Social Media at the EPGCC: Part One

The use of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter has become a part of many people's everyday lives. In the turf industry, social media has become a tool that many industry members use to enhance any forms of communication they already use. Many courses across Canada utilize a blog or Facebook page to communicate club information with their membership as an environmentally sensitive alternative to the paper copy newsletter. Some courses have social media sites dedicated to each of their individual departments (Proshop, Food and Beverage, Maintenance) while other courses have one centrally controlled site that individuals from all departments contribute to. In whatever capacity they choose to use it, social media is quickly becoming an important tool for many golf courses across the country.

At the EPGCC, we have a centrally controlled website that each department contributes to and is compiled in the office. The maintenance department also communicates by using this blog, a Facebook page and a Twitter account. We feel that the more tools we use to communicate with the membership the more effective that communication becomes. We are also easily reachable through each of these tools and make regular updates to all of them. Our goal is for the membership to be able to access any information we share easily and as quickly as they require.

This post will be Part One of a two part post explaining the use of social media at EPGCC. This specific post will explain our use of this blog as a communication tool.

Because you are already reading this, you have obviously discovered our blog. Whether it is your first visit or if you visit regularly, we always appreciate feedback regarding content already posted or about content you would like to see posted. This blog is public and can be viewed by anyone so our goal is to provide information that is not only important to the members but can provide some information to any member of the public reading it. While the majority of our visits are from Canada, we regularly get views from the USA, Germany, France, the UK, and Russia to list a few. We use the blog as an avenue to communicate larger amounts of information along with pictures and video.

Our goals for this blog include the hope that a majority of our membership become regular readers. We feel it is a simple and easy to use forum for us to convey information regarding the EPGCC Maintenance Department. Another goal is for us to provide information to any member of the public that would like to learn more about the operations that occur on and around a golf course. We encourage comments, questions and concerns regarding any of this information to be directed to the Maintenance Department so we can address them.

Part Two of this post will be about the use of our Facebook page and Twitter account as other tools we use. As always, questions concerning any of the information here can be directed to the EPGCC Maintenance Department through our Twitter account, our Facebook page, or contact us directly at the shop.

Pond Excavation Progress

Pond renovation is progressing and the crew has moved on to the pond at 11 green. Here is a short video showing the activity over three days. The camera is looking north toward 11 green from the south end of the pond.



Questions concerning any of the information here can be directed to the EPGCC Maintenance Department through our Twitter account, our Facebook page, or contact us directly at the shop.

Algae Growth and Pond Excavation

A number of days in a row of cold weather is exactly what the contractors that are completing our pond renovation wanted. The cold weather helped to freeze the ground and allow them to get their heavy equipment in and out of the ponds. They have made significant progress on the pond on 11, completing the culvert extension and continuing on the excavation. This pond was an average of 1.5m (5 feet) deep and following the excavation will be 4.5m (15 feet) deep. This not only allows us to store more water but it allows us to use a better quality of water on the golf course.

Water quality is directly related to the health of the golf course turf. Water quality influences a broad range of factors in the growth of healthy turf, ranging from exposure to nutrients and toxins to soil properties. Generally, when ponds are not deep enough (<1.5m) sunlight can penetrate to the bottom and these ponds are at greater risk of algal blooms and higher water temperatures. Pumping irrigation water with high algae populations through irrigation systems can cause issues with clogged filters and even damaged pumps. The algae is also distributed over the areas of the golf course that are irrigated and can contribute to the growth of algae in those areas. Algae is generally very competitive and can sometimes out-compete a grass species for the nutrients it requires. Deeper ponds often discourage algal blooms and can prevent issues associated with the algae.

Questions concerning any of the information here can be directed to the EPGCC Maintenance Department through our Twitter account, our Facebook page, or contact us directly at the shop.

Greenhouse Updates!

Our fearless horticulturalist, Julie, has been busy in her greenhouse this winter. She hosted a wreath building workshop for the members before Christmas that was well attended. The workshop included instruction and materials to build a live wreath as well as lunch and company. There were three seperate sessions over three days and Julie was happy with the results.

During the cold snap in January that saw temperatures as low as -35C at the course, the radiant heater in the greenhouse malfunctioned and lost heat. Julie discovered it as soon as she arrived in the morning but the temperature in the greenhouse had already dropped below 0C and was still falling with temperatures outside close to -30C. After some quick heater assembling, some smaller sources of heat were placed in the greenhouse but they were only enough to keep the temperature from dropping further. The serviceman arrived to repair the heater but that process also took a considerable amount of time. The heater was finally up and running by 8:00PM that night. Eventhough the repairs were made as quickly as possible, the greenhouse has still suffered tremendous loss. Julie is still surveying the damage but estimates that she lost up to 70% of her plant material because of the rapid temperature drop.

Any of you that have seen the greenhouse know that this picture shows an extreme lack of plant material as Julie has been clearing out the material that she lost.

Julie can address any questions or concerns directly or she can be reached through our Twitter account or our Facebook page.