Silver Lake 6-22-23

Silver Lake 6-22-23 Contractor: Down to Earth dtelandscape.com

Hello Mitch

Here is what I saw golfing Thursday 6-22-23 at Silver Lake.

Hole 1

Tee boxes in general are in rough shape. The grass continues to heal. The tee boxes are free of weeds with a few exceptions.

This is the middle tee box that is not being used. It looks to be in great shape.

The greens are in great shape. They are free of weeds. They are rolling smooth. The only issue is with cutting cups. They are doing a lot better job of replacing the grass plugs, except for "knitting" the edges of the plugs. The edges dry out and die back requiring weeks to heal. You see four old cups in this picture. It is taking way too long for these old cups to heal.

Hole 2

The cracks need to be sprayed.

Still in rough shape, but getting better.

A pile of cut grass should not be there. The mower is way out of adjustment.

Forward tee box is in rough shape.

This is the fairway. What a mess. This whole course was just renovated. We have the heat and rain, but where is the fertilizer. Feed it and it will grow.

They have fertilized the greens and they look great !!! The collar areas are growing but you can see the color difference. The collars could use some more fertilizer.

A good example of the grass plug's edges not being knit together with the green. If you come back to this spot in a week, the edges will have dried out and the grass will die back from the cut edges.

Hole 3

The tee box is in rough shape. It needs fertilizer.

Remember that mower that was out of adjustment. They should have stopped mowing and taken the mower back to the shop to be adjusted. The superintendent has not instilled a caring attitude in has staff.

We have seen the Virginia Creeper (weed) here before. If you pull it, you need to get the roots or it just comes back. I would spray it.

Feed it some fertilizer and it will grow back in. Compost would also help. They threw a lot of organic material on the tee boxes of Mira Mesa during the renovation to get the grass to grow in. They hit those tees over and over with compost because it works.

Hole 4

I like this landscape feature. Flowers are blooming. It looks great.

Now this landscape area needs to have the weeds sprayed.

Some interesting lines on the green. I don't have a clue what caused them.

Hole 5

That is goose grass on the tee box.

You can see that the goose grass is higher than the golf balls. The tee boxes are to be mowed 3 times a week. The goose grass is not going to grow that much in two days. That means they are not mowing the tee boxes as often as they should.

If you don't fertilize, then you don't have to mow as often.

One of the weeds in this picture is Prostrate Sandmat. Another is called Flat-top Mille Graines. Both can be killed with a little spray.

Hole 6

They have fallen behind in their edging. It needs to be done weekly - just like at home. The contract says no more than 1 inch.

The little blue flowers is a weed called Blue Wandering-Jew. Also pictured is a lot of nut grass or sedge (hard to tell apart) which is the thin bladed looking grass. Then there is the Marsh Pennywort which a lot people call dollar weed.