Golf Course and Grounds Update

The Grounds Staff and I have been very busy focusing on many tasks to improve the experience at Hyde Park. Some of the initiatives include:

• Final touches on the placement of the fan on the 3rd green are close. The fan will improve this micro-climate with increased circulation of air to allow faster drying of the putting surface. The fan will be in operation when the dew point is in the mid-60's and the surface is wet.
• The staff continues to chip away at some of the smaller areas of winterkill on the fairways, it will take the entire summer for the fairways to be healed. The aerifcations, sodding, fertilizer and the persistent effort of the staff have yielded results as noted in the before and after photo below of the 9th fairway. Thank-you for your patience during this entire process.

• One of the most single important initiatives of each season is managing the putting greens, specifically with playability and consistency from day to day. The cultural program including; sand topdressing, rolling and the use of plant growth regulators has helped reduced Poa (an invasive weed) in some cases by 30% on the putting surfaces. Bentgrass, being the desired grass will provide a more consistent and economically sustaianable playing surface. The next couple months will challenge us to see how these old bentgrass cultivars can stand up to the stress we place in them with our daily regiments. Time will tell.....

On the horticulture front, Mary has been working hard around the clubhouse, pool and tennis with installing and the daily maintenance of the many varieties of annuals. Even with the slow start the annuals are doing well! Here is a quick note from Mary..

Summer heat has arrived, and the flowers are blooming with the sunshine. Some of the more complimented plants this year have been the pink flowering Hibiscus trees at the south entrance doors, companioned with raspberry blast petunia, pineapple coleus, scaevola blue fan and sunrise rose lantana, in our new white Frontgate Versailles planters.

Across the walk at the columns we have Alocasia Portora in place of the hibiscus. Scaevola Blue Fan, green sweet potato vine & rose Sunpatiens fill up the iron planters between columns. At our North entrance orange bronze blooms of the Shrimp plant are cascading over Silverberry petunia, yellow pineapple coleus, orange New Guinea impatiens, asparagus fern and raspberry angelonia. The North walkway beds feature orange Sunpatiens, bold Defiance maroon & gold coleus, yellow Mystic Illusion Dahlias, Canna, Alocasia Portora, scaevola blue fan, coleus & lantana. The hot pink basket that greets you in the driveway is raspberry blast petunia. So many of you liked the yellow dahlias last season, they return with the purple dahlias this year. In the pool beds we have many of the above plants, plus two Alocasia cultivars, the Portora with wide, deep green, serrated edge leaves and Coffee Cups, whose leaves form a cup.

I hope you enjoy your plantings, and I'm always happy to help you come up with plans on putting new varieties into your garden plans. Happy Independence Day!

 

Regards,

Mary Bush

 

 

 

mbush@hydeparkcc.com

 

If you having questions or feedback please email me at grounds@hydeparkcc.com or follow us on twitter @pobrienhpgcc

Thank-you,

Pat O'Brien

Grounds Superintendent

 

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