Grass Clippings
Around our grounds
We are turning a corner into spring and after such a disastrous winter of weather the sports industry will be letting out a collective sigh as we look forward to better days ahead. I continue however to hear reports from Members and contacts in the industry that many clubs far and wide who are struggling to return their golf courses to full operation, with greens compromised or fairways in poor condition.
Each course is an individual entity, and the conditions will vary depending on the soil type and the actions taken to protect the course through the winter period. The women who played the course, during the Gold Cup, fed back that they were astonished by the quality of the course we have to offer to them and the phrase, ‘well above the curve’ was mentioned more than once.
It is a credit to David Howe and the greenkeeping team that they have manged to pull the course together after such an abysmal winter. But I must also thank the membership for their patience and support during the winter when we have had to consider the course conditions and make decisions to preserve the surfaces and the quality of the course, through this tough winter.
This summer we are going to embark on the first phase of the greens drainage programme which will tackle the worst of the poorly draining greens on the course. Once we have proven that this is a viable method with minimum disruption, the hope is to get the green light to drain the rest of the old-style, push-up greens, which will enhance winter play conditions as we have done with the croquet lawns several years ago.
A strategic plan for improving the golf course for all-year-round play has been active now for several years. We have zoned the course, so it is easier to prioritize our works and work in an integrated fashion to re-enforce drainage schemes in targeted areas. Most golfers will be aware that we intensified the drainage last year between the 13th and 14th holes, which has become a bottle neck on the back nine route.
The approach and carrys would resemble a mire by the end of winter and become impassable, with additional surface water from Ibstock School’s playing field flowing downhill towards this section of the course, it has always been, I apologize for the pun, ‘Oh Man! Corner’.
By Shelton Trench-slitting the surfaces, the carrys were playable this year through one of the wettest winters on record and now, entering spring, we still have full coverage of grass within the carry and the approaches of the 13th and 14th holes. There is still a great deal of work to be done, and drainage on a course with our soil characteristics is never going to be ideal but the plans we have in place are bearing results which make a tremendous difference to the playing surfaces.
The harsh winter has also affected tennis, in so much that we had to leave the Airhalls up longer into April than any year in the last decade I have worked at the Club. With persisting heavy showers and high winds, the conditions to dismantle them, without re-enacting a Mary Poppins scenario – domes afloat drifting over Wandsworth – were few and far between. Fortunately, this week we have had calmer skies and the process of deflating and packing up all the apparatus has been completed. Chris Hughes and his team have already been working on the sports lawns over the last few months, but the work will start in earnest now and hopefully we shall get the dry weather needed for the conditioning of the lawns ready for May.
I would like to draw Members’ attention to the lovely spring floral displays in the Sunken Garden and the concourse areas, as they look splendid at this time of the year. The gardens team: Steve Hutchens, Joshua Healey Lapena and Nick DeLisa have laboured through the winter to ensure that the horticultural aspects around the Clubhouse and on the golf course are kept in tip-top condition. With tulips and daffodils in full flower, the Club looks ready for spring.
Flower show finale
Crocus Plants have announced that this Chelsea Flower Show will be the last that they will be actively working. The company has been a stalwart of the show since the company was founded in 2000, has assisted designers in building 36 judged show gardens, twelve of which won best in show garden with 33 which winning gold medals. This year the last two gardens Crocus Plants will supply, and build are for designers Tom Stuart-Smith’s NGS garden and Ula Maria’s for MDUK. Founder of Crocus Plants, Peter Clay, commented ‘It’s no secret that Chelsea takes up a huge amount of resource both in terms of staff but also crucially space on the nursery in order to grow the volume of plants and give the space to them to get them to show quality standards. That means a direct impact at the busiest time of the year both with staff and it’s a big diversion of management focus. And there’s the fact that we don’t make any money out of Chelsea. So, it’s got to the tipping point and as a company we can’t afford to allocate 30% of nursery space for growing plants for Chelsea’.
The Chelsea Flower Show is a great platform for many aspects of the horticultural trade, from designers to suppliers alike and to raise their profile in the process. For many designers it almost becomes an addictive undertaking and the long year process of designing a garden and producing the finished product involving teams of people on the way. But stepping back from the attention and exhilaration of being part of the ‘Chelsea Squad’, is sometime a step back into reality. Commitments to other work and the financial implications of being part of the most famous of garden shows does have a toll to pay. Many of the old hands have stepped back in the last few years but this also allows new talent to step forward.
Runnymede Explored
The National Trust will formally complete Runnymede Explored this spring. This is a five-year, £3.8m programme of work at Runnymede and Ankerwycke – during Magna Carta weekend – 14 to 16 June 2024. There are new accessible paths along the river Thames and linking up the monuments and artworks in the landscape. There’s an audio tour, mapping and interpretation, new public art and poetry, new public gathering spaces for school and community groups, new boardwalks through the SSSI Langham Ponds, and a viewing platform across the river at Ankerwycke where people can see the 2,500-year-old Yew.