Aerating the Golf Course ... and "It's a Boy"

Valerie Chavez (the pretty young lady that worked at the front desk for several years) had a baby boy Tuesday morning.  Julio Junior will be known as JJ and arrived at 21 1/2 inches and weighed 9 pounds.  Congratulations to Valerie and family!

 

 

Whoa (again).  Made Don stop for another cactus bloom.  This one is quite unique because the flower comes out directly from the end of the stem.  We're lucky to have so many different kind of cactus plants within our park.

 

 

 

We came upon Nina Fields and her two pups while out on rounds.  We stopped to chat for a while and then laughed when we saw the dogs taking advantage of some shade.

 

 

How clever that they found the shade of our golf cart.  Cute!!!

Nina and Jim raise race horses and sometimes enter them at the track up in Phoenix.  I asked her to send me some photos and info so we can cheer them on next season.

 

 

We spied all the little colorful flags all over the golf course.  These mark where the sprinkler heads are located so our machinery doesn't accidently hit them.

 

 

I called upon Wikipedia for more information:  Aerification is merely a short-term disruption that has long-term benefits for golf courses. When you see them, remember that without those little holes, the greens would eventually die.

 

Preventative maintenance is an integral part of successful golf course management. Golfers view aerification as an inconvenience that takes the greens out of play for a day, pulling cores from the greens and leaving holes that can affect putting for many days before healing. To add insult to injury, aerification is best done in many part of the country during mid-summer, at the height of the playing season and when most greens are in prime condition.  But a golfer needs to understand how important aerification is to producing healthy turf. Aerification (also known as aeration) achieves three important objectives. It relieves soil compaction, it provides a method to improve the soil mixture around the highest part of a green's roots and it reduces or prevents the accumulation of excess thatch.
 

 

After pulling up the clumps, the mowers will come along and chop it all up nice and fine.

 

 

Even the lawn bowling grass is aerated to keep its health and beauty.

 

 

Spring time is flower time in Arizona.  All the oleanders are in their splendor right now.

 

 

Some of our cactus plants are putting out another set of blossoms.  Spotted these at Mark and Cindy Nelson's house this morning.

 

 

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