Tee flowers and shrubs

Remembering that we manage the entire property can get lost sometimes when we focus so much on turf health and playability. Taking time to beautify the surrounding areas can go a long way in enhancing the member experience. We recently added some new greenery around the course.

Bretton Woods is more of a natural landscape than a perfectly planted garden. We do have some shrubs and ornamental trees, but they are limited in diversity and scope. We need plants that are very low maintenance, deer resistant, and hardy. We don’t have a high landscape budget or dedicated staff, so low input species are important. Nevertheless, we did recognize that we had some gaps in our landscape, especially on the course, that needed something installed. So, over the last few weeks we have been working on introducing some new plants in specific locations.

A key point for us to make this work is to start small. Planting hundreds of new plants and then not being able to keep up with watering and having some suffer defeats the purpose. We also are trying out several different species to see what might work better in our microenvironment and withstand the deer population. If we find that a couple of our choices are not the right fit, then we don’t have too many to replace because we started smaller in scale. Lastly, we made a few of our selections based on what was available at local nurseries in the area. For this round of planting, we chose a mix of both small and larger flowering shrubs, as well as some small trees to place in several mulch areas around the course:

                Crape myrtles- 1 each near #1 red tee and #3 red tee

                Swamp rose mallow- near #16 tee

                Black lace elderberry- #15 tee

                Virginia sweet spire- #1 black/blue tee

                Ninebark- #11 tee

                Northern bush honeysuckle- #8 tee

                Wrinkle leaf goldenrod- #17 tee

 

Our only setback thus far has been the very cold night we endured last week, which killed all the young leaves on the crape myrtles. The swamp rose mallow wasn’t damaged, but it is also a heat loving plant, which has been absent thus far and so it has been slow to get going.

 

So far, the plants look good, and we are excited to watch them mature.

 

 

Etiquette Reminder of the Month

Please enter and exit all bunkers on the low side. While this may result in slightly more distance to rake, it will keep the sod on the face of the bunker from tearing. It is also much safer! Thank you.

 

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

Golf Cart tips

 

 

 

 

See you on the course!

Joe

jvillegas@bwrc.org