It’s kind of hard to believe when you look outside today at the beautiful green grass and bright blue sky, but we were covered in snow on Saturday. When I was getting ready for the minigolf outing that we had that day, I noticed water pouring out of the side of our driving range hill. […]
Intake Adventures
There is a common catch phrase in the golf industry. It goes something along the lines of cleverly calling irrigation irritation. That’s right. There is nothing that can cause a golf superintendent’s hair to turn gray faster than irrigation. To get things started, we have to get prepared from the winter. In Iowa, we have… […]
She Thinks My Tractor is Comfy
Our outside staff spends lots of time on this John Deere tractor. They are required to sing country songs about tractors while they work. Ok. Not really required. Maybe just encouraged. We like to keep our outside staff happy. No falling asleep on the job, though. In preparation for the rain that is predicted, we […]
Seed. Seed. More Seed.
We have had several consecutive years of interesting weather. Hum. Ok. Maybe I should use the word challenging. In 2010, we had more water than we knew what to do with. It basically rained every single day. On 6 separate days, we had to close the course. When you really only have about 100 days of […]
Grass Seed is King this Spring
We have been seeding this spring. My husband, Kelly, always likes to comfort me by telling me that the seed only costs about $1 per pound. The trouble with that? We order about 5,000 pounds of seed. We use a rye/bluegrass mix. The rye grass germinates quickly, while the bluegrass is a more hardy grass.The […]
Chinese Elm “Ulmus Parvifolia”
This is Tom, Toad Valley’s Friendly Tree Guy, back with my first introduction to the trees of Toad Valley. If you recall, I earlier described how I have planted nearly all of the trees on the course. Over the years, I have planted almost 300 different varieties. Today I’m going to introduce you to the […]
Trees of Toad Valley
Author: Tom Brady To most golfers, trees are just an obstacle to be overcome, but Toad Valley is more than just that. Forty years ago, when we opened, there were no trees on the course. Every tree has been planted. Some by “critters” and wind (once a seed source was near enough), but most have […]