Course maintenance began today,  Front nine tees and all the collars were aerated and then collected.  It sounds like rain may put a damper on our work tomorrow.  If that's the case we most likely won't complete all of our work this week.  Weak tees #15 and #16 were seeded with perennial ryegrass and bent last week (we'll take whatever grass will grow) as well as the turf nursery behind the 14th green.  In addition the wildflower pollinator garden by the 3rd tee was also seeded.

Our crew repaired divots in all the fairways before course renovation began.  It is a shame there is so much golfer blight.  We can do better!

Sometimes nature helps and hurts.  These are earthworm casts in the collection area behind the 18th green.  While helping aerate the soil the mounding is a nuisance when mowing and playing.

Herbicide "flashing" the tall fescue in our rough as we work on reducing bermudagrass encroachment in sodded areas.

Preparing a seedbed in the wildflower bed by the 3rd tee.

We blended the seed with an organic fertilizer carrier before spreading.  Look close and you can see the seed.

Spreading the seed.  After spreading in two directions we used a cultipacker to tamp in the seed.

Turn on the water!  Keeping the seedbed moist is critical to a successful planting.  Seeded on August 22nd we are seeing germination on the 28th.  There are fourteen different plant species in this blend.

Promoting the spread of beneficial plants in our creek and pond banks is one of our Audubon goals.  Here is a beautiful pink flowering plant called purple loosestrife that is unfortunately an invasive species and needs to be removed.  Not every pretty plant is good.

This maybe the worst weed of all.  It is called mile a minute and it literally grows that fast.  This is taking over many areas around the course and will take a yeoman's effort to get rid of.  Spread by birds it has nasty thorns that grab you.

Another view of a mass of mile a minute.

Here's a true beneficial plant-Solidago or golden rod and a great pollinator.

Milkweed- a true beneficial plant that is necessary for monarch butterflies.  This plant has increased since we stopped cutting back our creek banks.

There hasn't been much disease throughout the course this season but we did see a little the week of August 21st following all the rain and humidity of the previous week.  The brown area in the middle of the picture is pythium blight in tall fescue.  Pythium is a water mold that follows drainage patterns such as this swale between the two tees.

Pythium Blight is a killer of turf and must be treated preventively for best prevention.  Greens, tees, and fairways receive regular fungicide applications during the summer.

Our much improved bunkers.

Do you recognize the avid golfer on the left?  He played here last week.