Tarpin'. Seedin'. Celebratin'.

If you recall, about a month ago, we reseeded number nine tee box.  It was a hot mess from the drought we had last year.  Number nine is a bent grass tee and in a low spot, so it doesn’t really like droughts.  Who does, right?  Par threes are always difficult to keep looking good because so many golfers take divots (then don’t replace them or fill them with the provided sand/seed mix, boo).

To get the seed to come in, we covered up the tee box with a tarp.  This helps to raise the ground temperatures to increase the germination rate.

Yesterday, Ron and Jason got busy uncovering number nine’s tee box.  Oh.  It was an exciting day.  Kind of like Christmas morning.  What will they find under that tarp?

They found thick grass.  Lots of it.  The tee box had completely filled in.  I think I spotted them doing the Elaine dance from Seinfeld.  It was that exciting.

The grass was so long that it needed to be cut with a hand mower before it can be introduced to tee box length.

We don’t have many of those huge tarps, so once it was removed from number nine’s tee box, Ron and Jason transferred it over to some other tee boxes that needed some help.  These tees have already been seeded this spring, but the cool ground temperatures have been hindering their germination rate.  Oh yeah.  I’m sure that snow didn’t help much, either.

Enter.  Number three tee box.  Once again.  It is a hot mess from the drought last year.  At the end of the season last year, we had to stop watering all of our golf course except for the greens which we hand-watered.  It was the first time that has happened in our 40 years of business.  I know.  I sound like a broken record because I’ve mentioned it in so many other posts this spring.

The upper portion of this tee gets pretty beat up by golfers.  Par threes are always tough to keep grass on.  I’m speaking in my mom voice when I say, “Replace your divots or use the provided sand/seed mix and fix your divot!”  There.  I’m glad we had this talk.

Here’s our before shot.  Yuck.  Jason and Ron gave it a good once over with some fertilizer, sand, and additional grass seed.

Once they had it all prepped, they covered up the tee box with a tarp to increase the speed of seed germination.

They also seeded a spot on the front side of the green on number three that would not germinate.  Hills can be challenging when you are trying to get seed to grow.  The water runs off and causes the seed to not stay in place.  A tarp will help to grow in this problem area.

The final place where they tarped to get grass to grow was on number five tee box.  The back of the tee box gets a lot of shade from the nearby trees, so it doesn’t get the kind of light that it needs to get seed to germinate.  As I have mentioned several times, most of this damage is caused from the drought that we had last year.  In September 2012, our course was basically brown with green greens.  I’m sure a non-golfer is thinking that is a typo.  Nope.  The greens were the only place where it was green.  Literally.  It was heart breaking.  Then, in October, we got some rain.  It seemed like the course greened up overnight.

Jason came in after that October rain last year and said, “Now I know.  You need water to have a beautiful golf course.”  He’s always been profound.  Don’t you think?  Maybe I should say sarcastic.  Are profound and sarcastic synonyms?  Yeah.  I didn’t think so.

How about you?  Did the drought have any effect on your lawn?  Have you been seedin’ and celebratin’? I hear it’s all the rage this spring.