One of Our Beautiful Oaks

(click to enlarge)

There are thousands of trees on the Stanford Golf Course, and this is a beauty along #5.  It is a Coast Live Oak Quercus agrifolia, recently trimmed by Arborwell.  Its age is estimated at 120 years.

Drill Seeding Weak Areas in Fairways

We've started drill seeding some of the weak areas in the fairways with perennial rye grass.  Most of the weak areas had high populations of Poa annua which burned out with the long days and high temperatures of early July.  Poa is a winter annual and goes into stress when environmental conditions become extreme. This year the combination of early July heat and the lack of rainfall (salt buildup in the soil) have pushed the Poa to its limit.  

Perennial rye grass is a more drought and traffic tolerant turf.  It is also darker green and stripes wonderfully during mowing.  It germinates and establishes quickly, so it is an ideal grass for over-seeding.  

Please excuse any mess, as the drill seeding machine kicks up some slight debris as it slices through the turf.  We'll also being doing some daytime spot watering, so watch for an occasional sprinkler or two running.  Hopefully if all goes well, we'll be looking at much better fairways going into the 2013-14 academic year!