Spring aeration of greens at Glendale CC

Day one of our three day closure for spring aeration centers around getting all our greens done. The process has multiple steps so I'll show briefly show each one from start to finish.

  Each green in verticut in two directions. The verticutter units have carbide tipped circular blades that are set about 3/16" below the surface of the green. The blades spin on a shaft and bring up excess turf shoots to provide channels for sand on the surface of the green.

The video below shows the machine in action. It pulls up a lot of material!

Next, we blow off all the cuttings from the verticutter.

The photo below shows what the surface of the green looks like after it's blown off.

The greens are then topdressed with a heavy layer of sand.

We use 1/2" diameter solid tines on 2" X 2" spacing and punch the sand into the top 2 1/2" of the green.

The sand is allowed to dry for a couple hours after aeration and then we drag the sand with a broom attachment to fill the holes.

After dragging, the green surface is shown below.

Next step is to roll the green in several directions to help smooth out the surface.

After rolling the excess sand is blown off.

The final product is shown below.

We'll roll the greens for about five more days before we mow for the first time so the sand can settle in place. It should take about two weeks and the greens will be back to playing like they did before we aerated.

Steve Kealy
Golf Course Superintendent

Tree removal project at 50% completion

The Pine tree removal project is now half way home. Our goal for the project was 50 trees but we managed to cut down and process 81 trees in 13 working days. We hired a tree contractor to do all the climbing and falling of the trees and grinding of the stumps. Our staff did most of the chipping of branches and site clean up. I can't believe how much material is generated from chipping one Pine tree! I now understand how trees catch on fire so easily. The branches going through the chipper are super dry and produce a constant dust cloud.

In the video above you see we built a box mounted to our 4 yard dump trailer to shoot the chips into. I estimate the trailer holds 6-7 yards of chips and it takes 1 1/2 to 2 trailers of chips per tree. 81 trees with an average of  9 yards of chips each equals 729 yards of chips! Luckily we were able to dump the chips on site and not have to pay to have them hauled away. With all the brush and branches chipped, the next step is to get the logs and cut ends off the course. The logs are moved out to the North end of the course adjacent to the 4th tee where they are picked up by a log truck and taken to a saw mill for processing.

 Josh runs our excavator and loads a log onto the log trailer.

Andrew is shown connecting a chain to our loader to haul it to the log pile.

The log hauling process is slow but it's the only way to get 32' long logs off the course in one piece.

 Logs are stockpiled by the 4th tee awaiting pick up.

 The log truck enters through the gate from NE 8th street and self loads.

This load of logs weighed 34 tons. The mill is only paying $25 per ton for Pine logs so after we pay for trucking to the mill we net about $400 per load. At least we don't have to pay to get rid of them.

 There are many parts of each tree that are not long enough to go to the mill. This pile in the upper parking lot is less than 1/3 of all the cut ends that we have to find a new home for.

 Once the cut ends and logs are off the course we will have to pick up all the stump grindings. This is also a slow process. We can scoop most of the grindings out of each hole with our excavator but there is still some hand shoveling that has to be done. Each stump generates 2-3 yards of grindings so we generate another 200 yards of material to haul away.

While the tree contractor was here I asked them to do some trimming of the trees on along the entry road. Branches were hanging down so low that it was hard to see cars coming around the corner by the driving range tee.

We also removed some plants that had grown too tall and were blocking the view of oncoming cars.

We will be working daily to get the tree project done and the course in good condition for spring play.
See you on the course!

Steve Kealy
Golf Course Superintendent

Pine tree removals moving full speed ahead!

The Pine tree removal project is moving along at a good pace. We had a tree contractor helping us last week and were able to cut down and process 25 trees. We have the contractor for another five days so we should be able to get to our goal of  removing 50 trees.

  Most of the Pine trees are very large and really messy. There are many dead limbs and when the tree hits the ground the dead wood explodes into thousands of small pieces.

Once the tree is on the ground it's time to run all the branches and small debris (called "duff") through the chipper. We built a box mounted in our dump trailer to shoot the chips into. It's very easy to move around when pulled by a tractor and it doesn't tear up the turf as much as the tree contractor's truck.

Once the limbs are chipped and the area is clean the logs are cut into 32' lengths. The mill wants them cut to this length for processing. Any logs that are at least 4" in diameter and are a minimum of 16' long can go to the mill. Anything shorter we run through the chipper if 10" or less in diameter. Anything larger must be cut and split for firewood. We grab the log with our excavator and set it on a cart on the lead end. The other end is lifted and a chain sling placed around the log so it can be hauled with the loader. The logs are then transported to a holding area next to the fourth tee where a logging truck can come in through the gate from NE 8th Street.

Trevor (one of the guys on our staff) is shown here atop the mounting pile of cut logs ready for delivery to the mill.

Once the logs are hauled off it's time to start grinding. This machine has a rotating wheel with carbide teeth that cuts down the remaining stump. The machine can grind to about 12" below ground level and it takes about an hour to grind a 36" diameter stump.

                                                      The grinder in action.

A progress photo showing the area between #2 and #3 tees where we are in the process of removing  5 Pine trees. There is a climber in the tree removing one branch at a time. It was windy and there is an irrigation controller about 3 feet behind the tree. The contractor was worried about falling the tree due to it leaning toward the controller and the South wind pushing the tree toward the controller.

This photo shows the area behind #5 tee looking North toward the 9th tees showing most of the stumps ground. Once all the grinding is complete we will go back and scoop out the grindings, fill in the holes with soil and place sod over the soil. It will take us about a month to get everything cleaned up, sodded and all of the rutted up turf areas restored.

 Thanks for your patience during the process,

Steve Kealy
Golf Course Superintendent.