the summer's killin us

Well I have discovered over the course of the summer that it is really hard to keep up with regular blogging. Especially this summer. It has been one for the archives to say the least. Lets recap a bit:

June -

 The summer began with us fighting dry spots. May was somewhat dry, but June settled in as one of the driest on record, less that 35 mm for the month (we average 95+)

July -

July continued to hammer us with heat and no moisture. Again less than 30 mm of rain (we average 80+) for the month, and it saw us begin to scale back drastically on our mowing. The rough mowers (which usually cut the entire course 2.5 times per week) were scaled back to once. The main fairways of the 2 driving ranges have not been fully cut since mid July.



 
August -

The heat continued, but the crew pictured above did not seem to mind. By the end of the month we had received close to 50mm (we average 90+), but 40mm had come in one night...not so good. The heat and humidity also brought something else to the table...disease. At one point during the month of August we counted 4 different diseases on the 14th fairway (red thread, dollar spot, fairy ring, and anthracnose)
  The conditions also brought along this new disease:

        
  It seemed to affect one of the parent strains of our older bentgrass cultivar, cato, and it basically turned the plants yellow and stringy. After a bit of research I learned a new word...etoliation...which basically means the plant goes yellow and stringy. The turf did thin a bit, but never really died, and the change in the night time temps seemed to take care of it.

September - Well it has all changed in September. Only 2 weeks in and we have had more rain than we received in May, June, July, and August combined...in 2 rain events. Last week we got a whopping 80 mm in about 12 hours, and over the last 24 hrs we have received 120mm and it's still continuing into tonight.
Here is some of the fun that much rain brings...

                                                          A new island tee on #13

       The rough on #13...at least the pond (which was dry all summer) is filling up!

                                          We just got to finish fixing this one on #9 yesterday...

So the joy continues...still lots of fun though.

Thanks for reading.
paul m