Bermuda grass plugging

At some point we hope to publish a blog that is not related to Bermuda grass and its recovery, but not yet. Sod work is complete, sprigging is about to commence again, and Mother Nature has finally realized what time of year it is. We have also tried to salvage every ounce of healthy turf we can from the golf course by doing some sod work ourselves.

The sod squares we saved at the shop.
This is about 2/3 of what we ultimately saved.

We have been plugging small sod pieces into #5 fairway since late spring. We have done it in years past also, which you can read about here and here. We haven’t completed #5 fairway yet, but we paused in that location to work in other places, notably, small areas in approaches.

A sod piece placed back into an approach.

When we were outlining the areas to be replaced by new sod, it would have been inefficient to circle every tiny last place that was not healing well. Not only is it difficult for the sod crew to work many small areas, but a lot of healthy turf would have become collateral damage in the demolition stage. Instead of this scenario, we elected to focus on the large, poor areas, knowing we could come back and patch the small ones. Starting last week, that is exactly what we have done.

More sod pieces in an approach.

First, we went out ahead of the contracted sod crew and spared as much healthy turf as we could from areas that were going to be removed. No winter kill patch is perfectly square, the death weaved in and out and around at random. But the new sod is square, so at some point healthy turf would have to be removed along the edges of bad areas. That is the turf we targeted. We quickly scooped it up and saved it back at our shop. Once the major sod work was complete, we went back out to the approaches and began inserting our salvaged pieces back into the small dead areas, with the goal of making the approaches as blemish free as possible. We will wrap up the project this week and start back down #5 fairway at that point.

10 days after sod pieces were transplanted back
into the approach. You can just make out the
rectangular shape in the center of the picture.

Keeping every inch of healthy turf helps. Any Bermuda grass that survived last winter is strong and healthy enough to survive most winter and we are using it in whatever capacity possible.

Etiquette Reminder of the Month

Please be aware and careful of new sod.

Also, as part of a Golf Committee initiative to improve course etiquette, we have included links to videos teaching proper on course etiquette. Please take a moment to watch:

Ball Marks - How to properly repair

Bunker etiquette

See you on the course!

Joe

jvillegas@bwrc.org