Flower

Goats Beard flower - 3 days ago and today, big change in the flower in a short time.

Can be found in the pool cafe perennial garden.

Andrew - Are his mow lines straight?

The crew spends lots of time maintaining the tennis courts, but we also take care of lots of other "grounds" projects.  Here is Charlie using a masonry saw, cutting out some concrete by the junior room.  He will then put in new pavers leading into the room's new doorway.  

Now that we are almost finished doing the spring renovations of the clay courts, we have moved on to spring prep of the grass courts.  Lisa verticutting grass courts 7-12.

The harsh winter caused lots of heaving on the grounds.  Fence posts, walkways and the grass courts all were affected.  Below Andrew is rolling the grass courts to push down and smooth the surface.  The roller weighs 2 tons and is from the 1890's!

Tom and Dick - first players of the 2014 season.

First spray of the year - growth regulators to control/limit Poa annua seed head production.  Also the first application with the new sprayer.

Pics

Finishing up the chimney

Connor and Nate

"Dryject" on clay courts 9-14

4/1/14 Pics

Cool weather fungus on grass

Lisa unloading Har Tru

New Cricket weather vane

Last  of the roof work

Pics 3/24/2014

Freeze/thaws are slowing down our progress in doing our main clay court renovations.  Each night the court freezes and then strong March suns melts the top by mid morning.  Since the clay is still frozen beneath, there is no where for the water to go and the court becomes mush.  This has happened almost every day for the last two weeks.  Warm weather is coming after tomorrows snow, so this pattern may be changing and we can get going getting ready for opening day.  

We have had a lot of heaving from freeze/thaws on the posts, brick walkways and anything else in the ground.  The last picture here shows the net post on clay court number 4.  The post was pushed up.  Growing near the post was a grass plant (Poa annua) and the heaving pulled up the plant.

Last of the Roof

The last section of roof is almost done - on the right, the last of the old slate shingles.

New Crciket

Charlie from Dutelle Roofers showing the old cricket from the clubhouse weather vane and a new one he just finished fabricating (copper).  The new one will be functional - the old will be displayed in the clubhouse.

We have brought in some samples of the grass from various courts to see if there has been any winter injury.  So far all of them are OK except for one from court 17 that is struggling.  Rain/snow is predicted and then temperatures are supposed to really drop.  The grass is in a vulnerable state right now, huge swings in temperature could be a problem - stay tuned!  For more on winter injury click here:

http://lccgrounds.blogspot.com/2014/01/winter-weather.html

Davis Cup

Fellow sports turf manager, Luke Yoder, Tweeted these pictures of the temporary Davis Cup stadium in left field of Petco Park in San Diego.  I am sure he has hosted many unusual events on his field over the years, but this is something new.

Winter Weather

The 2012-2013 winter had perfect conditions for the health of the grass courts.  A moderating blanket of snow with no ice layer and consistent temperatures was optimum for the plants.  The winter of 2013-2014 has been a different story.  Wet conditions and above normal temperatures followed by extreme cold is a worst case scenario for winter injury to our Poa annua courts.  And that is exactly what we have had.  More than once, conditions of heavy rain, temperatures in the high 40's to low 50's and then single digit temperatures within hours have occurred!

The Poa annua plants can handle cold and ice (though not as well as other northern climate species) - they do every year.  So why might there be a problem this year?    The timing of the wet conditions along with the temperature swings can cause an injury called crown hydration.  What happens is the plant wakes up a bit in the warm temperatures and begins taking in water.  The water dilutes the "antifreeze" (carbohydrates) in the plant, temperatures fall and the water in the plant freezes creating crystals that puncture cells.   During winter dormancy the plant is alive and respirating slowly, using carbohydrates. As the winter progresses, the plant has less and less of these carbohydrates that prevent freezing and the plant becomes more susceptible to freezing.  So one positive of the weather we have had is that all of this has occurred fairly early in the winter season.  If this weather pattern continues into late February and March, we could have some problems with winter injury.

As a turf manager, what can I do to prevent this?  Most important was autumn preparation.  Various cultural practices were used to promote carbohydrate reserves and healthy dormancy.  After that, preventing the plants from being in wet conditions is most important and we addressed that by continuing to improve drainage on the courts.  But we can only do so much in the low site of Longwood.  Protecting the courts with an impermeable cover might help the situation by keeping out water, but covers can also hurt the situation by restricting oxygen and causing temperatures to rise too high underneath the protective layer.  Many golf courses do this on some of their greens with great success, but these sometimes elaborate systems are not practical for our site.

As soon as we get a substantial thaw, we will bring some samples of the turfgrass into the clubhouse and see how the grass is doing.  For now, no worries, but let's hope for moderate conditions for the remainder of the winter.

January 23, 2014.  3 degrees F.

Winter Pics