As you may have noticed our team has began cutting down native areas(fescue, naturalized area, long grass, tick dwellings, etc). We typically mow these areas down once a year when the native grasses go to seed and the areas are dry in order to disperse the seed heads and promote further grass growth.
Last season we didn’t get many opportunities to cut the native areas due to excessive moisture and soft conditions. As much as we want to forget last seasons rain woes we’re still seeing its effects outside our maintained turf areas. A good example is beside the tee complex on #1. There are desirable fescues mixed in but we are seeing an abundance of ragweed, golden rod, queen annes lace and other common weeds.
The first steps of our fescue revitalization project is identifying the scope of work. We have approximately 900,000ft2 (20.6 acres) of naturalized areas. To give a comparison we have roughly 22 acres of fairway on the property. We look at each area independently to see what the required course of action is. The larger parcels with minimal hills can be mowed with our brush hog mounted to the tractor while other spots might require the use of string trimmers. We have started this program in a couple of areas you may have seen like 13, 14 and 16. Our staff want to thank the members for their lost balls in these work sites.
Once we get the fescue chopped down the next step is dispersing the clippings. In order to treat the areas properly you want to have the surface as clean as possible so the product goes directly on the plant. We will complete this by using a combination of raking, blowing and mulching.
The next step in the program is the application of Trillion. We use Trillion annually on our rough to control dandelions and broadleaf plantain. The ideal times to apply it are May/early June and late August/September. As long as conditions allow the mowing portion to progress we should still fall in the window of application on the bulk of our areas.
At this point we have a few different methods we will explore to see their efficacy and results.
First method will be to apply trillion and let the area come back. This is the least labour intensive for recovery. The turf will recover from being cut and density will vary based on the existing turf population.
Second method changes after the treatment. We have a tractor mounted tiller and gang roller in our fleet. Provided we have relatively dry conditions we will use the tiller to loosen up the surface and mix seed heads into the soil. At this point we can also use supplemental fescue seed if we know the section to have a low grass population. Once the area is tilled we will run the gang roller through to smooth and flatten the fescue.
Over the next few weeks we will implementing these programs. The beginning will be slow but as we progress our efficiency will constantly improve. We will update members on progress and hope the disturbance to these areas don’t affect play
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