Bill Barnard, General Manager
Once again, we’ve made it through the hot summer months, and this year, we had a particularly active monsoon season that supplied us with a lot of moisture and humidity. That moisture was a welcomed benefit in our desert environment, but the storms had some damaging effects as well. With the two large storms in August alone, we lost more than 100 trees and had significant wash-out damage to our golf courses, especially at Tuscany Falls. Oliphant Companies is completing major repairs to the washed out areas on the golf courses that our teams were not equipped to fix. The majority of this work should be completed by the end of October. They have added large rocks to the drainage areas so that we can avoid future damage from large rains. For some of the smaller wash-out areas, once our golf course crews complete the current overseeding process, they will resume fixing these areas throughout the desert sections. They will work through the courses hole-by-hole, and we expect this to take several months. Once all of the wash-outs are filled, we will look at areas that may need granite replacement. This project will certainly carry over into next year.
We are pleased to report that the storm-damaged trees have been removed, but there are currently 132 stumps that remain. We have contracted the landscaping company AAA to remove the stumps, backfill the holes, and repair any irrigation that was damaged by the trees coming down. This project will start in mid-October and will take three to four weeks to complete. The storms also put AAA behind on their regular maintenance rotation within the common areas, but they have crews back in regular rotation and are working to catch up.
The moisture and humidity were great for the growth of many plants and the trees, creating a lush, green environment. We do have a tree crew that is currently working on thinning some of that growth on the trees down our main roads. They will then start working on thinning the trees in our common areas on a rotating basis, unit by unit. This will be ongoing throughout this year and will also carry into next year.
The moisture and humidity this summer has also brought out a pronounced amount of pests this year. As just one example of how this impacted us, our yellow bell and orange jubilee plants were infested with caterpillars that have weakened many of them throughout our community, and also throughout the Phoenix area. As the temperatures cool down, it will kill the larvae, and we will do cutbacks this winter to those species of plants. Most of them should recover and come back by spring. We’ve also seen an increase in ant and rodent activity this summer. We are treating our common areas where we find problems and trying to keep the numbers down, but as much as we would like to keep them on our property, they tend to find yours as well. I would suggest contacting a pest control company to treat your homes and yards as needed. It’s good to note that, typically, the activity slows down in the winter months.
Finally, as I mentioned above, we are going through the overseeding process on the golf courses and turf areas throughout PebbleCreek. Many of our new residents from northern states may not be familiar with the overseeding process for our climate. In Arizona, our summer grass (Bermuda) goes dormant during the winter, so we seed it with a winter grass (Rye) that will grow in the existing Bermuda grass bed. This is so the grass can continue to have a beautiful, green look and, for the golf courses, a much more appealing and playable surface for the winter and spring months. We have had to reduce our overseed footprint on our golf courses this year due to the increased cost of seed, fertilizer, labor, and water; it is increasing at an alarming rate. Many area communities and golf courses have had to rethink the overseed process, and you will see many areas throughout the Valley that are reducing, or not overseeding at all. With water restrictions looming, it will be more and more an issue that we will have to evaluate. You will see more brown grass this winter, but remember, it’s not dead, just dormant, and it will come back early next spring since there is no competition from the Rye grass. The Rye grass transition back to Bermuda happens more in July and August on the overseeded areas. Either way, we should have good grass for about 10 months of the year.
As this month’s message reflects, 2021 has been an interesting year so far, presenting some unique challenges with weather, continuing impacts of the COVID pandemic, and other issues. However, I remain positive, and I hope you do as well.
As we move into the cooler months, and look forward to the return of many of our friends and neighbors who left the state for cooler temperatures, I hope that you all will enjoy this beautiful time of year. PebbleCreek is a wonderful community filled with so many things to do and great friends to do it with! I hope you continue to live your best life here.