.  Normal July rainfall for Ann Arbor is 1.84 inches. We then had 3.72 inches in a 36 hour period. We had 1.98 inches on July 28th. We were lucky because there were places in southeastern Michigan that got over 6 inches of rain in that period.  When rain comes down that quickly, especially after an extended period of dry conditions, the water tends to run off and not penetrate into the soil profile. We had  7 day with over a trace of rain and 2 days with over an inch.  That being said, I am thankful for any rainfall, so I won't complain too much about excess rain, right now.

There were 10 days where the high temperature was above 90 degrees. In addition to that, there were 9 days where the low temperature did not get below 68 degrees.  The monthly (as well as year to date) high temperature was 97.3 (July 21st) while the low was 51.3 degrees.  The average temperature for the month was 76.8.

The high wind speed was 30 mph. (July 11th)