It is important to get the first cutting line as straight as possible. This will aid as a guide to cut the rest of the green.
Making the first line of cut at the centre of the green ensures that any deviation in angle is minimised. This is because the distance from the first line is reduced by dividing the green in half. Arguably the further away one cuts from the first line, the more the angle of cut will deviate from the first line.
Here you can see the lines created by the boom sprayer to assist with optimum application.
The foam shows where the sprayer has or has not been.
Today I was tasked to tidy up the garden around the halfway house.
It still needs some work, but I feel that I did make some progress.
Hopefully I will be allowed to plant a few of the new heather plants in the gaps of the flower bed.
Found this alongside one of the greens today. Not sure if it was living here or if a bird dropped it.
I would like to see a live one on the course.
Today we went around the course and replaced the fluid in all the ball-washers.
When removing the drainage plug one should be careful not to drop the rubber seal.
This morning while cutting the aprons in the rain, I managed to slide right into a bunker. There was no warning that this was about to happen. It simply just lost all means of traction.
Having returned to the greenkeepers compound, the head Greenkeeper said that if this should happen again, I should immediately try dropping the rollers.
Today we transplanted some rooted-cuttings of heather from trays into larger pots.
The cuttings were taken from plants growing on the course and planted in July 2013 and are fairly well rooted and definitely ready for the transplant.
I am told by the senior assistant Greenkeeper that the potted plants will be kept in the poly-tunnel until October this year, and then the they will be planted out on the course.
The potting medium is peat-based and includes a slow-release fertiliser.
When planting these into the pots, we were instructed to not compact the medium around the plant base once planted. Arguably this is contrary to common planting practice, but the advice comes from a specialist heather grower and this is therefore how we completed the planting.
These heather plants were bought in to be planted around the course.
Although once considered heathland, the majority of the low growing vegetation currently on our course is grass.
Although this green looks saturated, it was less than 20 minutes until play resumed to finish the Ladies National competition.
Today we removed some Lupins with spent flowers and transplanted some Delphiniums which we removed from the same flower bed as the Lupins.
This space was then filled with a mixture of red and white Geraniums. We also planted some lavender alongside the 1st tee box.
Today the tee boxes were cut and then fertilised with a mixture of seaweed fertiliser and wetting agent.
Once applied, this was watered into root-zone for maximum effect.
From my recent experience with removing bramble from underneath the Rhododendrons on our course it seems that generally these plants do not have very deep root system. It is as if the plant forms a bulb-like structure from which lateral roots shoot outward.
The shallow root system ensures that the plant has access to any surface before competing plants.
Another feature of this highly competitive plant is its ability to send stems straight to the canopy of a competing shrub. Again from my observation, only once the stem reaches the top of the canopy does the plant create a head of leaves. This means that not only does the plant get access to surface water first but it also gets to the light first.
These features of the bramble mean that shrubs such as the Rhododendron are no match and if left alone the Rhododendrons will become completely smothered and possibly eventually die.
