Grass Clippings
Greens’ Renovation Week
The forthcoming Greens’ Renovation Week will be the first time that any major drainage infrastructure has been installed into the greens since the golf course reconfiguration back in the 1950’s. Four greens (numbers 3, 6, 14 and 15) will be the prototype greens as the test holes for the technique.
Although it is a process that requires a certain amount of laborious lifting of turf and channelling pipe and gravel subsurface into the profile, the alternatives to improve the situation would have a greater consequence, as rebuilding the greens would require a longer period to ‘grow-in’ the new surfaces.
The almost identical process was undertaken on the Club’s croquet lawns ten years ago, as part of our efforts to ensure that the lawns were playable in the wintertime. This process has been successful and has reduced the number of days where flooding interrupts play. There will still be times when a large-scale deluge will overwhelm the course, with the new normal of 20mm plus storms. But, as our croquet Members have found, a lawn which includes drainage is a better place to be.
Our world is changing dramatically as our environment changes at a pace. For sports’ surfaces this means we will need to be prepared for every eventuality. Intensification of surface drainage is going to be key to deflecting water away from the playing surface, key to future course renovations and paramount to keeping the course functioning in the future.
The usual organic matter reduction procedure will also be carried out on the greens not effected by the drainage process. This is a continuing process of removing the organic material shed from the grass plant that lies in the surface. Never quite broken down or composted into the soil, this material sits and generally causes a range of issues disadvantageous to play.
Organic matter removal has been the bane of greenkeepers’ lives for generations, and removing it is the only answer. Fortunately, with mechanisation, it is a faster process than in the past and with good fertility programmes getting the grass back into shape, a minimum turnaround period is achievable.
Reflecting on a career that spans over 30 years in the business, the activities on my first golf course, for renovating the greens in the summer period, seem positively archaic. The tools used then would send one of my younger greenkeepers into a cold sweat. Coring machines that would these days probably be condemned under Health and Safety were wheeled out and great quantities of sand were wielded on shovels and spread on to the greens, using the ‘greenkeepers’ flick’, from endless lines of wheelbarrows. And then there was the constant brushing in of the sand, with besom brooms. The joys of manually brushing sand into a hectare’s worth of greens, weren’t dwelled on during the interview to become an apprentice.
In principle the task of removing that organic matter lurking just below the surface and replacing this with sand to dilute the ‘thatch’ and improve draining potential, remains the same today yet science is employed to a greater extent to monitor and measure. Know what your problem is to tackle it better and these days there is a machine invented for most tasks and outcomes. Using the time of your team is a greater part of management and skilled people are better engaged in skilled tasks and not in brushing sand around a green.
International praise for Club’s croquet lawns
In June the Club held a croquet test match for England versus Spain and, since inception, England has won the challenge twice to Spain’s single victory. This year, the players had perfect weather conditions and again England emerged as victors once more. Both teams cited the lawns’ condition as excellent, with Spain’s players very complimentary with regard to the conditions of the surfaces. Well done to Chris Hughes, Simon Bailey, and the team for working so passionately to get the four lawns, literally up to speed for the competition. Adding to their workload, was the situation that they were also getting the grass tennis courts prepped up for the tennis Club Championships in tandem. Those boys don’t do things by halves!
Hampton Court Flower Show goes biennial
The 30-year-old Hampton Court Flower Show becomes a biennial event following 2025 after visitor numbers fell to 112k in 2022 and 118k in 2023 from a peak over more than 200k (link to article). Exhibitors have an open mind on how good sales will be but wish they had been consulted before April’s announcement of the changes. Many would like Hampton Court to remain an annual event, fearing a lack continuity might damage future visitor numbers. But the RHS are marching on with the plan to promote the new venues such as Sandringham and Badminton shows with the hopes that they will bring in new customers. Hampton Court show is a great mix of show gardens, horticultural events and items of interest. Preferred by many over Chelsea as a venue, a larger space that allows visitors to move around and enjoy the exhibits, without being elbowed at the same time.
Peat-free plants
B&Q is expanding its commitment to be 100% peat free by 2026 with all plants it sells. Mairi Devlin, head of horticulture at B&Q: ‘As part of our commitment to encouraging customers to adopt more sustainable gardening practices, we have been actively working with growers for the past five years to ensure that our 2026 B&Q Verve plants are peat-free’.
Peat areas across the globe have become very important areas in mitigating climate change. As peat forms from only partially decomposed plant matter it means that the carbon that has been absorbed by the plants through photosynthesis while they were living becomes trapped in the peat. The waterlogged and anaerobic (without oxygen) conditions result in the carbon being locked away in the peat for millennia. In fact, peatlands are our largest terrestrial carbon store. While they only cover between three-four per cent of the world’s surface, they store a third of all soil carbon – that’s twice as much as rainforests.
In the UK, peatlands only cover about 12 per cent of our land surface, but store as much carbon as the forests of the UK, France and Germany combined. And the amazing thing about peatlands is that as they continually form peat, they are able to sequester (absorb) even more carbon from the atmosphere, making them a vital natural resource in our fight against the climate emergency. There has been a big push to reduce the amount of peat used in horticulture and that debate still rumbles on. But the awareness that peatland areas are important areas of our landscape and need to be preserved, so even the efforts of B&Q in removing the material from plants in their range is a small but significant step forward.