Aeration, a bathroom, more rain and fall weather

 

It was still humid to start the week but the Manakin greens were more than ready to be aerated and enjoy some time off from golf. 3/8" cores were pulled out of all the Manakin greens between Monday and Tuesday.

The cores are simply blown off the green and onto the bermuda where we can use shovels and the sweeper machine to pick them. Reducing wear here on the bentgrass goes a long way in shortening recovery time. 

Filling the new voids with sand is where the main benefit from aeration is realized. The sand helps hold pore space open as opposed to the older organic matter. Over time the organic matter continues to build up as the bent grows and we mow it everyday. Replacing it with sand helps us keep air and water moving through the profile. This is massively important in the summer months when it gets hot and wet at the same time and the bentgrass can't function properly. 

The sand along with a variety of different nutrients that were also spread out, are all brushed into the holes. The only good thing about the rain is that it has helped pound the sand into the holes and off the surface. We hope to put a first mow on the greens this afternoon when they are dry. Our rain total for the year is now almost 47 inches, normal for a full year is 44 inches, lets hope for a dry fall!

At the same time as aeration we had our new bathroom delivered for 14 Manakin. The reason there was never a bathroom here was because there is no access to potable water or power. This bathroom is a self contained composting unit that will run on solar power. We started off Monday by digging a 4 foot deep hole for the holding tank. The tank is vented and contains pine shavings to move the composting process along.

We did have to tap into our irrigation water so that the fancy foam flush toilet could function. The toilet is very similar to what you have at home but only uses 6 ounces of water per flush.

We scooped the pre-fabricated house off the truck from Massachusetts and placed it on top of the composting tank.

The building was color matched to our other bathrooms on the courses but I believe we are going to paint this one darker to blend in a little better. We have already moved the arborvitaes over to the sides of the buildings and Julio is working on his paver walkway now. More plants will be dropped in and we will mulch the area shortly. With any luck our solar inverter will show up on Friday and we will be very close to up and running for the weekend. 

While is was raining here Wednesday we took a quick trip out to Collins Wharf sod farm to check on our Pure Eclipse bentgrass sod for the Sabot greens. The sod farm superintendents have had to endure the same summer as us, just without golfers!

The sod looked awesome and it will be more than ready to go by the first week of November. The field across the dirt road here was just seeded on Tuesday and will be next years set of greens. 

The sod farm is always a fun trip. Here is their sod cutter, slightly different than ours. This machine cuts, rolls and stacks the sod automatically and holds a straight line via GPS. The guys took it out to our field and cut us a few rolls to bring back home. The sod cut and rolled just fine which is great news for our upcoming project! Look for a piece of Pure Eclipse on the Sabot putting green this weekend and enjoy the cool weather!