When I update my blog, I tend to highlight the more glamorous projects we are working on and the ones that will offer the most member benefit, come spring. However, there is a lot of "stuff" we do that takes a lot of time over the winter and largely goes unnoticed. They are projects that if we didn't do them, the lack of detail would most certainly be noticed. One example is plant and shrub pruning around the campus. Our small landscape crew is working hard, all winter long pruning back Hydrangea shrubs. You could never fully appreciate how many Hydrangeas there are on this campus until you're the one responsible for pruning them! The old Tardiva Hydrangea, for which all Hydrangeas originate, flower on new growth. This means they need to be pruned before spring or else the flower show next season will be disappointing. Oak Leaf hydrangeas on the other hand, flower on older growth.
We received 5 pallets of rectangular granite today, that will be used to improve curbing along many of our cart paths. #8 green surround, for example, will be curbed all the way up to #9 tees following the current drainage project. This is a detail we started working on 2 years ago that will really improve conditions by eliminating cart traffic where it isn't necessary and improving aesthetics where golfers fail to keep all four cart tires on the path. As you've seen, the 6"-10" of turf next to a cart path can get thin and muddy because of cart wear. In the next couple years, my goal is to curb all tee and green cart path edges. It makes for such a nice, defined transition in these areas.
Drain pipe was delivered and installed today. Tomorrow, the better part of the day will be used to haul more gravel to these drainage ditches. Come springtime, you will notice a dramatic improvement to this green surround.
