Memorial Day

For many people, Memorial Day is the unofficial start to summer. High schools have only a few more weeks of classes and some colleges and universities may already be done. Soon, many families will be headed to Bretton Woods for the pool. Because of this, the Grounds department spends much of the last two weeks of April and the beginning of May working at the club house and pool planting flowers, cleaning landscapes, mulching and prepping for the busy season that doesn’t involve the golf course.

Attention must always be paid to the golf course first, or conditions would deteriorate quickly. Mowing must always be done and certain basic setup procedures must always be performed. However, during this time of year, we spend our first few hours of the day on the golf course and then turn our attention, for the majority of the day, to other areas of the facility. While we strive to never let anything slip or drop below our expectations on the course, prepping the pool does take our entire staff 4-6 hours a day for over a month. This time commitment does not allow for much else beyond our basic maintenance practices to be done.

We begin by doing a thorough cleaning of the whole pool facility. Blowing leaves, picking up sticks, and cleaning other debris left over from the winter. This year, we also trimmed all of the trees in the parking lot and inside the pool grounds. This has opened the area tremendously. More light reaches the turf around the pool, which will make for nicer areas for families to lounge. In the parking lot, low hanging branches that were impacting parking have been removed.

Because of the high volume of people that come and go at the pool, there are several areas of grass that get trampled throughout the season. Therefore, each spring we freshly sod 4,000-6,000 square feet of new turf. Areas in the front entrance, as well as behind the office, and down closer to the pool all get sodded annually.

Between all of the sod and flowers that are planted each year at the pool, we also must do a lot of watering. While we generally receive enough rain at this time of year to help with the watering of all the new plant material, the new sod and flowers require constant attention. Two to three days without water for a freshly planted flower or new sod can mean death. We have to be diligent so money is not wasted on replacing plants that become dehydrated.

Finally, once all of the annual prep work is finished, we have to meld regular maintenance of the pool facility into our weekly routine. Mowing, trimming, blowing and general cleaning of the facility is done at least once a week. We coordinate with the pool staff and take care of our aspect of work every Thursday morning. The pool requires the time of two Grounds staffers for 2.5-3 hours each time.

Bretton Woods is unique for many different reasons. For the Grounds department, the differences are seen by where and when we devote our time and efforts. Spreading our labor across the 200 or so acres that we maintain creates many challenges, but also keeps things fresh for our staff.

Happy Memorial Day!

See you on the course!

Joe

jvillegas@bwrc.org