Fall is really upon us now.  We have had several killing frosts over the last two weekends and the cold temperatures with some strong winds have really brought the leaves down.  Much of our work is keeping leaves off the new turf while trying to limit equipment traffic on the baby grass.  The turf is not yet ready for too much equipment and some mechanical damage has been observed.  We will be fertilizing the fairways and the rough this week for the last time this year.  This application will help  increase root mass and overall density.

 

Blowing the first fairway before mowing.

 

 

Fall color was late getting started but was spectacular once it did.

 

 

The seventh hole.  The specimen tree with yellow leaves is a Ginkgo.

 

 

One of the nice attributes of this tree is the leaves fall all at once which makes easy cleanup.

 

 

Three fairway continues to fill in despite the cool weather.  Here new seedlings are seen in the rows ten days after seeding.

 

 

Adequate moisture is a must as we push this fairway to fill in.

 

 

Nothing is perfect.  This is an area near a green that didn't fill in completely with bent and is unfortunately being invaded by annual bluegrass.  The annual blue is the taller clumpy turf on the right.

 

 

Here is a success story.  This is the front of the fifth green about six weeks after overseeding with Crystal BlueLinks bent.  The bluish turf is the bent competing quite well with the existing Poa.

 

 

Nature helping us out.  Here fountain grass has seeded itself in the seventh creek to provide a natural aesthetic look.  We are promoting this throughout the course.

 

 

 While the course has not had golfers it has experienced more wildlife in some unusual places.  This Great Blue Heron was observed in the creek left of the tenth hole.