Burning Prairie

     On Thursday we burned the Prairie between 4 fairway and 5 tee's.  It was a little damp it took about 2.5 hours to burn.  We need to do this every other year. Burning rejuvenates the prairie by removing excess leaf litter and duff allowing more plants to flower, produce seed and grow taller.  It also increases available nutrients through indirect stimulation of microbial activity in the soil and releasing nutrients from the ash.  Burning exposes the darkened soil and allows sunlight to warm the soil quicker and extend the growing season for warm season native plants.  The fire also suppresses many weeds and non native invasive cool season grass.  Below is a video and pictures of the burn.

The grasses crackle when burning and  it gets extremely hot.

 Before 

Burning

Done

# 13 Brush pile progress

     We have been busy last couple of days cleaning up the brush pile  to the  south of 13 tees.  We used a Track hoe to pull out the large trees and brush.  We made some good progress.  The brush pile is not as tall. We still have to clean up more brush.  When we are done burning the brush we will plant some Ornamental grasses along the wood line to help hide the remaining brush. 

 Before

 Track hoe moving trees.

This is what it looks like now.  Brush pile almost gone.

Busy

     We have been very busy the past couple of weeks.  The rain we received was a welcome relief.  We received 6 inches of rain the last 2 weeks of February.  It took us 4 day to clean up the golf course from the rain storms.  We had limbs and debris down all over the course.  Despite all of the rain we were able to get a lot done on the course.  We sprayed all fairways and most of the roughs with pre-emergent herbicide.  The Hickory tree on the back right of # 1 green has been removed.  This tree was out competing the cool season turf for water.  This will give the cool season turf a chance now.  We have already mowed our greens 4 times This year.  We started to remove the brush pile from the clearing that was done last year down at 13 tees.  We will need 2 - 3 full days with a track hoe to get the brush pile cleaned up.  We are cleaning up the edge of the woods with our Rough Cut deck.  We are cutting the invasive Bush Honeysuckle.  This plant has become a very big problem in Missouri.  Bush Honeysuckle will choke out our hardwood forest if left to grow.  We removed the bridge down on 13.  We will be replacing the bridge this spring.  We helped the Clubhouse staff with the new tables and chairs.  Kaley has been very busy cleaning up her beds and burning the Ornamental Grasses.  The Green House is full of plants she is growing for this season. Rob has been busy in the shop.  Reel mowers have been sharpened.  Rough mower decks have been rebuilt and are ready to mow rough this spring.

 Spraying pre-emergent on fairways.

 Mowing greens first time 2/15/18.

 Removing Hickory tree back right 1 green.

 Working on brush pile # 13.