Last modified: Tuesday, May 2, 2006 12:21 AM EDT Christopher Split, landscape superintendent at the Tournament Players Club course in Norton, sits on a walkway leading through one of the many gardens he and his small crew maintain. (Staff photo by Mike George) Beauty is par for the TPC course BY STACEY M. PERLMAN/FOR THE SUN CHRONICLE NORTON -- With the smell of fresh mulch in the air, Christopher Split has been busy getting his hands in the dirt. As the landscape superintendent at the Tournament Players Club of Boston, Split and his two-man crew have been working tirelessly to prepare the ornamental landscaping areas of the club, doing everything from planting new flowers and plants like bamboo, to providing new homes for birds to lay their eggs. Although the TPC course is known nationwide as home to the Deutsche Bank Championship each Labor Day weekend, Split and his crew take great pride in making it an aesthetic showcase that transcends golf. The TPC of Boston has for two straight years won the top landscaping award within the national TPC network, which consists of 26 private clubs. And as the crew prepares for the upcoming season, Split hopes to make it three years in a row. Split is just getting started on his landscaping projects for this year, although the planning and designing has been in progress for months. `` We're waiting for things to really start popping,'' he said. `` So this time of year we're starting our mulching and transplanting, dividing perennials, planting bushes, taking on some new designs, adding beds.'' Some of those new designs add to the unique characteristics of the landscaping. While the club has always grown fresh herbs in the garden right outside of the clubhouse, Split has added a stone pathway so club members can walk through it. `` They never got to see the herb garden in the ground'85Now we're inviting them to come down and experience what's going on their plate when they're dining. The chef and the kitchen help will come here and cut some fresh herbs and actually utilize them,'' said Split as he showed some of the fresh chives that had been cut by the chefs earlier that day. Along with chives, the garden contains thyme, lemon balm and onions. Split also plans to incorporate three types of bamboo plants near the herb garden later this month, picking up on a growing trend he's seen. One of the types that Split will be using, black bamboo, can reach up to 40 feet in its maturity. `` That's a new thing that's happening in New England now,'' he said. `` It's a couple years old and people are really catching on to it. We're going to give it a shot. It's a little different. It might not be a little New England, but we like to try new things and see how it goes with the members.'' While some people feel that golf courses are invasive to the environment, Split said the TPC has made a continuous effort to stay eco-friendly, including becoming certified as an Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary. All of the plants and herbs are grown organically, without any pesticides. In response to a grub problem last year, Split's crew replaced the infested area with a walkway while also using nematodes, small worms that eat grubs, in the surrounding area as part of their pest management. Also, the TPC of Boston is also built around wetlands that have never been altered or touched, Split pointed out. Instead, man-made wooden bridges have been built over various spots in an effort to leave the land undisturbed, allowing animals such as blue herons to thrive in their natural habitats. Other animals that Split has seen on the TPC property include coyotes, deer, fisher cats and minks. Fresh deer tracks can often be found through the mulch on some of the gardens. The club has made an effort to help encourage birds to make a home on the course through the nesting box program for tree swallows and bluebirds. Wooden boxes with 1 1/2 -inch holes for the birds are perched on metal poles. Bluebirds and tree swallows then build their nests safely in these boxes where they lay their eggs. The program was started in response to a decline in the population of eastern bluebirds. `` These boxes help them find a place to live and increase their numbers. I think the first year we started this program we had six boxes and we produced about 25 bluebird babies,'' said Split. Hummingbirds also find a spot for themselves in the gardens with butterflies. Monarda plants, often known as beebalm, are planted in the back of the clubhouse where members can enjoy an aerial view of the gardens from the dining hall. These plants, which produce dark red trumpet flowers and have a sweet smell with a hint of mint, draw hummingbirds and butterflies. As the season progresses, Split and his two-man crew will work all 11.6 acres of ornamental landscaping so that when it is in full bloom, it will be full of color and flowers with reds and greens, whites and yellows, impatiens and bamboo, and herbs and rhododendrons. Seeing the members get interested in the landscape, asking questions and making suggestions, has helped make all of the hard work pay off for Split. `` The good thing is when working here we get to interact with a lot of the members'85They ask us what this plant is, what plant that is, and I love it when they do that because it means they're getting interested,'' said Split. `` That's one of the reasons I like working for a venue and not running from house to house cutting lawns, because you see it every day. This is my backyard.'' While he's researched different plants and played around with different ideas, Split credits the true planning and designing at TPC of Boston to nature itself. `` I let the plants and the structures tell me what to do,'' he said. Stacey Perlman is an intern at the Sun Chronicle from Northeastern University and can be reached at perlman.s(at)neu.edu.