Three weeks since we completed our renovation work on the greens. The recovery has been fantastic considering the operations we carried out. Also the timing turned out to be perfect. The front 9 was completed on Monday and the back 9 on Tuesday. Everything went to plan and no break downs. The sun shone for us an both days which dried the sand out in quick time. The only operation we did not carry out was the scrification as we thought the top 10mm was pretty good and out target area was 20mm - 40mm. We have buried our thatch down to that area with the amount of sand we have been applying so we were trying to remove the organic matter (which is very open and not causing us too much bother) and create channels to remove surface water. This year we also hollow cored the potentionally wet areas on the approaches in with the greens and all of the 5th, 7th & 17th approaches. We also ran the verti-drain across all of the approaches and the tees, top dressed and brushed in. This year we over sowed with a dwarf rye (Lolium pernne) grass as we have done the previous 2 years. We used Barenbrug seed, cultivars used were Barolympic, Barsignum & Bargold. All of these cultivars have a top fine leaf merit and can be cut to a height of 2mm. All of these cultivars have a finer leaf than most bent seed. Over sowing with dwarf rye grass speeds up the recovery process. This year the seed had germinated in 6 days where as bent seed would have taken 12/14 days. 130 tonnes of sand applied in total. A quick recap on the procedures we carried out.
GREENS
- Hollow cored with 19mm core 75mm deep
- Top dressed (pure sand)
- Applied 1/2 grass seed (via fertiliser spreader)
- Brushed and filled holes with counter rotating brush
- Applied another heavy dressing
- Vert-drained with a 12mm x 225mm solid tine
- Brushed with counter rotating brush
- Applied rest of seed (via fertiliser spreader)
- Applied more dressing and brushed filling holes to top
- Rolled with turf iron
- A wetting agent + Oxyturf was applied wednesday morning
- A high rate liquid fertiliser was applied with added phosphite & seaweed was applied on friday.
APPROACHES
- Hollow cored with 19mm core 75mm deep
- Applied heavy dressing
- Applied seed (same as greens)
- Brushed with counter rotating brush filled holes
- Verti-drained with 12mm x 200mm solid tine
TEES
- Verti-drained with 12mm x 200mm soild tined
- Applied dressing
- Brushed with counter rotating brush
DRAINAGE 1ST GREEN
To cap a busy month off we had some PCD (Passive Capillary Drainage) drainage installed on the 1st green. See link below for more details.
http://www.djuke.co.uk/pcd-passive-capillary-drainage
It was a straight forward process. Starting at 5.30am we were finished at 2pm. It is by far the most least intrusive drainage i have seen with great feedback from other clubs that have had it installed. We were planning to reinstate the turf we stripped from the trench line but unfortunaty the turf was hydrophobic (repelling water) and crumbled when we picked it up so we opted for a dwarf rye & fescue seed mix after we had shingled and top soiled the trench. below are some pictures of the operation.
What the pictures above do not show is the size of the roller that was used to compress the turf back into place.
The irrigation system has really proved its worth over the last 2 months. Now our bore hole licence has been increased it gives me more freedom to water more often and that is showing at the moment.The same problem remains i am still using it quicker than i can get it down to the reservoir. If you are in any doubt as to the benefits of irrigation take a look at the top practice range which has no irrigation.
The wild flower seed proved to be popular with a few packets still remaining in the pro shop, obviously we are too late to sow now.,
A big thanks to my lads for all their hard work during maintenance week and every other week come to think of it. Also to Cameron McMillan (owner of JDUKE) for his tidy, efficient and professional work. A special thank you to Sam Davies who has been taking pictures from his drone for me, the majority in his spare time i might add. I have some video footage as well which unfortunately i can not upload. If any one would like to see please contact me. He is available for wedding, barfitsmas, stag parties etc. Some more pictures from Sam's drone below.
The irrigation system has really proved its worth over the last 2 months. Now our bore hole licence has been increased it gives me more freedom to water more often and that is showing at the moment.The same problem remains i am still using it quicker than i can get it down to the reservoir. If you are in any doubt as to the benefits of irrigation take a look at the top practice range which has no irrigation.
The wild flower seed proved to be popular with a few packets still remaining in the pro shop, obviously we are too late to sow now.,
A big thanks to my lads for all their hard work during maintenance week and every other week come to think of it. Also to Cameron McMillan (owner of JDUKE) for his tidy, efficient and professional work. A special thank you to Sam Davies who has been taking pictures from his drone for me, the majority in his spare time i might add. I have some video footage as well which unfortunately i can not upload. If any one would like to see please contact me. He is available for wedding, barfitsmas, stag parties etc. Some more pictures from Sam's drone below.
Thank you for reading and your continual support.
Regards Lee & Greenkeeping Team
Regards Lee & Greenkeeping Team