Author: Karen Yamada

Honey production on golf courses has grown in popularity over the past years. This summer, working with Scott Creek Honey farm, two hives of European Honey Bees will find a home to the east of Hole 5 Green and at the end of the pond between Hole 11 and 16. Southern Manitoba is one of the best places in the world for honey production and NCC has an abundance of diverse food and water sources to support this important and sustainable initiative. 

Not only will the bees produce our own unique NCC Honey, but they will also provide much more reliable pollination that will benefit the plants on our property and in the greater community-at-large.

NCC Horticulturalist, Daphne Stapley has learning about beekeeping through the University of Manitoba to ensure a safe and responsible enterprise.  

As part of the Audubon Certification Program for Golf, NCC has embarked upon a goal to naturalize at least 50% of the non-playing golf property.  

Last year, NCC Horticulturalist, Daphne Stapely began to naturalize the pond edge garden between holes 11 and 16.  Prior to these efforts, a garden of annuals was heavily grazed upon by geese and deer.  Naturalizing this area has seen a reduction in watering, eliminated the need for fertilizers, and thereby reduced leaching into the golf course’s water source.

Look for more birds and turtles populating the area and see if the geese and deer are choosing to graze elsewhere!

A weather station is more than a predictor of rain or a beacon for lightening strikes.  Data offered by a weather station contributes to the science of growing grass and adapting to the weather challenges of supporting a golf environment in Manitoba.  As part of the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf, NCC is acquiring a weather station to move science and technology innovation forward.  

More detailed, localized information about rainfall, dew point, solar radiation, air temperature, relative humidity and evapotranspiration provides data used to optimize growing and conservation practices by golf course management staff.  Remote access allows staff to monitor real-time data in their specific day-to-day niche management practices such as:  irrigation scheduling, aerating and cutting, fertilizer applications, pests and diseases.

The acquisition of the WatchDog Weather Station has a cost of $3000 which will be a fund-raising focus for the upcoming 2021 year.