By Dean Piller
With the present water restrictions being imposed on Vancouver Golf Courses, I think it is worthwhile to share with you an in-depth look at the tools and science behind the use of water for irrigation on golf courses and the important role irrigated, healthy and growing grass plays in an urban environment.
By Norley Calder
Superintendent, Sagebrush Golf and Sporting Club
For years, golf course Superintendents have relied on their gut to tell them if their turf was responding properly to inputs that were applied. We were simply equipped with a soil probe, a thermometer and what we thought would work from past experiences as well as trials that we performed. All this may seem weird from a guy in his late 30’s, but I started my career as a 13 year old kid at a small 9 hole golf course in Saskatchewan, pulled a drag mat by hand and of the equipment we did have, most was much older than I was! Now I look at my maintenance yard and see some of the most modern tools to perform my job. Many of them I never operate and I can feel that 13 year old boy kicking my butt.
By Jim Ross
A recent program called ‘American Savannah’ aired on CBC’s The Nature of Things with David Suzuki. It was an interesting portrayal of North American’s ‘obsession’ with the growing of turfgrass and how this had come about. They speculated that this ‘obsession’ may have come about as a result of our ancestral roots when man lived on the grassland savannahs of Africa.
By Norley Calder
Superintendent, Sagebrush Golf and Sporting Club
The next stage of soil moisture metering gets into meters that are buried in the ground. These meters do more than measure soil moisture; they can also measure salinity and temperature.
By Shauna Burnell
Where is our freshwater going? Have you ever wondered where water goes? There is so much discussion these days about water conservation, water shortages and drought and yet we live within a closed system with no way for water to escape outside of the atmosphere. So where is it all going?