The Sir Harold Hillier Gardens are famous around the globe and have the world’s largest collection of hardy trees and shrubs anywhere in the temperate world. The Gardens now hold fourteen National Plant Collections and the latest planting project has been named ‘Valley of Fire’. The name is derived from the planting of over 30 different types of trees and shrubs that will create stunning autumn colour on both sides of what is currently known as Oak Tree Vista.

One of the challenges that faced the scheme was the need to create drainage in several areas of wet, heavy clay, to get the plantings off to a good start. David Jewell, Head of Collections, called upon the services of Terrain Aeration to carry out systematic treatment of the areas around the new plantings. “I have known of the Terrain Aeration service for many years,” says David, “and have used them before. Their machines do an excellent job with very little disruption, in our case in quite tight areas on very soft ground. The results always speak for themselves.”

Terrain Aeration primarily used their Terralift Tracker to treat the areas between and around the saplings. The soft rubber tracks allowed the machine to traverse the soft ground and let the operator treat and de-compact the areas below any waterlogging. The method is especially effective where compaction or a natural water table forms an impermeable layer that will not allow water to pass through it; typical where there are areas of clay. The machine’s probe reaches far deeper than normal aeration and hydraulic fracturing of the ground with an air blast opens it up to improve drainage, and allow the all-important aeration around the root areas. As the probe exits the ground, dried seaweed is injected which swells in wet weather to keep the probe holes open to aeration. Four shots per square metre were delivered around the saplings.

The new planting created in the Oak Field Vista, the large area of the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens located just as you enter, has a viewpoint down a steep slope towards the distant Hampshire countryside. Planted with a collection of Oak trees, the views are beautiful most of the year but in autumn months, while elsewhere the Gardens are vibrant, there is only a scattering of colour. The new plantings of North American Maples, Liquidambar, Acer, Sorbus and Cherry, interplanted around the existing trees, will bring tinted orange-reds to the view, while shrub beds planted with Sumachs, Lindera and Euonymus of orange, yellows, orangey reds and gold will complete the stunning autumn colour of the Valley of Fire.

The annual pre-season meeting and conference of the groundsmen and the ECB’s Pitches Group has taken place at St Georges Park.
The unsung heroes of first-class cricket – the groundsmen who produce the surfaces on which the game is played – were treated to a couple of days at the FA’s National Football Centre at St George’s Park in Staffordshire this week.

The 330-acre site was chosen for the first time as the venue for the annual pre-season meeting and conference of the groundsmen and the ECB’s Pitches Group – with the cross-fertilisation of ideas continuing as speakers included Neil Stubley, the head groundsman for the All England Lawn Tennis Club at Wimbledon.

“St George’s Park was an excellent venue for a very worthwhile couple of days,” reflected Chris Wood, the ECB’s Pitches Consultant.

“It is an important annual event for us, providing us with the chance to keep the county groundsmen informed of any changes in pitch-related rules and regulations, and them with the chance to raise any issues with us.

“But we also try to provide them with some different perspectives, and this year they included Neil Stubley from the All England Club and also Alan Ferguson, whose role as head groundsman at the FA takes in Wembley as well as St George’s Park – and who also gave us a tour of their new facilities. I was blown away, and I think that was a common reaction.

“All first-class groundsmen come under huge pressure during the course of the season, so hopefully it was enlightening for them to hear from Neil and Alan in terms of precision, attention to detail – and having no margin for error. The fields of play may be different, but there are many common areas where we can assist each other, from pitch management, equipment, innovations and research.

“We also heard a presentation from David Bates, the managing director of Total Play, who are one of our most important partners in the recreational game, both in regard to non-turf pitches and in improving squares.

“David has worked with me on our research into providing training facility surfaces conducive to spin at the National Performance Centre in Loughborough, and we were also given an update from Dr Iain James of TGMS, one of the country’s most respected soil scientists, on the research that has been commissioned by the ECB into spin.

“Our executive board gave the go-ahead last year for a sizeable investment providing new equipment for county groundsmen to test the hardness and moisture of their pitches, and we are now starting to collate some data results from that.

“All this was invaluable to our own ECB Pitches Group, led by the Head of Cricket Operations Alan Fordham and the Chairman of the Cricket Committee Peter Wright, and also including Tim Robinson as a senior representative of the first-class umpires, and Bill Hughes, Chairman of our Pitches Research Group.

“We should also mention Jason Booth, a familiar figure to our members after his years with Keith Boyce on the cricket and rugby pitches at Headingley, and now a leading figure at the Institute of Groundsmanship – as well as a regular club cricketer with Barnsley. He worked with me on choosing and securing St George’s Park as a venue, and talked about the IoG’s role in benchmarking standards.”

By Tuesday evening, the groundsmen had scattered around the country back to their counties – already well aware of the forecast of widespread ice, snow and sleet this weekend, with the first pre-season fixtures now approaching rapidly.

Wood concluded: “As with our annual awards ceremony, which we held in Bristol before Christmas, the pre-season meeting is a chance for us to remind our groundsmen how much we appreciate their efforts. We certainly don’t take them for granted.”

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