Hurricane Sandy Cleanup

  The cleanup from hurricane Sandy continues. To date 238 trees were either destroyed or damaged. Over 100 of those trees were located in the area between 18 and 1. The high winds associated with the storm uprooted several large oaks and maples and created a domino effect uprooting trees throughout the entire area from 18 to 1 fairway. Many of our large white pines had the top thirds blown off destroying the canopy of the trees forcing us to remove the entire tree.

 To date 400 cubic yards of wood have been removed from the property and over 1000 man hours by the Golf and Grounds crew have been spent on cleanup.We estimate the cleanup work to continue throughout December.

Fall projects

The following work is scheduled for the golf course throughout the fall.

Dryject

Aerification: walkways and rough areas will be aerified during the next two weeks; Greens 4.8.10 & 12 will be have a dryject procedure in late October; A solid tine deep aerification of all our greens will take place the last week in October; the pool house field and clubhouse grounds will be aerified and over seeded in the next two weeks.








Drainage: 800 linear feet of drainage will be installed on holes 1,2 and 6. Work will start on October 9th.

Drainage install

There is also some work scheduled for re-sodding some bunker face areas and a change out of some bunker sand on number 15.

Green Aerification Update

Despite some ominous weather forecasts the Golf and Grounds crew had a busy day yesterday aerifying and cleaning all 19 greens. The front 9 greens we also topdressed, seeded and fertilized and are open for play today. If the weather cooperates today the back 9 greens will be topdressed, fertilized and seeded today to complete the greens aerification process.
Weather permitting all the tees will be aerified tomorrow and fairway aerification and topdressing will start on Monday the 10th.

Fall Aerification Schedule

Green aerification

 Tuesday, September 4th will mark the start of our fall aerification program at Silver Spring.
Greens and tees are scheduled to be aerified on Sept. 4, 5 , and 6 and fairway aerification and topdressing will begin on Monday September 10th. Fairway aerification will continue throughout the week of the 10th and with  good weather should be completed by Tuesday the 18th.
The Green Committee thanks you in advance for your cooperation and understanding during this process

Green topdressing

Fairway aerification and topdressing

Power of Mother Nature

 The severe thunderstorm that raced through our area Sunday night left it's calling card at Silver Spring.
The pictures to the left show a direct lightning strike to a large Ash tree on the left of 13. The force of the strike split the tree and scattered pieces of the tree up to 100 yards away.

 The electricity from the strike followed down the tree and found a near by irrigation sprinkler head shattering the head causing a water leak.

After shattering the sprinkler head the electric surge followed the wires on the sprinkler head to the junction box and destroyed the communication decoder associated with the sprinkler head.As the electric surge dissipated into the earth several other nearby communication decoders were destroyed.
The weather station on the second hole also took a electric surge that knocked out the base irrigation computer in the maintenance facility.
The golf and grounds crew was able to diagnose and fix all the electrical problems the storm created and our irrigation system was 95% operational by Thursday morning.

Hydraulic Leak

This past Monday a hydraulic hose on one of our Fairway mowing machine failed and left a 18 inch wide stripe across the 13th fairway.
 The location of the hose was directly under the operators seat so the leak was difficult to detect until the cutting pass was completed. Once detected the leak was flooded with water in an attempt to disperse and breakdown  the oil. Fortunately we have converted the oil used in these machines to a bio-degradable oil that is more environmentally friendly to the turf. These new oils minimize turf damage. Usually the turf will turf brown for a period of time and a slow recovery process will then start. Throughout the process the turf remains playable and will not track to other parts of the fairway with cart or foot traffic.

Silver Spring Bluebirds

Silver Spring has for the past several years been a part of the Audubon movement to encourage more wildlife and bird activity on our property. The naturalized areas on 2, 8, 11, and 15 provide habitat and a food source for a variety of birds and small animals. Brush piles are left in the woods and the edges of our irrigation lakes are left untrimmed to provide homes for inland and aquatic species.

Through the efforts of Hank and Collette Huidekoper and Mark Hawley, several bluebird houses have been placed in the appropriate areas on the course in an effort to increase the bluebird population.

AS of June 30th the 12 bluebird houses have provided home/nesting areas to 25 bluebirds. We presently have another 11 chicks in our houses. This represents the highest total since the program started.  These houses are also a favorite for swallows and 5 of the houses have become home for them.

Mr. Hawley monitors the houses weekly and provides a spreadsheet and pictures to track any activity. We thank the Huidekopers and Mr Hawley for their efforts to help Silver Spring continue in our efforts to be an environmentally friendly facility.

Week of July 8th

Besides the normal cutting schedule for the week the golf and grounds crew will be applying an Annual bluegrass weevil insecticide treatment to the green and tee surrounds and playing surfaces.
A white grub preventative treatment will be applied to the roughs on the course;
Greens venting will take place on Monday the 9th;
Calcium will be applied to the pool courts on Monday the 9th;
The audit of our irrigation system will continue this week;

Green Venting

Finished surface

Equipment used

Greens venting is performed every 3 to 4 weeks. The process will provide channels for water, air and nutrients to get into the growing medium. The process also help loosen compacted surfaces.

Work Scheduled for the week of July 1

Calcium treatment of the clubhouse courts.
Fungicide application to the fairways
Wetting Agent treatment to all greens
Fungicide application to green surfaces.
Continuation of golf course detailing,( ie, trim wood lines, fairway and tee divot repairs)
Irrigation system monthly check.

Fire Works Cleanup

Work Schedule for the week

Monday June 18th marks the start of our member guest tournament prep work. This is our US Open at Silver Spring and the golf and grounds crew will be fine tuning the golf course.
Fungicide and turf growth regulators will be applied to the greens and fairways;
A calcium treatment will be applied to the pool tennis courts on Monday.
Our normal cutting schedules are adjusted to meet the requirements of the tournament;
The following is our Tournament work Schedule:

MON

TUES

WED

THURS

FRI

SAT

SUN

CUTTING

GREENS

1X

1X

1X

1X

1X

1X

TEES&COLLARS

X

X

X

X/PM

FAIRWAYS

X

X

X

X/PM

PERIMETERS

X

X

X

X/PM

PT

X

X

X

X/PM

SGF

X

X

X/AM/PM

PG

1X

1X

1X

1X

1X

1X

ROLL GRS

1X

1X

1X

1X

1X

CLUBHOUSE

X

POOL HOUSE

X

COURSE SET UP

X

X

X

X

X

OTHER WORK

BUNKERS

X

X

X

X

BTU

SPRAY GR

X

SPRAY TEES

SPRAY FAIR

X

DIVOTS

X

X

EDGE HEADS

X

X

EDGE BEDS

X

X

WEED BEDS

X

X

TRIM

X

X

X

PRUNE BUSHES

X

X

PATHS/WEED

X

X

PATHS CLEAN

X

X

NEW TOWELS

X

NEW FLAGS

X

NEW CUPS

X

CHECK OB STAKES

X

X

HAZARDS STAKES

X

X

A busy week!

Week of June 4th

Connecticut State Golf Association Senior Match Play Championship is under way.  93 golfer will be attempting to qualify for 16 spots on Monday. The lucky 16 will compete in match play starting Tuesday morning at 8 AM. Morning winners will play Tuesday afternoon pairing the field down to 4 players.
The remaining 4 players will tee it up on Wednesday morning in the semi-final round with the two winners playing for the championship on Wednesday afternoon.
Good luck to all the players.

Did I get my monies worth??

This is what I call a man sized divot. These divots were found on the course recently not replaced after what had to be a wrist tingling shot. Must have been hit with a shovel wedge.
Please replace your divots!

Family Tee Markers

 Family Tee Markers have been installed on holes 1 through 6. The yellow markers have been placed at distances designed for the 6 hole junior golfers, and the blue markers which are on holes 1, 2, and 3 have been placed at a distance designed for our 3 hole junior golfers.
Happy Golfing!!

Work schedule for the week of May 28th

Fungicide applications to greens, tees and fairways.
Calcium treatment to the club house courts on Tuesday the 29th,
Soil and sod the edges of the new cart path on 12.
Tournament prep for the CSGA Senior match play scheduled for June 4,5,6.
Finish installing annuals and mulch at the 8th tee.
Our normal cutting schedule this week will include a double cut of all in play rough areas.

Deer Tick Control

 The usually warm winter and spring has changed the timing of control programs for many types of weeds and insects. Insect populations are normally reduced during the cold winter months. Treatment programs in 2012 commenced earlier the normal and in many cases extra applications of control products were added to existing control programs.
Controling ticks and especially deer ticks is especially difficult. The naturalized ,"high grass", areas on 8, 11 and 15 are treated with insecticide twice in the spring and when the high grass reaches a height of 6 inches, Tick tubes made by Damminix are placed every 30 feet along the perimeters of the high grass areas. Mice, who are the host animal of deer ticks will take the cotton balls in the tubes back to their nesting area and use the cotton for bedding. The cotton balls are treated with a Permethrin, a product that will not harm the mice, but will kill and deer ticks on the mice or in their nests.
The treatment is repeated every month throughout the months of May, June, July and August

Planting Annuals

During the 4 days before the Memorial Day weekend, the golf and grounds staff will clean and replant annuals around the clubhouse, pool house, snack bar, and on the golf course.
Pictured is Stanislaw Dabrowski, who during that week will plant over 4600 flowers. After Stan works his magic, all the planting beds and ornamental grass areas are mulched with either sweet peat or cedar bark mulch.
In total 60 cubic yards of cedar mulch is used along with 50 cubic yards of sweet peat.

Scheduled Work for the week of May 21st

* Continue prep for opening of the pool on Saturday May 26th.
* Calcium Chloride treatment of the pool tennis courts on Monday May 21st.
* Fungicide treatment of fairways.
* Paving of the rebuilt cart path at 12 green.
* Planting of our annual flowers at the clubhouse, pool and on the golf course.
* Detailing of the golf course for the Memorial Day weekend.

12th Green Cart Path Reconstruction

Removal of the old asphalt

 Today we started to replace the cart path  from left of the 12th green to the 13th tee complex. The old path has several cracks and areas that were lifted because of tree roots. The old asphalt was removed and the path was widened from 6 feet to 8 feet for easier equipment access. A six inch crushed gravel base was added and compacted. The new path will be paved early next week. After paving the sides of the path will be put back to grade with top soil and sodded.

Removal of an old tree stump on the edge of the old path

The sides of the path will have soil and sod added to give the project a finished look.

Work Schedule for the Week of May 7th

 In addition to our normal cutting schedule for the week we will be dry-jecting our greens on Monday May 7th.
 Dry-jecting is a process that injects sand using water at high pressure into the soil to help modify the root zones in our greens. The process creates inverted V channels in the soil and fills those channels with sand. Dry-jecting, which is a form of aerification, but less disruptive, provides channels for air and nutrients to get into the root zone.
After the injection process is completed the green surfaces are brushed and rolled, which makes them immediately playable.




If the weather cooperates we will also be starting our herbicide application for broadleaf weeds this week and finishing our tee topdressing.

Fairway Aerification

 Our spring aerification of fairways was completed yesterday, May 2nd. Because of our always busy spring schedule we out source this aerification.
Turf Pounders from New Jersey arrive at 6:00 AM and with normal conditions usually complete the aerificiation of our 27 acres of fairways and set cuts in one day.

 We use solid 3/4 inch aerification tines for this procedure. Holes are typically 3 inches deep on  2 inch by 2.5 inch centers. A fairway top dressing usually accompanies this aerification, but because of the very mild spring the golf and grounds staff was able to top dress the fairways 3 weeks ago.

Use of solid tines provides the channels for air, nutrients and water we are looking for and leaves the surface playable immediately after aerification.

Work Schedule for the week of April 30th

Fairway aerification originally scheduled for Monday April 30th has been rescheduled for Wednesday May 2nd.
Crabgrass prevention spray on fairways and tees.
Verticut grooming of greens.
Spray applications of herbicides for weeds and insecticide for Tic's on our naturalized areas throughout the course.

Work Schedule for the week of April 23rd

If the weather permits the following work will be completed this week in addition to our normal cutting schedule.
*Annual Bluegrass Weevil treatment to greens, tees, and fairways.
*Crabgrass prevention applications to all rough areas.
*Tee topdressing
*Bunker edging
*Spot treatment of broad leaf weeds in rough areas.

11th hole project

 Sod is delivered for the completion of the 11th hole tree clearing project

17,000 square feet of sod was purchased and installed by the Golf and Grounds crew

 30 trees were removed on the left side of 11. In play areas were sodded and out of play areas were hydro seeded.

Sod is of mixture of bluegrass and fine fescue.

The remaining trees provide a aim point front the tee and screening for the pool tennis courts.

The areas that were sodded should be open in 2 to 3 weeks.

Scheduled work for the week of April 16th

Tee and Green topdressing.
Deep verticut and sand injection of the Short Game greens and the main putting green.
Completion of sod installation on the 11th hole.
Crabgrass pre-emerge application to club lawns, pool house lawns, green and tee banks, and bunker banks.

Please note the short game facility will be open as of April 14th and the pool tennis courts will be opened on April 14th.

11th hole project

Today we hydro-seeded the 11th hole left rough where several trees were taken down this winter. Hydro seeding is the application of seed, fertilizer, mulch and a tacking agent under pressure to help with seed germination and soil erosion.

 Application of materials

 Mulch is colored blue to help the applicator apply an even amount of product on the soil surface.

 Over 25,000 square feet of soil was treated

The finished product.