Monday, December 29, 2014

A Christmas Update

4 Fairway looking towards 8 Fairway
 
     As you can see, almost all of the snow has melted off and we are just getting into the coldest part of the winter months.  Now, this is definitely not ideal because we welcome a thick blanket of snow to help insulate the turf from the winds and cold temperatures we receive from December until March.

Friday, November 21, 2014

make new again

 
 

Here is the new look at the wildflower golf course tee markers.  Obviously, these are the yellow tees, but I decided to do one with black and one with white to look at the difference.  Hand painted by yours truly, I think we will go forward with the white border to make sure there is no confusion what the tee marker is designating.  

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Looking ahead

I feel as though I have not done my part in keeping this BLOG updated.  Considering that I am the sole author, I can see how I feel this way.  I wrote a post a few days ago, but before that, it was early in the spring as everything was coming out of dormancy.
     The thought of writing articles and updates for the loyal Wildflower members as well as anyone who will listen to me upon my soapbox gives me a great feeling; like I am doing some sort of a public service.  I know most of you may stumble upon this site looking for something else and just mindlessly read along, but it is my hope that you find something of relevance and something to take away with you to think about.

Friday, October 17, 2014

let it burn/ then and now

This is something that I normally wouldn't like to see at the course, but since we decided to start the native burns this fall, this is a great sight to see.  Torching some of the areas that are severely overgown will allow a better stand of wildflowers popping up next spring.  This area was the little island between 13 and 14 fairways, and if you can remember, there was a pretty decent amount of wildflowers in this area this year.  We will continue to try and burn some more areas to restore some of the wildflowers.  Some areas that we have designated will be between 2 and 3 and between 2 and 6.  These are relatively large areas and require some very careful planning before we start the burn.  We did two smaller areas last Wednesday to "practice" and see how the fire and it's fuel will act so we can better understand how to control it in case of emergency.  The outcome was rather anti-climactic due to the moisture content that is still in some of the native areas.  We were able to light some of the drier, bunch type grasses, but most of the under layer was still actively green and growing, so it didn't burn as well as we wanted.  We will reconsider and try again maybe at the end of November to see what we can get burnt before the snow covers the ground!

This is a 2 part entry, mainly due to the lack of entries ALL SEASON LONG. We had a rough year, mainly due to winterkill and a somewhat under-amazing spring.
     
 
 
Here is a before picture of Number 9 green.  This was a sad sight this spring, and another reason why I take so many pictures to remind me of some of the worst areas and things that should have gone differently.

 
Here is the after picture taken the end of September.  Things change a lot in 6 months, and I sure am glad that they did.  We had so much winter kill that I was wondering all summer what I did wrong the fall before.  I looked back through all my records, and all my measurements were spot on, and the applications were all the same.  This year, we are going to switch to a different nozzle selection to put our fungicide down.  With the differences in nozzle selection, there should be a more uniform coverage of the leaf blade this year.  The reason I used a larger droplet sized nozzle last year was due to the amount of wind that we deal with here at Wildflower.  With the larger droplet size that reduces drift, you compromise the coverage on the leaf tissue due to the fact that the larger droplets will penetrate the leaf canopy and not cover the leaf blade as it needs to be.  With the change to a smaller droplet comes the increased risk of spray drift but the better coverage of the leaf blades.  We will have to spray on a very calm day to be able to get adequate coverage, but that is one of the only reasons I can think of why there was so much superficial damage to the turf. 
 
Thanks to you all for a great year at Wildflower and we will be continuing our fall time projects to improve the aesthetics and playability of the course!!!

Monday, April 14, 2014

Wildflower Driving Range is now open for 2014

 Although it may not feel like April, more like late October, the driving range is open for business at Wildflower.  We will be opening the driving range every day this week, weather permitting in the morning, to let all golfers come out and try out their new Christmas presents that they opened up this last Christmas. 

Sunday, April 13, 2014

Fingers Crossed

     I took a very cold and windy course tour this morning to look at how things melted off the rest of Friday and Saturday.  Almost all of the greens at Wildflower are exposed and all but a few areas are disease free and looking to be ready for play in 5 days.  Despite our best efforts last fall, there was a little snow mold damage to 12 green, but with a little TLC once the temps come back to normal, we should be looking at a good "green-up" this spring. 

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

My opinion of snowmobiles...

Wildflower golf course will be tentatively open April 18th.  Man, that seems scary to say when its  April 9th.  Last year, this time I was wondering if I moved to Greenland instead of Minnesota...  Today was the first real day of working out on the course, and I was giddy and excited for spring to be here.  Although it was really tough to bring my spirits down, I still had cause to be upset for some people's actions over the last winter.  I don't know who, but I can assure you that if I did know, they would definitely be getting an ear full from me.

Friday, March 21, 2014

Spring is Here! Wildflowers soon to come!!!

Hello all:
      Yesterday marked the beginning of spring for us, and then of course we get a good blanket of snow last night and the temps are supposed to drop off the deep end here for the weekend.  I took a walk yesterday because it was 40 degrees and was moving snow off cart paths so I can get out and do some tree work.
                                                                                As of yesterday, this was a view looking back from the hill on #4.  There is a large puddle in the second fairway bunker on #3 fairway, but that is to be expected this time of year. 
 
I, however, did see some things that I wasn't to pleased about.

Saturday, March 15, 2014

Follow me on twitter!!!!

Actually, I could use some mentoring on twitter.  I am so far behind the curve for social media, it's mind blowing. 

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Voles.... The Poa Annua of the vertebrate world

         First things first.  Lets get the difference sorted out between a mole and a vole.  Moles eat insects, and are producers of mole hills, while the vole, or field mouse, is a herbivore and will build tunnels in your grass.  I'm sure we have all heard the saying, "don't make a mountain out of a mole hill."  In this case, don't make a vole tunnel into a mole hill...

Thursday, February 27, 2014

NCTGA Conference Wrap-up

Today I had to come home early from the North Central Turfgrass Management Educational conference in Fargo, North Dakota.  Reasons for leaving aside, it was a great experience with a lot of great information and catching up with the vendors and all their new wares.  There was plenty of educational opportunities and I am really honored to be able to meet THE Dr. Vargas from Michigan State. 

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Welcome to work

Welcome to the Wildflower Golf Course Maintenance facility.  I wish I could have had a GoPro video Camera of me crawling into the shop this morning before this path was shoveled, probably would have gotten some laughs at 23 below zero this morning...  To say we have some drifts around the shop and pro shop is an understatement.  According to the Minnesota climatology website we're only in the 60th percentile for snow depth rankings according to the historical data, but the amount of drifting snow and where it rests is quite inconvenient.  Last year, we weren't even close to the amount of drifted snow around the shop as we are currently sitting, and it's not even February yet!