Winter Play, Trees. and Sap, lots of Sap

We have not had many desirable golf days over the last few weeks. Warmer weather is predicted this weekend but we will remain closed through Saturday due to our greens being in various stages of thawing. Our greens should be thawed at least 3-4" before we allow play.

A couple things can happen with partially frozen greens. As you step on the surface of the green where the freeze/thaw line is very shallow, the green surface can shift or move as you take steps and the roots can tear at the demarcation line between thawed and frozen. This then forces the plants to use significant energy to grow back their to their full length into the late spring and early summer not allowing it to store energy reserves for the dreaded heat of summer. Also, the freeze line being too high will not allow moisture to drain deeper into the sand profile. The water trapped near the surface will make the surface act like a wet sponge. Foot imprinting will increase and plant tissue can be damaged from the extra soft conditions.

We understand the desire of members wanting to play but allowing a few golfers out when they should not be out could contribute to the loss of turf during the main golf season. I made a video below explaining our current situation. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQ63T6vpHDg

Also in the video, I discussed our tree management plan that is taking place this winter. In the fall of 2018, I made a power point for the green committee regarding our plan for the next year or two. I put together a 3-4 minute power point showing the trees I was recommending for removal. We removed a number of the trees on approval from the committee but were not able to complete all of the removals due to time. I also felt like a few of the trees could go another year before removal so we delayed their removal to this winter. Through an arrangement that has worked well for us, we were able to get 2 more days of tree removal this winter than planned. The trees that were left from the year before declined significantly over the past year and needed to be removed. Many of our trees were planted in the 50's and 60's and are beginning to show some serious decline. Changes in climate over the last 10-15 years have not helped and has led to decline as they have aged. Record temperatures and high rainfall record years are the types of swings that don't help an aged tree population Pest issues including insects and disease along with lightning strikes and wind damage have been contributing factors as well.

I have also requested a number of tree removals over the last 11 years to improve tee and green turf. Our greens and tees have no infrastructure to assist in combating serious environmental issues. We have 1 green with modern drainage, the others only have a layer of topdressing sand that has helped us but is not adequate during severe wet conditions and heat.

Also, during the next couple of weeks you will see a few orange buckets hanging from our maple trees. Yes, yes, its time to start collecting maple sap to make some homemade Glen Echo Maple Syrup. Not sure what type of year we will have but if today's run is any indication, it might be pretty good. This next couple of warm days might slow down the production but next week with 30's and 20's should help us with our run. We need overnight temperatures below freezing and daytime temperatures to be above freezing to help the tree flow its sap properly for our collection. 43 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bL8jQBIKqrI

As your fairways, tees and zoysia green surround areas dry over the next week our two, we will begin spraying non-selective weed control and pre-emergent to our fairways. You will notice a little blue tint to the fairways which assists us in seeing the area we have sprayed to reduce over spray.  It will take the poa 2-4 weeks to begin to turn yellow, orange and then die. The pre-emergent will reduce the germination of crabgrass and goose grass in our zoysia surfaces.

Maintenance Storm Drain Repair

It’s been a couple weeks and a couple of days of a major storm water repair project for the grounds staff at Glen Echo. A 3’diameter galvanized pipe gathers water from about 30 acres above the grounds maintenance building and dumps it into the right side creek just past the red tee on #1. The pipe was 220 feet long and runs within about 5-10’ from our maintenance building, under our car parking area, driveway and greenhouse. It sits at a depth of 5 feet at the beginning to about 12’ as it dumps into the creek. We’ve evacuated well over 100 tons of soil, rock and asphalt as we prepared the new pipe channel.

We have the pipe installed and are 2/3 of the way in getting the pipe completely buried. We still have some large debris piles in our parking area that will be moved to the long driving range back lot area.
Over the month of February, we have to get the greenhouse vase pad made and build the greenhouse against the building as we prepare for the new growing season of landscape plants. They will arrive by the 1st of March.

Sinkhole in the greenhouse 

Bottom 1/3 of pipe was rotted out. Galvanized pipe is guaranteed to last 25 years according to manufacturer’s. This pipe was in the ground for over 50 years

Greenhouse being removed. Greenhouse was built against the building for sunlight maximization, utilization of existing heat source and electricity.

We actually used a walk behind asphalt cutter since we had to cut 440’ of asphalt.

Our initial dig hole to locate our problem. Pipe rotted out at bottom was the verdict.

https://youtu.be/f7R1MvyEAGE

Guys digging and chipping out old pipe from headwall and enlarging opening for new pipe.

https://youtu.be/Kmsoliy6f44

Began project with our backhoe digging the more shallow end to save time when large unit arrived.

https://youtu.be/hfzNxF1lmOA

Big rig digging.

Rented trackhoe in action working on the large tree root wad.

Large tree root wad at end of pipe that had to be removed. Took Skip over 8 minutes to dig out the remaining stump with the very large trackhoe that was rented

Pipe remnants after being dug out.

We attempted to reduce the total width of the dig but many sections along the building collapsed during the  work on the project.

Soil remnants that will be stored for future use in the back of the range.

Gravel used to help backfill the pipe. Most of this material was used and  recycled from the MSD project that was done along the metro link tracks and 1 fwy in 2012

Storm Drain Repair Maintenance Parking Lot

Video showing the work that is beginning near our maintenance building. Project should take us approximately 2 weeks more or less depending upon weather.  Sink holes are beginning to form in the greenhouse and parking area which has caused this repair. Galvanized pipe installed in the 50's has rotted completely out on the bottom side. Will be replacing with a synthetic pipe last will last by our grandchildren's lifetime.

https://youtu.be/5jF6ZIw9lK0

Firewood for Sale

Every season, we split firewood that is used to heat our maintenance building and we also make it available for purchase to the membership, their families and friends. Wood can be picked up at the maintenance building with your own vehicle or can be delivered to your home and stacked. Our average expenditure for natural gas to heat our facility was over $ 3,000 before we were using a wood burner. We now pay under $1,000 burning some of the trees that are removed from the property.

We charge $75.00 for a truck load that you pick up(reduced price for SUV sized loads/car trunks) or
$125.00 for the wood including the delivery fee. Any delivery outside the 270 beltway will be increased based on your location. Deliveries are available Monday-Friday between 8-3. You do not have to be at home for the delivery. If you want to come to the shop to pick up wood, we are happy to help you load during the week before 3:00 p.m. Self service is available on the weekend as well but staff are off during the winter season. We split oak that is the dominant tree species on property. It has been split from at least the season before so it is of great quality and provides a great fire.

We bill the charges to your Glen Echo account. If its a family member or friend, we will accept a check for the charges or of course you can put the charge on your account. Please contact
Joe Wachter 314-575-7321 jwachter@gecc.org if you are picking up wood, would like a delivery and or if you have a question about the process. We do not make deliveries over the long Christmas break through New Year since a majority of the staff take vacation during the time.

Fall Greens Aeration

Today our staff started our fall greens aeration program completing the practice green, greens 1-9 and 11-13. We will complete 10, 14-18 over the next couple of days.

Our process included the following:

• Mowed the Greens.
• Covered the greens with sand.
• Used our Verti-Drain Aerator with solid tines going about 8" deep.
• Applied a soil amendment product to the greens.
• Blew the sand into the holes using back pack blowers and our pull behind type blower.
• Brushed the green and rolled with our rollers.

A number of benefits occur from this operation:

• Heavy topdressing of sand smooths out the surfaces.
• The filled sand channels provide a oxygen filled area for roots to grow.
• The channels assist with wetting of drier areas and allow wet areas to dry out quicker.
• As mentioned above oxygen enters the green subgrade and assists in removing built up carbon dioxide.
• The sand also assists to dilute thatch which forms in the top 1" of the green.

Below is a bit more detail regarding the operation.

We mow the greens to remove growth.

The greens are covered in sand so we do not track across the aerated green with a heavy load of sand.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCLf9z-EBEM

Aerator then starts its working placing solid tines into the green at a spacing of about 3" and to a depth of 8". Below is a video of this work.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQ0xEew0b9I

We blow the sand into the holes to reduce tracking of our drag brush. We have a pretty simple drag which cannot move large amounts of sand into the holes.

Brushing greens after blowing in sand.

Glen Echo Foundation and Course Renovations

Thanks to all of you that have participated in Foundation activities or made donations over the last few months. Also thanks to the members who attended and donated funds and gifts to assist in raising money for our great club at the gala a week ago Saturday. The Foundation earmarked funding for a couple of course projects and we've hit the ground running today. We will be renovating the 6 tee complex, 5 green surround and 6 green complex over the next 7 months.

We will be working the next few weeks on the 6 tee complex and the left side of 5 green surround complex. We have a great deal of earth to move for 6 tee and felt it was best to complete this in the fall when we have drier conditions. With completing this project before winter sets in, we should be able to open the complex sooner than if we did the construction in the spring. We intend to sod the back of 5 surround and the complete complex of 6 green in the spring with zoysia. All we have to do is strip away the sod and lay new sod in its place so dry conditions for a long period of time is not required to complete the project.

Today, we stripped away the sod on 6 tee area and repaired about a 4,000 sq foot area of our zoysia nursery between 16 fairway and the lake on 10 with the sod we took off of 6 tee. We also connected the left and right side zoysia short cut area on 15 with a small 60" pass around the back of the green. We've had a difficult time growing cool season grass in this area and the stopping of the warm season grass really did not fit into the existing green complex. We also began to move some dirt on the 6 tee area.

This tee has been very problematic over the years. The current configuration of the tees does not prevent water from running across the tees from the surrounding area. It literally floods the tee making conditions very wet for mowing and makes for difficult playing conditions. Excessive moisture increases compaction and does not provide a healthy environment for healthy roots.
 I've attached a aerial view of how we intend to lay out the new tees.

The darker green designates existing turf and or improvements to existing zoysia turf. We also intend to place a swale/runoff area between 5 green and the new tee complex. Exact turfing  area will vary once we have the dirt surfaces in place and make final determination of  the sun and shade that we experience on this corner of the golf course.

We intend to put some depth into the blue tee and the red tee and reduce the total width of the tees to less than 1/2 their existing width. I would expect to have a depth of 10-12 yards for each of the two tees and approximately 15-18 yard depth for the white tee. We will move the tees over to the right which will move them away from the large Pin Oaks that are reaching across the cart path and reducing players ability to move the ball from left to right. This will also allow us to turn all the tees to line up properly toward the green surface. Currently they are pointed toward the out of bonds which is the fence line. This will not only help you line up your shot but will assist our staff in setting the tees to the proper positioning.

All of you received an email from Katie Dooley with our planned time schedule. We hope to have this project completed before the end of the month. We will provide and teeing ground to the right front of the red tee in the rough area and or will provide a artificial mat in the same area if you prefer hitting off of this type of surface.

We appreciate your understanding during this renovation process. I will make posts regularly so you can see what is taking place with the renovation.

Thanks for your support and come out and see us. Course is in excellent shape and greens are rolling out.

Yes it was dark this morning as we began cutting sod off of 6 tee area.

Decided to renovate our fairway nursery.Stripped off a large section of less than ideal sod, hauled it away, graded and brought in the sod from the tee surface from 6. Should save us about 1,500 in sod costs over the next couple of years as it grows in.

Cuting off the lumpy sod and pushing it in piles to load into our dump truck

Sod from the 6 tee complex being loaded up and hauled away

Small intermediate strip placed around the back of 15. Great look and turf improvement. We will dig up the sprinklers seen in the foreground, raise them and then put sod over the spots.

End of the day with sod removed and some soil moved around.

Winter 2020 Spring Course Preparations

Yes, the W word is coming soon as is next spring's golf season. The calendar continues to turn as are making our preparations for winter and next season.

We've been doing a number of things to prepare our warm season turf for winter dormancy.  We apply Sulfate of Potash to our tees and fairways(Zoysia Turf) to assist it with winter hardiness. We also begin raising our height of cut and reduce our mowing schedules to once a week. As the temperatures continue to cool over the next couple of weeks, will eliminate fairway mowing for the season.

Greens aeration is scheduled for October 21st unless we get rained out. Our rain date will then move to the 28th. This will be a solid deep tine aeration that we normally do every fall to a depth of about 8" or so and fill the holes with sand.

We will be spraying our close rough with a couple of light applications of Nitrogen to build up strength in our cool season rough before dormancy in late November/December to allow the plants to strengthen and come out healthy next spring.

Of course our leaf grinding and removal will be taking place over the next month to 6 weeks as necessary. We attempt to grind up as many leaves as possible back into our turf but once the supply exceeds our ability of the grass to handle an overload of leaves, we will vacuum/sweep 20 loads or more and haul them back into our dump area on the back of the range.

Its great weather over the next couple weeks as we continue to work on the course. Greens are rolling out well and course is in great shape. Come out and see us before winter catch up to us?