Grass Clippings
Around our grounds
It’s now early August and the mornings have started to have an air of autumn chill first thing. This may be just a beep of a low coming in off the Atlantic, but we are starting to see noticeably darker mornings at 5am when the course and grounds team convene to start the day.
Personally, I cannot bemoan the weather this summer, as it has brought several advantages over last year’s summer scorcher. In terms of irrigation and water usage, we are well below the normal quantities required. In a year when we have seen maintenance budgets absorbing the effects of high gas and fuel costs, making a saving on irrigation the natural way has been well received.
With un-irrigated areas looking healthy, this far into the summer, it also means we shall have less overseeding to complete in the autumn time. Less stress on the grass also means it is healthier and stronger going into autumn which is a big plus. I look at the weather map and glance particularly at the places I have managed golf courses in the past, around the Mediterranean basin: Brescia, Antalya, Cyprus, and Baku. Keeping grass alive in 40+oC heat isn’t easy. It isn’t necessarily the heat that kills turf but the associated pathogens which attack it, especially in high humidity conditions.
Even warm season grasses shut down in the high 30oC’s and stop growing. Turf grass is tough but not that tough. So, I feel that we have been particularly blessed this year with the weather. Next year could well be another stinker, which will keep the sun seekers happy. Better order some more watering cans just in case!
With several Club sports events fresh in everyone’s minds, I would just like to congratulate the relevant persons in the course and grounds section for all the hard work and dedication for continually improving the surfaces this year. During the Association Croquet World Championship partially held at the Club, the lawns we resoundingly praised for being in ‘excellent condition’ and speed and trueness was commended. One overseas player also is recorded in saying that they were ‘best in the world’, that he had played on.
We are now adjusting the doorways within the grounds offices to allow Chris Hughes and Simon Bailey to pass without damaging their craniums. Over the Wimbledon fortnight, the tennis courts also came in for acclaim by visitors and Members alike and were compared to those at SW19 for their playability. It has been a difficult year to manage courts, given that the levels of moisture haven’t been conducive to creating firm and high-performing surfaces, but the boys have managed to pull the rabbit out of the hat once more.
The European Legends Tour Pro Am golf event this week is an event that normally takes place almost a month later and that also has a bearing on the condition of the course. In the last week on site, we have received well over 15mm of rain which has the undesirable effect of creating soft greens in terms of grass growth.
Despite adversity and weaving maintenance between golf events and a lot of play, David Howe and the boys managed deliver a golf course which delighted the Members and gave a fair test for the Pros. There has been a lot of hours worked above and beyond normal working days and devotion to creating a fabulous course for the event and it has been great to see and hear the Members being so proud of their course.
Oxford Street improvements
Westminster Council in partnership with the New West End Company has laid out a long-term vision for public realm improvements along the entire 1.8km length of Oxford Street. Faced with the decline of the modern high street, London and its guardians need to adapt to survive in the ever-changing face of retail. Oxford Street’s longevity is astonishing, other districts of the city have seen big name stores come and go over the decades, such as Holborn (Gamages), Victoria (Army & Navy Stores), Kensington High Street (Derry and Toms) and Queensway (Whiteleys). Two hundred million shoppers still crowd its streets every year, to shop at flag ship stores that you can find on any other high street in the nation. But the alure of The Street is ageless. Whether a local from the out reaches of the city or a tourist from Japan, to walk the mile (and a bit) in search of post-purchase satisfaction is part of every journey along the well-trodden paving slabs. Westminster is now investing in enhancing the lighting, and the addition of more green areas with seating within the street. The Council will be installing 12 new controlled pedestrian crossings and improving 45 existing crossing points as part of the project. Pedestrianisation of Oxford Street has been an on / off controversial issue for a long time. The current compromise a through bus channel, doesn’t really serve commuter or shopper fully. But with two new stations on the Elizabethan Line, more consumers than ever will disembark on to Oxford Street. The proposed enhancement of the street’s public infrastructure is part of a ‘bigger, once-in-a-lifetime, opportunity to regenerate one of the world’s most iconic retail and leisure destinations’. So says the blurb from the town hall. Let’s hope that get it right for the reputation of the city and the worldwide brand.
Around your grounds
August in the garden is a great way to spend an hour, enjoying the pallet of summer colours as well as seeing the start of the advance into autumn. Already blackberries are setting on rambling stems and the fruit trees on the course are bearing miniature apples and pears. For the garden there is a long list of tasks to look towards keeping up with: –
- Deadhead dahlias and other perennials to encourage a constant display of blooms
- Keep camellias and rhododendrons well-watered through late summer while their flower buds are forming
- Prune lavender once flowering is over to maintain a compact, bushy shape, but avoid cutting into old wood
- Prune rambling roses, removing up to a third of stems that have flowered, and tie the rest to supports
- Keep pots and hanging baskets flowering by watering and deadheading regularly, and add tomato feed fortnightly
- Take softwood cuttings of woody herbs, including lavender and hyssop, choosing non-flowering shoots
- Sow hardy annuals in sunny spots to provide early summer colour next year
- Set up an automatic watering system for pots and hanging baskets if you’re going away on holiday – in the case of a hosepipe ban, drip or trickle irrigation systems are usually exempt, check your local water board for restrictions
- Strim or mow areas of wildflower meadow, now that the plants have scattered their seeds
- Take softwood cuttings from penstemons, choosing healthy, vigorous, non-flowering shoots
- Remove any spent hardy annuals if you don’t want them to self-seed
- Plant autumn bulbs, such as colchicums, sternbergia and nerines, in pots and borders
Peter Bradburn, Course and Grounds Director