Here comes the leaves

As the temperatures begin to drop the trees are changing colour and the leaves are beginning to fall. We are gearing equipment up to start collection, the new amazone machine should make a real difference to the labour involved in the annual task. To make collection easier we have to cut down all the long rough on the course, again utilising our machine we are cutting and collecting all areas and composting the grass in our designated areas across the course.

The weather has been good for this task, dry and windy for a change. It certainly helps when the long grass is dry, it compacts better and makes the job quicker.

However the wind has been causing chaos on other parts of the course and causing a few issues for even simple tasks such as cutting greens and fairways. The wind has gusted at 40mph at times, fortunately no damage has been done to the course. However the strong winds have brought many small branches down and quite a number of leaves, there has also been a lot of pine needles, keys and bits from leylandii and other trees close by to greens and fairways. We have had staff out clearing areas so cutting can be carried out, adding time to all jobs, it is critical that debris is removed so damage to the turf doesn't occur.

Cutting is going to be a real test, one that is going to have to be thought about carefully as we head into winter, worm casts, as previously mentioned cause damage to the machinery and to the turf when cutting occurs, the drier the ground conditions and casts the less damage occurs, especially to the turf. Picking days to cut is going to be the key to minimising damage. Unfortunately they can be few and far between as we head into November and December, making the decisions ever more difficult. To help the cast smearing we can brush and switch areas, however sometimes this just isn't possible. Other measures we are trying, to prevent long term damage are; minimising traffic to cast prone areas such as fairways and high wear areas, buggies will cause a lot of damage to turf once grass growth stops, smearing casts on to the turf which then can't recover, so please try and keep buggies to the semi rough as much as possible. We are putting out the usual traffic management hoops and rope, we will be trying other chemicals and acidifiers to reduce general castings and sanding areas which we feel are getting to severe. Please appreciate that worm casting is a problem for most clubs now so we are not alone, its a very frustrating issue we need to deal with on a daily basis, and hopefully something we can strive to improve over time.