By Peter Clayton
On June 12th, the Marsh Creek Country Club and residents joined forces in an important step toward acquiring Audubon certification for the golf course and its community.
Chad Hansen, course superintendent, and his deputy Zach met eight resident volunteers beside the putting green to begin planting milkweed plants in the first of the day’s three target areas – just to the left of the white tees on #1.
Most of the milkweeds had large numbers of very small orange-colored aphids which we attempted to crush with our fingers since they can weaken the host plant.
In addition, Nina LaFleur donated a box full of lady bugs. They dine on aphids – and she applied them to the plants as soon as they were in the ground. The digging proved a bit challenging, often needing an assist from root clippers and eventually a reciprocating saw.
Our next location was to the right of the third green in an area recently cleared of some large Brazilian pepper trees – an invasive species.
We had some good fortune too. One of the plant containers came with its own chrysalis and it was carefully placed onto one of the milkweeds, giving a future butterfly a ready made starter home.
Our last spot was behind the green on #11, a perfect example of Zack’s selection of sites visible to golfers but out of normal play.
A fourth area will be selected later for future planting. We were done in 90 minutes with plenty of photos to document our efforts.
Many thanks to Barbara and Gary, Nina, Stan, Max and his neighbor, Charlie and my wife, Ann, and, of course, Chad, Zack and Jon.
Hopefully we’ll see caterpillars soon.
Well done team! Thank you for your hard work towards this important certification.
Excellent work!
Well done. Hope to be around for the next round. I have lots of milkweed growing everywhere since I take the pods of silky seeds and broadcast them around. They grow easily and come back when trimmed after blooming. Now to tackle Chinese Tallow trees, Mexican Petunias and the dreaded Brazilian Peppers.