Aeration

It's that time of year again... aeration season is here again.

If  you're out playing this week or next, you'll notice we've been hard at it getting all of the aerification on the course taken care of. Although it can be less than desirable playing conditions for a few days, this is a very important part of having healthy turf. The holes and core removal create for better oxygen/gas exchange in the soil, relieve compaction as well as reduce thatch and organic matter in the soil.

The schedule for this spring's aerification is as follows (weather pending):
April 28 - approaches, collars, and greens surrounds
April 29 - tee boxes
May 5 - greens

Everything is very healthy going into the aerification process, so recovery should be pretty quick.

As always, we can only do this with dry weather. So if rain is in the forecast for one of the scheduled dates, it will be rescheduled.

Poa annua

Here is a great article written by Dr. Nick Christians at Iowa State University talking about controls for annual bluegrass. Please take a couple of minutes to read.

http://www.iaturf.blogspot.com/2014/11/annual-bluegrass-poa-annua-control-so.html

Firewood

We have firewood for sale again this year. It's all good, hardwood that was split last fall and has been drying all year.  Please let Chad or myself know and we can get it scheduled ASAP.

Also, we DO NOT split and sell any type of Ash firewood.

Fairway Drainage

Last week we installed 2200 feet of drainage tile on 18 fairway. The tile is anywhere from 18 to 30 inches deep depending on undulations and slope of the fairway. The tile is then covered with clean rock and 4 inches of sand at the top of the trench. Our crew did all of the sod removal and prep work, as well as the finish/clean up work. The Cutting Edge did all of the important stuff with the trenching and rock backfill.  We had a really good system down and the outcome is exactly how I wanted it, very good work!!
Below are some videos and pictures of the work that was done.  

Etiquette

I took a few photos of some very poor etiquette on the course after the stag last Thursday. If anybody might have a clue who could be the culprits, please say something to them. A lot of golf cart damage in the fairways and a LOT of people not raking their tracks out of the sand traps.  Please have some respect for other people playing the course. Thank you.

Trees/Emerald Ash Borer

With the Emerald Ash Borer going through Iowa right now, we're trying to be proactive before it really becomes a problem here at BHCC. Our plan with the Ash trees that we have on the property is to let nature play it's course and let the trees die out. In the meantime, you will notice us transplanting newer, younger trees mixed in with the larger groups of Ash trees. This past Spring, we were able to transplant 18 new hardwoods onto the course, and last week we put out 23 more. All of the new trees put in this past spring were purchased from Wapsie Pines and the trees that we put in last week came from our tree nursery here at BHCC.

The picture below is the left side of the fairway trap on 6. You'll notice the new trees mixed in with the older Ash trees. I've been marking the Ash trees on the course with a small, white dash of paint about a foot off the ground. There are five Ash trees in this particular spot that will have to come down in the next couple of years. By moving the new trees in, it will hopefully give them time to mature and develop while the Ash trees die out and have to be removed. 

We added two maples on the left and the right side of 1 fairway, 2 oaks and a locust on the right side of 2 fairway (up towards the red tee on 3), and 4 maples between 3 and 16 fairways. The left side of 6 got 8 new trees (3 maples, 3 locusts, and 2 oaks). And 3 new trees on the left side of 11 (2 maples and a locust).
You might notice a few trees on the course that are marked with an X at the base. These are trees that are planned to be removed in the near future. The trees with the white dashes at the base are just marked as Ash trees, not to be removed until they start declining.

Below is a great example of what most of the maples will look like in the Fall, should be some great color!

Practice Tee

I love seeing this! This is a perfect picture of how we'd like divots to be taken on the practice tee. Rather than creating one large hole of divots (like on the right side of the picture), divots should be taken in straight lines to speed up the recovery time. That large hole will take a LONG time to completely fill in, while the line of divots should only take a few weeks for that grass to close in . The seed that is in the divot mix is only intended to help fill in those holes, not completely re-grow them. We rely more on the grass surrounding the divots to spread throughout the divot. Thank you to whoever has been following the signs on the practice tee!!!