OceanStWx

Tornado alley of ME.

It's a pretty solid pattern for a PRE based on the conceptual models.

In fairness, we don't know we had a tornado for GYX/CAR yet.

Tossed.

I always seem to struggle at that course. I used always park my first tee shot into the backyards right, but now my hook really gets me into trouble all over the place. I think last time I played there I couldn't hold the greens. If you hit the middle it would roll off every time.

I was afraid someone would say that.

@tamarack any tips for trying to transplant it somewhere it'll do better? I feel like trying to save it is better than just ripping it out of the dripline of the house.

Found this growing behind some old pallets on the side of my house. Looks like white ash to me. Hard to figure out how it got there unless the other trees on the property are also white ash.

That's the key, you have to be in the fairway otherwise you are giving up too much distance to be consistently worth it to lay up. It also helps to know your course. If I'm unfamiliar I'm way more likely to grab a hybrid off the tee if it's tight or short. When I read the book by the inventor of strokes gained my eyes were really opened about the game in general and how to improve your score. More or less amateurs aren't consistent enough reap the benefits of laying up, so you are almost always better off being closer to the hole in the rough than farther and in the fairway. Honestly freed me up a bit.

Was taking a walk today with my son and confirmed that the next street over definitely has white ash planted as a street tree, but definitely a more dry environment there than what's in my backyard. I did plant a couple rhododendron viscosum (lemon drop) along the edge though to try and beautify things for next spring.

Yeah it's pretty nasty. I cut it back late winter, but the puckerbrush is spilling over some of the alder branches to form a nice wall.

I was thinking hickory as a possibility too, but I'm trying to remember what its flowers looked like in the spring. I guess I don't take enough pictures of my yard.

Watch it not even be ash.

Looks like I need to figure out how many leaflets per leaf.

Probably the closest looking leaves that I've found so far. The (alleged) ash on my back property line is at least 30 ft tall. So it's a healthy tree and I would love to know for sure what it is. My main goal is to find something to replace all the jewelweed that grows in there. I want to go native like cardinal flower.

I've been using iSeek but I may try that one too.

I'm trying to ID what's in my bottomland/swampy area first to see what I want to keep, and second to see what might match well with it for planting. So far I think I've got smooth alder (my best guess because their leaves are not as serrated as other species, have a ton of this), southern arrowwood (I can only find one of these), there is a type of willow but I have yet to pin down the species (more of a shrub than a tree at this point). All make sense for a wet area. I'm pretty sure about 25 yard back in the thicket is an ash tree. I would love to figure out which type (especially if I can do anything to keep the EAB away). I'll probably have to wait until fall to get back in there though and ID some of the trees on the back edge of the property. It's just too thick for me to get through currently.

Time to go back and recalculate what I could've been. Edit: Looks like I was TOO consistent. New method only drops my best run to 9.5.

Don't tempt me.

That's my problem, I'll have a hard time getting back there so it will need to be fairly self sufficient. I also have half a mind to pick some favorite ideas and try and start as seed and transplant early on and see what happens. Then I won't be out much money if it doesn't work out. I could easily do that with my maples when they put down seed.

I've taken to lining those up like a putt with my PW/52 (if it's a real tight pin maybe the 56 or 60) and getting the heel off the ground. So I just stroke it like I would a putt for distance and it pops out really consistent. I change the club based on the distance to the pin.

I'm really shaky. I'm struggling with partial shots. 95% of the time I'm long. Long is never a good place to be.

It's a tough area to figure out, because it's quite wet in the spring and can at times retain water in the winter if it's a big rainfall/snowmelt combo. But when it dries out it's dry, so the drainage I think it pretty efficient. It tends to stay moist longer because we collect all the runoff from the neighborhood. So even several days after a rain there will still be running water through the active drainage part of the area.

I think I could convince my wife to get a family membership at a place like Falmouth (ME) because they have tennis and a pool. Great for kids! I'd say I'm 75% of the way to convince her already.

I'm in the midst of thinking about how to finish off parts of my yard. I have a swampy area that ideally would be populated by more interesting plants than currently growing there. Thinking of trying to get something like cardinal flower growing in there. Ideally I'd love to put something like quaking aspen or tamarack in there to add to the interest in the fall/winter mixed in with the alder already growing. But I'm also trying to hedge off the swap from the lawn by low shrubs. I'm think some swamp azalea would probably do well, and maybe a shadblow serviceberry or two. They would frame my Henry Hicks magnolia I just planted this season. Down the side of the house the swamp becomes a drainage ditch, and I think I'd like to add a wall along that (won't be retaining just decorative). That will frame the wildflower bed nicely I think and give me a convenient place to manage the weeds in the ditch from.