A January thaw has us dreaming of spring.  Hopefully the greens will thaw out before the next cold wave arrives.  Playing on thawing greens is not permitted as shots into the putting surface can not be repaired properly.  Even worse root shear can occur from walking and twisting on the green.  Since the green is not growing play is prohibited until they completely thaw out or refreeze again.  Playing on frozen greens is permitted but if they are frozen it usually is too cold to play.  Temporary greens will remain as an alternative.

Yes it has been very cold.  This is from the 12th fairway in full sun on January 9th.  I had to pound a screwdriver into the ground to insert the thermometer. Twenty-one degrees!

We wrapped our bee hives with towels during the cold spell to better insulate them.

Once the weather broke the towels were removed and later that day bees began checking out the warmth.

Plenty of bee activity when the temperatures were in the 60's.

The crew continues to cut back last years growth around all our water features.

We try to recycle this material when possible in some of our native areas.  A tractor will grind this up while the ground is frozen. 

I attended the Mid-Atlantic Nurseryman's Tradeshow in Baltimore recently. If you like plants and need a shot of spring for a day it's very worthwhile.

Audubon certification is nearly complete.  Here is a display we created to illustrate what we are doing and part of the certification process.

It's one o'clock and my screwdriver only goes in one inch. We will try again tomorrow-until then its temporary greens!