Update on 11 Hillside

As the golf season opens and your getting your first looks of the course, many of you have seen the work being performed on the hill above 11 green.  I have described earlier in this blog our efforts to improve this little slice of the course and have great hopes that we can make this a pleasing backdrop to the 11th hole.

It had fallen to the ever increasing reach of invasive weeds and vines, that are prone in areas of direct sun.  The trees and shrubs had taken a toll from the storms and snows that broke many of the plantings including the azaleas.  We rescued as many as we could that were in good condition and moved them to the area around the ninth green to showcase that area.

In order to fit all the work into our schedule we had to begin the clearing stages of the hill, to ensure there were no obstacles that required larger equipment (stumps, rock etc) and then schedule the time to begin the building of a rock wall and shaping of the slope.  The next phase will include those operations followed by the planting of several trees and some shrubs.  The entire area will be mulched and given a finished look until fall, when the rest of the planting will occur.

As I stated last time, due to the invasive nature of the weeds, we keep these areas clear for a period of time to give us room to spray the necessary chemicals to "clean up" the beds before we start serious plantings.  The last thing we want is to have to tear out the plants due to being immediately invaded.  Many of these weeds are very aggressive and required multiple applications of herbicides to eradicate.  Similar practices have proved effective in our efforts at the right of 3, where we are now starting to plant new redbuds and dogwoods, and left of 8 where we will agin start to plant flowering trees later this fall.

This landscape area is quite large, and there is much work yet to be performed on the rest of property.  At this time of year with all the emphasis on grooming and preparing a golf course for the playing season, if we get behind in trying to hand weed an area, then we have lost it for the year.  This is why we try to make sure these new cleared areas are easy to treat and allow us to keep a better eye on them before they become problems.  With all the work that is involved with the course, bringing a new irrigation system on line and the weather that spring brings we have not forgotten this hillside is in the eye of the members.

I can assure you we do plan to clean this up and have it looking good for the season and we hope it becomes a backdrop that makes you pause for a second before you start your backswing to the back pin location on 11 green.