Grass Clippings
September is one of our busiest months as the Club becomes alive with Members after the summer holiday season. We are fortunate that the timing of showers in August has revived none irrigated areas in time for Members’ return. It’s marvellous how a grass plant manages to survive by shutting down completely for several months and, as long as the growth point remains intact, will hydrate again given the right conditions.
We shall have to do a thorough overseeding process in the next few weeks to fill in areas where the grasses have not fared well. Overall, we have gone through the worst that this summer has thrown at us, and the course and grounds have come out the other side in relatively good condition. Hopefully, there is more rain in the next few months that will keep the process going well into the autumn.
As well as presenting the course for the Pro-Am on Monday 5th September and several of the Members’ much-loved golf events, there are still croquet matches to be played and silverware to be challenged for.
At this time of the year, we are also getting ready to renovate the grass tennis courts to grow-in the new surfaces to open in May next year. It is important to catch the residual heat in the ground and get the seed to germinate quickly before we find that shorter days and longer nights play their part in allowing soil temperatures to get colder. September gives a window of opportunity to get seedlings up and running before October brings colder weather and lower soil temperatures. We will renovate both blocks of courts during the next fortnight.
Allotment wars
In a recent questionnaire, allotment holders were asked a series of questions regarding behaviour towards fellow gardeners. The results were astonishing and illuminated that all are not good sports down in the veg patch. Some 17% of responders pleaded guilty to spraying harmful chemicals on neighbouring patches, with one in ten guilty of flooding a neighbour’s plot and 6% having urinated on a plot they found had enraged the green-eyed monster within. Some 78% of respondents have thrown weeds and invasive seeds on neighbouring plots. Perhaps being in close approximation to fellow growers does bring out a latent competitive spirit in gardeners? Regionally, those most guilty of allotment envy were based in the northwest of England with the Midlands and then South-eastern region following in second and third. Bristolians, Yorkshire folk and the North-eastern areas are the least villainous gardeners.
Expanding elm disease
It is sad to hear that one of the last enclaves where English Elm survive has had to have several matures trees cut down to try and stem the spread of disease in the city limits. Brighton and Hove is well known to as one of the last reserves where elms remained untouched by Dutch Elm Disease which struck in the 1970’s and 80’s and decimated the population of trees in most of the UK. Most of the elm trees in Brighton and Hove were planted by the Victorians and Edwardians and survive to this day. Elm trees were popular because they can tolerate thin chalk soil and salty winds.
In the early 1970s the council introduced a new programme to control a highly infectious form of elm disease which was introduced by imported Rock Elm from North America. The success of the programme to fight the disease is still clear today from the many thousands of elm trees throughout the city. In 1998, due to the success of the local elm disease control programme, the city was granted full National Collection status by Plant Heritage. Elms remain the dominant tree in the city, with an estimated growing population of more than 17,000.
One of the most common ways for a tree to become infected is via beetles breeding on elm logs stored in the area. The council has asked residents not to buy any logs for winter fuel if the supplier cannot guarantee that the wood is not elm. It has also asked people not to bring any elm timber into the city for use as garden ornaments, seating, or anything else.
The council has also urged residents to let it know about any elm tree they spot with leaves turning from green to yellow or brown or with a scorched look in the spring and report any dead trees.