Published?!?!

As a high school student, and a writer I have been published in local papers and at my school, but never to my memory have I been published in a well-known magazine! Recently my roommate made it known to me that my picture was in the Green is Beautiful magazine! I didn’t believe him, and it was not until he promised to bring the magazine home with him next week that it was a reality.

Marie Thorne from Syngenta came to speak to Turf Club, a group of Turfgrass students that get together to learn about topics pertaining to our industry about a month ago. While she was there, she took a picture of us, and apparently that is how we ended up in this magazine! I have yet to read the article, but I can’t wait to see what we are doing in there. Never the less I thought it was awesome that she put our picture in the magazine, that it got printed, and now our faces are out there for people to see. This goes to show that we really are serious about what we are doing. We put in the extra time and effort, outside of our classes and home work and jobs and whatever else there is to do to learn.

I am honoured that I was able to be at that presentation, and I know that I took so much away from what she had to say. And now, I also need to thank her for getting my picture out there! Faces are easier to recognize than faces, and I can now say, I’m one of the only girls that was at Turf Club at the University of Guelph.

Success at last!!

I want to send a big thank you out to all of those in my class who helped make the 2009 Turfgrass Symposium a success. I could not have done it without help from everyone, and I think it is safe to say that they day was a big thumbs up. I recently heard that we were even published about in the school newspaper!

Dr. Tom Hsiang, Ron Scheidel and Keith Bartlett were our key speakers for the day, and everything that they had to talk about was pertinent to our industry. I was feeling the stress big time at 4am when I got up at my house in Milton to get the day started, but by the time Ron hit the stage as our second speaker I began to calm down. Everyone was in their seats, they all had coffee (thank goodness for coffee!), and laughter was occurring in the room. The knowledge that I took away from the day surpassed the excitement that I felt when the day was over. Not just because it was over, but because it was a success. Everything went as it was supposed to, there were no mix ups, and I have only heard good things from guests and students alike.

To anyone who is thinking of running an event like this, let me tell you that it is 100% worth the stress you experience up to the day of. I didn’t know if I was going to make it at some points, but in the end, I wouldn’t take any of it back! I was so proud of myself to know that at 20 years old, I was able to pull off being the project manager for the 2009 Turfgrass Symposium entitled Doing more with less: Turf in tough times.

Standing out in the neighbourhood

Even though I take care of grass at a golf course for a living, I never really thought of taking care of anyone’s home lawn; not even my parent’s lawn. Things would always just be done, and lawns in the city always seemed to look nice. Now that I have taken a step back, I realized that it is because of companies like Turf Systems.

One of the things that most attracted me to the presentation, whether it should or shouldn’t have, was that the company is based out of my hometown, Burlington, Ontario. I liked that a company located in a city not so big can succeed so well! And I enjoyed learning that for lawns, they do not only fertilize and spray, they also take care of snow removal and irrigation systems. Having many options for customers is what is going to attract them to you, and Alan White, president of the company has nailed this down. Being able to work in all seasons gives companies a better chance than if they were only available part-time. Year end numbers are much larger when there are 4 seasons to work in, nut just 3 or maybe even 2.

Turf Systems showed me that expanding horizons and going out of a comfort zone is a good thing to do. Just because I am comfortable working with grass doesn’t mean that I can’t learn to do other things. Having many talents will open doors for me, and keep me on my toes. Multi-talented people are much more likely to be hired than those who only have one.

All wrapped up

And I thought that keeping a turf barn organized was complicated some days. After visiting the Ontario Seed Company in the Kitchener/Waterloo area, it was very clear a turf barn is not hard at all. In a turf barn, there are a limited amount of things we have to keep organized, and most of them are stationary. Stationary in that they do not change, and they will always go back to the place that they started in.

This is not the story at all for the warehouses at the OSC. Both warehouses, that which stores the chemicals and fertilizers, and the one that stores all the products never look the same. There are constantly items moving in and out of there, and I would say it is hard to keep track of everything. Yet the men who work and run these warehouses are extremely organized and they are able to know what needs to go where and when. They even have things set up for next year already because they give companies the opportunity to order a season ahead, store it at the warehouse for the winter and have it dropped off next season.

This was an informative field trip for me, because it helped me see some of the options that are out there. I know that I have a problem with needing things to be organized all the time, and keeping some items stored at a warehouse for the off season would be perfect for me when I one day have my own golf course. This way I still have the product I need, but not until I am prepared to make the room for it.

Making connections

It is so hard for me to believe that half of the semester in my Turfgrass Management class is already almost over. We have learned so much on all of our field trips, and I can only wait to see what we are going to experience the rest of the semester. Our most recent trip to Islington Golf Club though, was the first time that I think the person that was talking to us really related things back to our course.

Robin Stafford, superintendent at Islington Golf Club was the first tour guide to really relate things back to class. He was clear in what he was saying to us and really got us involved in the day. Having a handout the way he did made things clear, and it was much easier to follow along with what he was talking about. He understood that some of the numbers that get crunched are still new to us, and just hearing about them can make it easy to get lost. Having a page to look at and then take away makes his trip very memorable for me.

So far, this is the only field that I have gotten a handout on that I have actually kept, and really gotten something out of. I would encourage more courses to do this type of thing when they have anyone on their site, never mind just students. At least we know what they are talking about, but when there are people there that don’t really know what is going on, it makes it so much easier to explain when on paper.

Doing more with less: Turf in tough times

The first year turfgrass students at the University of Guelph are hosting the annual Turfgrass Symposium this year in Guelph, Ontario. Located at The Cutten Club, this year’s symposium is focusing on ‘Doing more with less: Turf in tough times’. We know that the economy is not at its best, and we need to learn how to alter how things have been done in the industry in the past, to have the same effect with less of an impact on budget.

The main focus of our day will be our three key speakers. They include Keith Bartlett, superintendent at St. Goerge’s Golf and Country Club, host of the 2010 Canadian Open, Dr. Tom Hsiang, professor at the University of Guelph, and Ron Scheidel, co-owner of Green Horizons sod company. They are all from different sectors of the turfgrass industry and they are going to enlighten us with how the changing economy has effected them and what they are doing about it. Included at this event is a quick beat the clock segment run by and presented by students from the class. An informative section on new ideas for the upcoming season, it will be interesting to see what professionals from the industry think of their ideas.

Starting at 8:00am and running until 12:00pm, this event is short, sweet and extremely valuable to professionals in the industry. This event is open to all those that are interested in coming. If this includes you, please r.s.v.p. to Rae Urwin at rurwin@uoguelph.ca

Sit. Stay…I said stay!

Working on a golf course outside in the turf department has been one of the greatest experiences of my life. I’ve learned more than just how to take care of grass, it has also given me lessons for life, and how to handle certain things. Yet one of the largest challenges for a golf course superintendent is hiring and keeping staff for an entire season.

The hours that go along with working in the turfgrass industry are a turnoff to a lot of people. 4:30am, 5:00am, those aren’t really attractive times to be showing up for work. The majority of the staff that are hired to work turf are younger, stronger bodies that are usually in the 15-25 year old range of people. These aren’t the people that enjoy early hours, and after many nights of partying and trying to get to work on time and sober, they tend to realize that this may not be the job for them. Mid-season is the hardest time, because this is when staff have realized this is not the job for them, if that is how they feel, but no one is really in need of a job. Everyone looks for jobs at the same time, and it is hard to persuade someone to take a job that they are only going to be employed for a few months.

I think that if you can control yourself, know when you have to work and know when you can go out, you can still live a balanced life. I won’t lie and say I haven’t had a few hard mornings, but I have learned from my mistakes. Once I figured out how to balance my work life and my social life, I started to reap the rewards of working at 5:00am. Never before have I seen more beautiful sunrises than on a golf course.

A great Canadian golf club

The Canadian Open is what I personally consider one of the biggest events of the summer in Ontario, never mind Canada. And for the past two years Oakville’s Glen Abbey golf course has been lucky enough to host this wondrous event. Though no one really thinks about what foes on there once the open has left.

Just because Glen Abbey has host the Canadian Open for the past two years doesn’t mean that for the rest of the year it isn’t a regular golf course. Superintendent Scott Bowman walked my class through a typical fall day at the Abbey when we were there. He taught us about a technique that he has coined ‘sealing the cut’, where after the greens are cut with a walker or a triplex, they are given 4-6 minutes of water right away. This way they are good until about two in the afternoon, and they aren’t sitting wet overnight which makes them prone to disease.

I never really thought about the idea of watering a green right after it was cut unless it was really dry out. I guess I just thought that after I cut it, without doing any damage at all of course, I could just walk away from it and just come back and look at it later. I never thought about preventative strategies such as that, which could save me so much time in the afternoon when there is less staff and more golf. Thanks for tip and keep them coming everyone!

18 holes with a side of broccoli

While most golfers do have food on their mind when their out on the course, I’m sure it’s not in the form of broccoli sprouting up in the middle of the green. Gord Forth, owner of Copetown Woods Golf and Country Club had taken what used to be his broccoli field, and turned it into a beautiful 18 hole golf course.

Gord and his brother Neil have been growing vegetables for years and decided to specialize in broccoli back in 1984. But for 200 acres of their land, the soil just wasn’t right for growing vegetables. After debating for quite some time, it was decided that a golf course would be the best option for the land. It was a long struggle to get the land re-zoned for the course, and once they did, it took many designs and layouts before they were given the okay in the winter of 2001. Development was started in April 2001 and only took 16 months to be completed, and opened June 2003.

To go from vegetables to golf is mind boggling to me. I can barely go from one schedule to another in school, never mind add a career style change into the mix. Learning that Gord changed what was on this 200 acres of land was because of soil proved to me that school really does have a point! His situation is the reality that what we’re learning in school really does have a place in the real world. Who knew!

Extreme Makeover: Golf Course Edition

Since 1902 Lambton Golf and Country Club has been a beautiful fixture of Toronto. With 27 holes of golf and a staff of around 35 employees, Peter Kinch, superintendent has his hands full every day. And now, instead of having to maintain a golf course this summer in the usual of all ways, his golf course is getting an extreme makeover.

Lucky enough to have Rees Jones, golf architect redesigning Lambton Golf Course, Peter and his team are hard at work every day. The beginning point of this whole project was the need to put a reservoir on the golf course so the amount of water they are pulling out of the Humber River is minimized. With the go ahead from the town hall meetings with the members, Rees Jones has focused his redesign on rebuilding tees, fairways and greens, along with lengthening the course. Rerouting of some holes has been done to eliminate a stepping down idea through the course, and making it flow more. The holes went from looking like they were a staircase, to rolling down a hill with a few valleys in between. There is more appeal to the eye and more of an ease to the ability and safety of play.

Being able to walk a golf course in the middle of construction was amazing! Going from walking on a fairway covered in beautifully cut grass every day, to walking on soil which was being leveled to alter the hole was quite the experience. Not only did I get a new appreciation for golf course architects, I also learned how much the current staff at a golf course can be included in a renovation. Tree removal, irrigation repairs, sodding and grow-in are only a few of the things the staff take care of. I only hope one day I can get my hands dirty on a project like this