Grass Clippings
The Poet’s Calendar
Janus am I; oldest of potentates;
Forward I look, and backward, and below
I count, as god of avenues and gates,
The years that through my portals come and go.
I block the roads, and drift the fields with snow;
I chase the wild-fowl from the frozen fen;
My frosts congeal the rivers in their flow,
My fires light up the hearths and hearts of men.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Weathering winter challenges
January is always a difficult month, snow, ice, or rain hampers attempts to have our sports areas functioning fully, which disheartens the ground crew as much as the Members. This year, the accumulation of the above-seasonal rainfall in the previous three months has resulted in a high, maximum water table and additional rain has nowhere to go leading to standing water.
There are plenty of tasks we wish to get on with on the course and around the grounds, but we are mindful of the damage a two-and-a-half-ton fairway machine can do on soft ground, so it is better that it stays in the warehouse for now instead of ploughing up the course.
We do have a list of winter works to chug through and plenty of tasks which require the attention of the team. We all long for better weather and longer sunlight hours so we can get on with our mission of preparing the surfaces for play, but patience is the best policy at the current time. The days will open out soon enough and the rain will stop at some stage. Otherwise, ark building may go on the winter works list soon enough!
Relocating RHS Rhododendrons
‘Temperatures for January have reached an all-time high’, is a headline which featured in the news this past week. Data from the Met Office and several other organisations is being reconciled for 2022. It’s already been stated that last year was the warmest on record, for the British Isles and in the last two decades, the trend has been on the up. The Met Office issued a document last year, State of the UK Climate 2021 which reviews the climate and significant meteorological events of the year across the UK. There is a lot of data available from credible sources, such as the Met Office, indicating that we are in a period of great change globally and that this will be only the start of this process.
What highlights this issue more than just data is when actual events bring reality into focus, especially when it’s close to home. The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) is about to embark on a plan to move its most vulnerable collection of rhododendrons from RHS Wisley, 200 miles north to Harlow Carr, near Harrogate, North Yorkshire.
‘The rhododendrons are no longer thriving in the drier springs and warmer temperatures at Wisley, where they were first planted in 1937’, stated Paul Cook, curator at Harlow Carr. ‘The stock of trees and shrubs will be moving north in the next few years. At RHS Harlow we generally have cooler soil temperatures and a climate which is more suitable to the species.’
