Covid Practice Plans (Green Building -- please tell me I'm not nuts!)

[J13]

Love the progress so far

[DShepley]

Okay....We got the gentle rain I was hoping for and it was a lovely night. It was, however, too wet for the roller, (ask me how I know), lesson learned there. So, never one to be defeated, I got to work with the back side of the landscape rake and knocked some high spots down to do some more leveling. Nice time of night for this work as the low light made it easy to see the high and low spots. I'm really happy with the progress so far and anxious to see the results after the surface is dry enough to get the roller on it. To note, we got about half an inch of rain over about a 2 - 2.5 hr period and when I checked the green site, there was no puddling and no areas appeared any wetter than the rest, (all pretty uniform). Quite happy in that regard and given I mixed my native soil into the sand at about 30%-40%, there wasn't a terrible amount sticking to the roller when I tried, (Enough to make me swear, but not quite like a pirate!).

If my seed arrives Tomorrow as scheduled, I will do my best to get it down over the weekend as our long range looks pretty good for germination.

14 Day Weather outlook in Degrees Celsius

[cardoustie]

What’s your nearest small town or golf course, I’ve lived all over ON

[DShepley]

Nice. I live halfway between London and Stratford on the edge of St Marys Ontario, (home to the Canadian Baseball Hall Of Fame). I worked at St Marys Golf and Country Club in High School and through University and now golf at a course called Science Hill which is short but in very good condition and 7 minutes from my house, (zero corporate tournament play and less than 100 members).

[cardoustie]

Nice, I’ve lived in London and Guelph

great project. I’ve been killing myself with manual labour as well. Garden edging and driveway ... some of the stones are well over 300 lbs. 12x8x48” etc

10 days back I wrapped up a flagstone walkway ... 40 feet ... and the biggest stones were over 500lbs. Bicep tendonitis is a pita

the good news, our course opens Saturday am and I am playing

[DShepley]

Our course opens Saturday as well. Interested to see what the restrictions are. I'm going to call tomorrow to try to get a time. I'm thinking everywhere will be crazy busy since nothing is open and there are no kid's sports.

[TIM929]

Wow this is really awesome! Very inspiring! Eager to see the finished work!

[berndgeurts]

Loving this thread so far. Incredible process in such a short time. Makes anyone appreciate the effort all the greenkeepers put in even more.

[DShepley]

Thanks to @dcrocketman for the earlier tip to roll the green using the mower with the reel turned off. This morning I first rolled it with the push roller, (because the soil was raked loose), then I took several passes with the greens mower, (reels turned off), and it made an incredible difference. Since this post, I have actually had a tip from a superintendent to add additional weight to the grass catcher box on the mower, (I took it off for my first passes).
Also, I need to find a smooth front roller for the Toro so the grooved one doesn't damage the new grass, (I have about a month). So, this is all the work for today because.......TEE TIME AT 3:10! (GOLF IS BACK IN ONTARIO!!)
My grass seed is arriving Tuesday now, (Covid has delayed the particular variety that I wanted until at least the end of May, so I am going to use a slightly different blend that is in stock called Selectus Tournament Blend (it is MacDonald Bent and Flagstick Bent). Getting pretty excited to have seed planted.
[img]https://s3.amazonaws.com/golfwrxforums/uploads/551/UQ6Y9XA17YYV.png[/img]
[img]https://s3.amazonaws.com/golfwrxforums/uploads/523/1ZFSL7K0OISM.png[/img]

[DShepley]

UPDATE!!! Well, it finally stopped raining and blowing wind at 60km/h. Big day today, I picked up a used drop spreader, (just a Scott's brand fertilizer spreader), that I plan on using for fertilizer and seeding before a stop at Lowe's to pick up another gear drive sprinkler and some starter fertilizer. At least we are allowed inside the Lowe's store now, but it was slow, the line to get in was like Harry Potter World at Disney. Then, I drove to my friend's house to pick up my bentgrass seed. After I got home, I scarified the surface of the green with my rake, before raking in 40 bags of Triple Mix soil to amend the seed bed. I'm hoping the soil and compost quality as well as the peat will help keep some moisture in the seed bed through germination. Weather still looks favourable for the next couple weeks. Tomorrow, I will roll down the soil I just raked in to check for level again and fine tune where needed, before spreading my starter fertilizer and seed, raking it in and rolling. If I never touch a 3' aluminum landscape rake again, that would be fine too......(seems like it's all I ever do).

[farmer]

When you're all done, the grass in and mowed, there will be many, many cars stopping on that road to take a look.

[DShepley]

It isn't a very busy road, though I do expect my neighbours are buzzing about what the crazy guy is up to now.

[DShepley]

Another big day today. I managed to roll the green down and level with the back of the rake to prepare for fertilizer and seed. Next I spread my fertilizer, then my seed, (that stuff is tiny!), and then rolled it in with my mower, (reel off). I also strung up a makeshift fence with bamboo poles and string to keep the dog off of the fresh seeding and set up my sprinklers. The two sprinkler system will work in tandem if the wind is low but at times when the wind is up, I will need to run each sprinkler independently. To aid running them independently, I installed a Y junction that has two shut offs.

Now,....time to dig my bunker, lay sod around the back collar and around the bunker, and mulch the rest of the flower bed behind the green.

[bonvivantva]

Can't believe how fast this is coming together. Looks great!

[Chip Duffer]

That is really quite an accomplishment in so short a time. Really looking good.

[cardoustie]

Very impressive Shep

[DShepley]

Not much action on the project lately apart from burying my hose yesterday, and watching the sprinklers turn. I did wake up to some encouraging signs of life this morning, (though it could also not be bent grass.....). Another week of good grass growing weather ahead by the look of it. Today, after I cut the lawn, I may start building my bunker and preparing the back collar for sod.

[DLiver]

Yeah this phase isn't nearly as much fun. When we renovated our golf course, there was a flurry of activity for 3 months. Then they planted the course and we all sat around waiting for 3 months while the grass grew in.

[justasgood]

Love watching paint dry and grass grow. Good beer drinkin/ cigar smokin time.

[aenemated]

Very cool!

I actually kicked off the rebuild of my backyard this weekend. Been talking with my yard guy for a while about it and having been stuck at home for 2 months - with no definite return to the office in sight - I decided to just go ahead and do it.

When I bought this place two years ago, the back was full of nice green grass. Having never really dealt with lawn upkeep in Southern California - I kept the irrigation system running as it had been. Then I got the first bill from LADWP and was like "Oh hell no."

So I'm doing a good ol' AZ style desert-landscape along with an artificial turf green. My yard is pretty good size for a normal-person house in Los Angeles - so I've got a pretty great space to work with. Landscaper and his team came Saturday morning and ripped out all the old dead grass and weeds, pulled out some miserable little palm trees that never did anything in two years, leveled and cleaned up. So I have a lovely field of dirt right now ...

Super tiny compared to yall more rural folks but smack in the middle of LA - not bad. The building to the right is my garage. Between there and the neighbor's fence on the left is around 22'. Then behind the garage is where it'll actually be going - got around 60' across and 25' more depth. (Patio/BBQ area going there between the garage and neighbor's)

Ideally wind up with something like this ... simple and low maintenance ...

Next up is to mark off what I want for him to come and do measurements for materials estimations and such and then we're off. But for now ... "you could have it all, my empire of dirt ... "

[DShepley]

What a difference an afternoon of 29*C makes!

[dcrocketman]

 

[dcrocketman]

Good weather makes a difference .

[DShepley]

Looking great!

[DShepley]

Great day today with off and on rain for most of the day. It was nice to get a break from the sprinklers and from the sound of it, more rain all day tomorrow. Lots of spots growing nicely and I've moved the sprinklers around to allow me to independently water the areas that were drying out quicker than the others, (basically I added sprinklers to make 5 zones). So, after days of finger crossing, it looks like the sprinkler moves have paid off as I am starting to see grass sprouting in all of the areas that were previously bare. I've never grown a bentgrass green before, but I think this is doing well for having been seeded only 1 week ago. Now,.... the surface isn't as smooth anymore because some ants have discovered the sandbox, and I have had the occasional robin digging in it which hasn't bothered the grass much but has disturbed the soil in spots. It will all roll back down with the mower before cutting so I don't think I need to be too concerned.

 

[Chip Duffer]

The sprouts are a view to a beautiful future for that piece of real estate. I really like how that is starting to look!

[DShepley]

Some more progress today as I dug in the bunker and spread topsoil around the back collar in preparation for sod, (hopefully early next week). I still need to dig a drain into my bunker so it can shed water into the ditch behind it and my first draft of a plan is to place some perforated tubing in the bunker and connect it to a French drain in the ditch behind it. I also need to get the rototiller out again and prep the area on the other side of the trees for sod as well and decide how much and where I will place mulch. I have a bench that will be placed between the trees so my daughters have a place to sit while waiting for the school bus and I have been given some patio stones that I may place under the trees for the bench to sit on. As well, I am thinking it might be nice to build in a range mat between the trees and the green to give me a fairway lie to hit pitches and chips from, (to the right of the bunker in this picture). The grass is growing well and all of the spots that look bare all have grass sprouting up so I am excited to see how it looks a week from now as we are in for another week of warm temps, (mid-20s Celsius). I also need to figure out how much sand I need for the bunker and find a source, (possibly the aggregate company I got sand from for the base of the green, though there were more stones in it than I would have liked). I do have a brick layer friend so I will ask him if he has a source for bulk masonry sand.

[dcrocketman]

Looking good

[DShepley]

The view this morning while I watered. Looks like another great week of grass growing weather. Also, I dug a makeshift French drain into the bunker yesterday so that the water will hopefully shed into the ditch that is 4"-5" lower than the bottom of the bunker. I will cover the gravel with landscape fabric before I tamp sand down over it and fill the bunker. I'm hoping that my grass starts the creeping phase this week, I have noticed that there aren't stolons yet which make the grass spread horizontally.

[Chip Duffer]

Very nicely down on the French drain. It is really beginning to look special.