Grass Clippings
Take time
It is rather extraordinary how quickly this season has disappeared. One moment we are arranging the autumn renovations and the next we are decorating the Clubhouse for Christmas. The John Lennon quote: ‘Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans’ seems fitting under the circumstances. Being busy is what humans are good at and within the Course and Grounds Section, we are accomplished at making plans and setting tasks, short- and long-term goals and setting these into action.
The team prep the tennis and golf course for each day’s play and later the same day, we arrange the purchasing for materials for next year, while fielding emails for a project possibly three years ahead. We slip forwards and backwards in time with the ease of a H.G. Wells character.
Usually around sunrise, which at the moment is when a smudge of grey light appears to the east, I am usually found out on the estate as it’s the time when the course belongs to the greenkeepers and myself and when for a brief moment, I can reflect and appreciate the course without interruption.
No doubt, I also have a piece of paper at hand with hastily written notes, jobs to be done, but I also make time to appreciate the surroundings in which we work. To stop for a minute and look and stare. The landscape to the northeast of the course, from the 5th tee in the direction of Wembley, has changed so much in the last ten years, when I began here, the new span of steel above the hallowed turf was the one point of reference. Now a new town has risen around to the north, as London changes on an incremental scale. At least the haven of our Club still remains, part of a tapestry of patches of green across the city.
December is rapidly diminishing, and as we move towards a new year perhaps it’s a time for all of us to stop for a minute and reflect. To take account of what is life is and holds for us, while we are busy doing other things. On behalf of all the team in course and grounds, we wish you all a pleasant festive season and a peaceful new year.
Future-proofing Kew and beyond
The Royal Horticultural Society symposium, titled Greener Cities has recently heard speakers from across the globe discuss initiatives to encourage the promotion of open spaces and replanting in urban settings. Head of Tree Collections at Royal Botanic Garden Kew; Kevin Martin, spoke on how Kew must find new tree species that can thrive in the changing climate. Kew is looking at the Romania Steppes, Georgia, Azerbaijan, as well as Australia, China and parts of north and south America for future trees to suit warming climates, Martin told the Wisley conference. By 2090, Kew could have a climate similar to Altamira in Spain. This means using big data to choose new types of tree seeds to grow at Kew that will be suitable for a drier UK, and specifically London, climate. During the talk, Martin reflected on the botanic garden’s high mortality rate in 2022’s summer drought. It has been estimated that Kew could potentially lose more than 50% from 11,000 to 5,500 species by 2090 if temperatures rise 4C. The need to future proof Kew, as well as much of the southeastern area of England is seen as a growing necessity and one which needs to be taken more seriously.
Sycamore Gap tree saplings
Young trees propagated from the from the felled Sycamore Gap tree are being given to charities as ‘trees of hope’. There are 49 recipients, which are to be given a sapling from the from the original tree which was felled in September 2023. The original sycamore was planted in the late 19th century by the previous landowner, Newcastle lawyer John Clayton as a landscape feature, making it about 150 years old. Clayton was part of a wealthy family, and he inherited the Roman fort of Chesters. He was a keen amateur arachnologist of Hadrian’s Wall who enhanced the understanding of the construction of the Wall and became worried that it was being destroyed by people taking the dressed stone to build farmhouses and other buildings. By the time he died he owned five forts and around 20 miles of Hadrian’s Wall. By purchasing these sites, he brought them under his protection, he helped save them for the nation for future generations. The tree featured in a key scene near the beginning of the 1991 Kevin Costner film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and has subsequently become known as the ‘Robin Hood tree’, although in reality it was some 170 miles north of Sherwood Forest. In 2016, the tree was nominated for England’s Tree of the Year competition. It was selected from 200 competitors for the final shortlist of ten and won the competition. It was entered into the 2017 European Tree of the Year contest in which it came fifth out of 16. The recipient of the saplings are a diverse set of organisations such as Windsor Great Park, the fifteen National Parks of the UK as well as small charities such as ‘Grow to Know’ learning charity based in North Kensington. The trial of two men accused of illegally chopping down the tree, which had been valued at more than £620,000 and was owned by the National Trust has been delayed till January.