The last month has been all about getting the new pump shed built and ready for the new pumps to go in. This project continues to take a lot of our time and conditions down there did not make it easy with one corner of the site a complete bog hole, however we soldiered on and got the new shed built and with a new concrete base installed we are now up to the easy part. As I write this, new pumps are being placed into position and final measurements can then be taken to get the necessary pieces of pipework built to join them into our existing irrigation pipes. The new pumps will be a great be addition to the upgrade of the control system, which was completed last year and will be more economical than the old pumps. The new pumps react to pressure and vary the number of pumps running and also vary their speed according to demand, this also means the stress placed on our ageing irrigation pipes is less as with the old system the pump was on and running at full speed whether you had 2 sprinklers running or 20 sprinklers running.
Maintenance on the irrigation system out on the course has also been ongoing with trimming of sprinkler heads completed as well as raising the height of the lowest sprinklers back to ground level which is an ongoing task. We have also replaced 2 gate valves and solenoid valves due to problems which occurred late last Summer which meant they were not operating properly, 1 not turning on allowing sufficient water through to irrigate and the other not switching off properly.
Work beside the 16th green where we cleared out the blackberries has not been able to continue due to the wet conditions, bracken fern and blackberries have been sprayed but there are still a couple of tree stumps to be removed and then a general tidy up before we seed the area which will be maintained as rough.
The couch fairways that we have been growing on the Lakes course are coming out of dormancy and we have sprayed them with a herbicide to remove the Winter grass from them, we will be converting the 7th fairway to couch this year with spraying of the current grasses to be completed soon and line planting of the couch to take place on the 5th of November and that will mean holes 4,5,6,7&8 will be couch grass.
The green edges on holes 3&5 are being moved in a little on their low sides to try and stop some balls rolling off those greens by allowing the grass to grow longer, these areas haven’t been mowed for months but there is very little growth however with Spring now here we should start to see some increased growth and we will also scarify and seed these two areas to help achieve the desired results.
We have compiled massive amounts of green waste over Winter and our fire piles will need to be burnt again, this will be completed soon before fire restrictions come into force, it’s amazing how quickly a golf course like this one transitions from wet to dry and also the other way but before we know it we will be back into full scale mowing enjoying the conditions that Spring brings with it.
Derek Wills
Course Super
