Overseeding the clubhouse lawns

The last couple of days we've been prepping the two largest lawns at the clubhouse to be over-seeded. These two lawns consist of mostly kikuyu grass that is considered a warm season grass but thrives in our cool season climate. The kikuyu stays pretty green throughout most of the year except when we get frost. We are going to overseed these lawns with rye grass so that during our 3 to 4 month window of possible frost conditions the front and side of the clubhouse will still have an attractive look and green lawns.

The photo above is from Thursday when we were scalping down the kikuyu to prepare a good seed bed. The push mowers were not the greatest idea due to the fact that the kikuyu is a pretty tough grass. We'll come up with a different tactic for next year.
Today the guys finished up the preparations by aerifying the lawns and dragging the plugs. That was followed up by a healthy amount of seed and some starter fertilizer. We will keep this area plenty moist over the next 7-10 days as we wait for the seed to germinate.
This past week we also finished off the back of the clubhouse with a good amount of gorilla hair mulch to keep the weeds down and for a more appealing look until next spring when we will finish planting the ground cover.

- Posted by Austin Daniells, Golf Course Superintendent