Ballyneal Blog

Winterize

11/13/2009

As much as I love the smell of fresh cut grass, I admit that I welcome the smell of the first frost just as much.  It is a much needed stimulant for all of us as the growing season is beginning to wind down and means its time to start preparing for the winter ahead.  Days are getting shorter, our watering cycles cease, and the mowers spend most of their time parked at the shop. 

Our fescue greens need a little more love than our fairways but our goal is to keep things simple but precise when prepping for the winter. We increase mowing heights, give them a little food, and let the roots dive deep.   

Bunkers are a different story.  Due to the severe winds we have to spend a lot of manpower and have tried a lot of different things to stop our bunkers from deteriorating away and from topdressing our turf.  We think we finally have it figured out with a combination of hydro-seeding, tackifing agents, pallets, and silt fence.  Without these inputs a lot of our features in our bunkers would be gone and 16 green may have a ridge 3 feet high running through it.   

Dave