Terrain Aeration At Cambridge Uni

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Terrain Aeration At Cambridge Uni: Cambridge University Botanic Garden welcomes 300,000 visitors a year, making it the most visited university botanic garden in the UK. Situated in the centre of Cambridge, the Grade II listed Heritage Garden covers 40 acres and is home to a collection of over 8,000 plant species to facilitate teaching and research.

Equally, since its foundation it has provided a beautiful and tranquil place for everyone to enjoy. The Garden boasts four show lawns and the combination of foot traffic, marquee trucks and ride-on mowers leads to compaction. The Garden has been using Terrain Aeration’s decompaction services since as far back as 2013 and chose the deep aeration treatment for the high-profile area of the Main Lawn in front of the majestic glasshouses.

Terrain Aeration Visit Cambridge University

“We know Terrain Aeration’s work from years ago when development had been done at the Station Road Entrance and the lawn at the back of Cory Lodge,” says Adrian Holmes, Landscape and Machinery Supervisor at the Garden. “The lawns had been re-built after the work but were found to be compacted and the soil was not good. We had a waterlogging issue for a couple of years. The Terrain Aeration treatment rectified the problem and we know from experience it’s a long-term solution.”

This year, the Garden’s Main Lawn area was cordoned off, the machine operation creating considerable interest amongst students and visitors, and Terrain Aeration’s Terralift set to work. The weather was very good and dry, and the ground was worked easily without the need to use the Terralift’s JCB hammer drill. The machine’s probe is driven down a metre deep and highly compressed air released up to a maximum of 20Bar (280psi) to fracture the soil, opening it up for aeration, drainage and to get oxygen to the roots of the plant. On the tail end of the air blast, dried seaweed is incorporated which sticks to the walls of the fractures and fissures created by the main air blast. As pressure drops, the seaweed is mixed in the hopper unit where it swirls around with the remaining air and is then released. The seaweed swells in wet weather and keeps the fissures open. On the Main Lawn the same process was repeated in two-metre spacings, so the underground fracturing is thoroughly linked. In some extreme cases this is demonstrated by water fountains appearing from previous probe holes. In this instance the ground was found to be not as compacted as expected and the 2,500sq metre area was completed in two days, not the original three as had been expected.

“The Terrain Aeration guys were very good, prompt and efficient and quite knowledgeable,” says Adrian, “they backfilled the probe holes with Lytag, lightweight aggregate and it was as if they had never been there. It was great to have everything back to normal so quickly.” The aeration treatment completed, the lawn area was immediately open for unrestricted access to the fountains, glasshouses and horticultural and National Plant Collections.

Terrain Aeration www.terrainaeration.co.uk  01449 673783

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Ransomes’ Nigel Church Retires

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Ransomes’ Nigel Church Retires: One of the UK’s most respected and valued members in the turf industry, Nigel Church, is retiring at the end of June after almost 50 years in the sector. We had the pleasure of working closely with Nigel for decades and his knowledge, technical ability, eloquence and downright likeability shone through in everything he did.

Nigel joined Ransomes Sims & Jeffries as an apprentice back in the 1970s along with other industry notables such as Bob Buckingham, Bob Bevan, Paul Watson, Richard Bishop, Richard Walne, Graham Dale, Jeff Anguige and Barry Beckitt.

Nigel Church Retires From Ransomes

Readers of a similar age will recognise many of these names demonstrating that this generation of apprentices were the base for the new Toro European distribution – all built on the Ransomes skills they had been taught by John Wilson, Ken Buckledee & Guy Catchpole. In its day, Ransomes was considered the ‘university’ for the UK turf industry.

Nigel fulfilled many roles within the Ransomes business and the industry in general. In his time, he has been a demonstrator, technical rep and area rep; had responsibility for export sales, national accounts, regional sales management and training.

Included in his impressive CV is an eight-year sojourn, when he left Ransomes to work for one of their dealers, Kingston House Mowers in a sales role. He was back at the company in 1998, when it was purchased by Textron, became Ransomes Jacobsen and played a significant part in providing continuity as the two businesses merged together.

Later in his career he joined the new Cutting Edge Training division at Ransomes Jacobsen with a remit to pass on his extensive knowledge and experience to the next generation of sales and technical professionals within the dealer network. This was another area where Nigel excelled and the quality of training delivered by him and his colleagues was arguably the most concise, detailed and effective across the entire industry.

In the past few years he has continued to expand this role travelling to all points of the globe delivering training in his enthusiastic, effervescent manner and has recently returned from his final visit to the Far East. Many of us will never forget the long days and short nights at exhibitions and shows, where we enjoyed the camaraderie of a close-knit team in which Churchy was often the pivotal point … with a beer or gin and tonic in hand.

Nigel has forgotten more than many people in this industry will ever know and he will be sorely missed as he rides off into the sunset (probably on a Ransomes Highway 3). It has been an absolute pleasure to work with a man of this calibre – kind, knowledgeable, dedicated, humorous, affable –  and who is instantly recognised across the industry. Just try walking with him across the halls at SALTEX, BTME, GIS and any other international event and see how long it takes to get from A to B!

The global turf industry’s sincere best wishes go out to you Nigel, to Sylvia, your family and grandchildren, for a very long and happy retirement. It is well deserved.

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Bernhard Launch Training Academy

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Bernhard Launch Training Academy: 11th June 2019 sees the launch of the Bernhard Academy at the company’s factory facilities in Haverhill, Suffolk.

The Bernhard Academy is set to become a hub of knowledge for the turf industry and a centre promoting learning and development across the globe. In addition to promoting education to UK turf specialists, the Academy will develop a training programme for Bernhard’s distributors from across the US, Asia and Europe to help enhance their knowledge of turf health solutions.

Bernhard Launch Training Academy

Working in partnership with Mow-Sure Training Ltd, the Academy aims to train customers, technicians and distributors’ sales team to promote turf health, cutting precision and superior playability and eventually to get the most out of Bernhard’s product portfolio.

The accredited training will be delivered in several formats at the purpose-built facility at Haverhill, hands-on training, theory or via online learning. A wide range of modular and short courses is planned, with the two signature courses being a Turf Technician Course and a Turf Manager’s Course.

Bernhard Launch Training Academy

For more information on the various types of training and education support offered by Bernhard and Company, visit: Bernhard.co.uk

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