The rain has some bermuda moving
17,000 square feet of bermuda went down again this week, getting us much closer to patching up all the winter damage. The sod is fertilized and watered immediately. The turf from last week is rooting in and will start to be mowed early next week. The rains are helping us and it is nice to see some more regular dew forming in the mornings as opposed to the dry air the last two weeks. Next week we will tackle 13 Manakin and then evaluate what is left to sod.
The local reports have rolled through and we are certainly not alone in seeing damage from winter temperatures, snow and shade. Above is an excerpt from our regional consultant who also called the damage from that winter a 1 in 10 year event. This means that replacing bermuda in the shade that didn't survive with bermuda again isn't necessarily a bad idea, especially with continued tree and drainage work. Only having to replace 1 acre out of 200 across both courses really is a decent turn out.
The other 199 acres of turf that are alive are starting to wake up just like every other May. Another foliar application of fertilizer was put out on the short grass this week. We are almost to the point of needing to mow fairways twice a week.
The rough on the Sabot received some granular fertilizer this week to help it wake up and fight through some Poa annua. Not being able to get another pre-emergent application down in December due to the weather has not helped our cause in the rough this spring.
We are still finding broken and dead branches pop through in the pine trees around both courses from the winter snow and ice storms. This lift was quickly borrowed from the Monday outing to knock some branches out of 9 Sabot.
The annual flowers are finally on site and will start getting planted next week. We have a lot of new plant material to care for all around the property!