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Healthy greens, twisted course still recovering

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By ERIC VICCARO

Several years ago, the former Top O’ The Lake Country Club was in rough shape.

The facility went through a couple of ownership changes, and it was ravaged by a tornado on May 15, 2013.

However, and for the good of the community, golf has survived – and now thrives under the new name of Twisted Oaks Golf Club.

The club opened its redesigned nine-hole layout in late May, and the golfing experience is more pleasurable.

“It’s been a lot of work, and everyone has been involved,” said superintendent Chad Thummel, who was hired last year and graduated from the prestigious golf course management program at Kansas State University.

Thummel said the greens had issues with fertility.

“The rains we’ve had the past two years have helped,” he said. “The greens are coming in and they are showing more maturity.”

To help combat keeping greens healthy in the future, the course now uses Bermuda grass – which Thummel said needs both sun and heat.

Read the full feature in the mid-week News.

Pictured, a player in the scramble makes a shot at Twisted Oaks Golf Course. (Photo by Eric Viccaro)

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COUNTY LIFE

Forged in Fire heliopsis delivers in hot summer

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No plant has been more enjoyable in The Garden Guy’s trials than the Forged in Fire heliopsis or false sunflower. There have been a lot of varieties in recent years, but I am going to have to put this one on the must-have list.
Botanically speaking it is Heliopsis helioanthoides, native to the United States. Despite being native to 42 states, many new varieties, award winners and press coverage notwithstanding, it has not been an easy plant to find at the garden center.
Most likely you have never said, “Let’s go to the garden center and pick up a flat of false sunflowers.

Read the full Garden Guy column in today’s Bowie News.

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Giant Lone Star: A heavenly hosta

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As a card-carrying member of the Sons of the Republic of Texas, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on the Shadowland Giant Lone Star hosta.
Make no mistake, I don’t believe this hosta was discovered in the shady soil under a Texas Madrone in Guadalupe National Park. It was actually a sport or morphological change in s hosta named Key West. That sounds like a fairy tale story all its own.
But Shadowland Giant Lone Star has winner written all over it. It is large and has thick leaves. When 12 straight days of rain brought out a rainforest of slugs and other forest floor creatures, the bane of hosta growers everywhere, it didn’t load up with holes but simply got more beautiful.

Read the full Garden Guy column in Thursday’s Bowie News.

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Pink cloud in the garden is beautiful

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Supertunia Mini Vista Pink Cloud petunia is having its debut year or thanks to Susan Middleton Turner in south Georgia’s zone 9 Miller County it’s breakout year.
Susan’s house looks quite like a movie set, and you would have to think that Supertunia Mini Vista petunias play a prominent role.
Last year it was the award-winning Supertunia Mini Vista Indigo that dazzled with incredible color. The petunias were planted in banister baskets across the front of the house. I featured her photos in an article I wrote about Mini Vista petunias.

Read the full Garden Guy column in your Thursday Bowie News.

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