What's best to put around muddy baskets?

[colink]

In Hillsboro, Oregon's only public course, Orchard Park, the ground in the first field is really boggy, and there's usually 3-4 inches of standing water around many of the baskets. The local parks and rec may be open to doing top treatment to make the ground drain better, but that process will take several years.

In the meantime, would it be better to put gravel around the baskets to help it drain better, or to use bark chips/sawdust? Gravel isn't going to be kind to failed putts, and bark chips may just be stomped into the ground over time.

 

[BogeyNoMore]

I like wood chips/mulch... they look better than gravel (IMHO), and discs tend to stay put better on mulch than gravel, but they wash away easily with a good rain and require more maintenance than gravel. If you have spots that regularly get submerged, wood chips are a losing battle.


But almost anything is better than an ever widening circle of dirt.

 

[djschnabel]

I voted bark dust; meant wood chips.

 

[brutalbrutus]

If they are holding water then you need to backfill them with dirt or sand then use woodchips/mulch.

 

[MarkDSM]

If it holds standing water often enough and you cannot tile to water to lower ground, not much that will affect much change.

Wood chips certainly are better than bare dirt.

A local course uses some fabric about 48" wide over dirt in a couple of trail ways and places where it's known to get a little soupy. It seems to help keep the trail integrity pretty good.

 

[thrembo]

Wood chips, but for 3-4" I would build the area up with dirt first then wood chips.

 

[DavidSauls]

If they are holding water then you need to backfill them with dirt or sand then use woodchips/mulch.

This.

If possible.

Don't just cover up the water---grade the ground so the water flows away and the ground can dry.

Then cover the unsightly ground with a heavy woodchip mulch. If the grade is slight---as it should be---washing away shouldn't be too big of a problem.

There's no perfect cure for too much foot traffic in a location, unless you can afford and stomach astroturf.

 

[Timber]

I am considering applying a thin layer of gravel, an inch or less, with some sand worked into the top layer to promote drainage. Then apply wood chips on top of this for a softer and more aesthetically pleasing putting surface.

The sand and decomposing wood chips should settle into the gravel keeping some, if not all of it from being kicked away by foot traffic. Extremely depressed areas will probably require another or several "layer cake" applications over a few years to raise the surface above the surrounding drainage areas.

 

[Dana]

Plant some sleeves for alternate pin locations?

 

[Aim For The Chains]

Wood chips are not the same as mulch. Wood chips will float around and washout pretty easily. They would be good once drainage is fixed.

Straw is cheap and works well like a rough mulch that wont washout as easily and compacts into soil.

 

[Martin Dewgarita]

Pick up wood turning, with my turning and running my planer I have wood shavings mountains, my course doesn't really need them so I'm just dumping them in the woods...

 

[Atvizory2000]

I thought about using mulch or wood chips on my wooded course, but was worried that the mulch would start to mold/rot and stink. Anyone have that problem before? Hate to put that around the whole course and then become a mold hazard lol

 

[Tim_the_Enchanter]

I'd definitely try to work out drainage issues before putting chips down. I've seen them used in muddy locations where there was nothing done other than putting down several wheelbarrows full of chips on top of the mud. They worked great, at first. You could walk to the basket without slipping and sliding, and be sure of coming back with both of your shoes. But in a matter of a week or two, the foot traffic + saturation made the wood chips basically perform like sponges and the greens ended up just as sloppy if not worse than before.

BTW, you can often get wood chips for free from your parks dept. or from a local arborist. Usually they have too much to deal with, and in the case of private arborists, they have to pay to get rid of the chips so it's a win/win for everyone.

 

[Aim For The Chains]

I thought about using mulch or wood chips on my wooded course, but was worried that the mulch would start to mold/rot and stink. Anyone have that problem before? Hate to put that around the whole course and then become a mold hazard lol

Pretty common here and not an issue. Yeah it will rot and does have mold when moved around after decomposing but that is sort of the point to get nutrients back into the soil and help with compaction.

Worst part is actually spreading the mulch and all the dust lol.

 

[Steve West]

If the field can't be drained, I'd second the idea of moving the baskets. It looks like the baskets may have been set in the wettest parts of that field.

However, with an elevation drop of 15 feet just 144 feet from the first basket, it seems that field does not need to be boggy, if the parks people want to drain it.

Do not go out with a shovel and do it yourself. There may be good reasons for allowing the water to stand in that field.

 

[colink]

I won't be doing any rogue work on the course. The Parks Dept actually asked me for advice on how to handle it, which is why I'm passing the question on to the experts here. The top dressing is an option, but they're looking for short term solutions, too.

 

[discNDav]

Woods chips turn into dirt after a while.

 

[mattc]

I would put down a few inches of clean (no fines/binder) drain rock, then cover that with clean large wood chips.

The water will be able to drain down into the rock, and the chips will be the new playing surface.

 

[Dr.Smooth]

drainage problems. address that issue first. then will talk about band aid fixes later.

 

[PBokor]

We live in western Washington, on the lowest acre for at least a couple of square miles (or more) in all directions. French drains work great on our property for point solutions. Easy, inexpensive, and always beneficial. Might not completely solve your problem, but could make the rest a bit easier.