Catching up

Hard to imagine it has been over a month since the last post. Time flies when you are having fun. The weather continues to be iffy at best. As I type this we have received .76" today and the place is under water. I hate Friday rain. We mow a lot of grass to prep for the weekend and if weather interferes you either have to try and get caught up on a weekend or start the next week behind. People often ask why is the grass so much better on a golf course than a homeowners lawn? No it is not the use of synthetic chemicals. It is proper watering and mowing. I watered my lawn once this year yet I see sprinklers running daily. Often in the rain. Makes me crazy. Mowing is the next major player. The more grass is mowed the thicker it gets. Proper mowing triggers the grass to spread laterally. There is a rule of thirds that we use. You should never mow more than a third of the height of cut at one time. So if your height of cut is three inches you need to mow it before it grows one inch. Otherwise you are scalping the grass which shocks it and stresses the turf. Part of proper mowing is keeping the blades sharp also. Since Father's Day just passed I will share a fond memory of mine. People always asked him how he kept such a nice lawn. His response was always "simple, feed it, water it, and mow it. If you do not want to mow it, don't feed it or water it." Spot on Dad. Miss you and all those hours spent on the yard.

Newt or salamander.

Some of you may have wondered what all the black spots are on the 8th green? We have been so wet that the front of that green developed some moss. I dabbed a bit of Ferrous Sulfate (FeSo4) on them. You can purchase moss control products at the garden center and more than likely they will contain raw or non chelated iron. It is safe on grass but dings up the moss. We use iron for color enhancement. When added to a spray it will give a green up effect.

Iron sulfate used to control moss. May have gone overboard

I got distracted seeding divots on the 8th tee. The landing between each step was full of grass and made them slippery. After a few trips up and down I thought can I dig these out with simply a flat shovel? There was a worn area behind the tee where carts were pulling onto the grass and entering from the back. A massive pet peeve of all course workers. Why drivers cannot keep all four tires on a path is beyond us. It does not matter how wide the path either. Put a curve in it or at every green and tee 1 or 2 tires will come off the path and wear out a spot of grass. We spend so much time repairing damaged turf because people are lazy. But I digress, I used the grass growing in the steps to fill in the worn area. Killed two birds with one stone.

Side tracked while filling tee divots on 8

The astute observer may have noticed some yellowing of the collars or greens lately. There is a weevil called the Annual Bluegrass Weevil (ABW) or Hyperodes Weevil that has a grub like young that feeds on the roots of annual blue grass. They seem to love the edge of collars where it meets the greens. If left untreated they will destroy a stand of turf in a matter of days. Hopefully our treatment Monday will send these buggers packing before we get too much damage. Unlike beetles that have one life cycle during a growing season ABW can have several. So if your early treatments are unsuccessful it can be a long summer of chasing these guys around. Fingers crossed.

Blurry but top left picture in the middle is the little white off spring doing all the damage. A fat grain of rice.