Fusion Media parts ways with SALTEX

Fusion Media parts ways with SALTEX: PR and marketing agency Fusion Media has today parted ways with the Grounds Management Association (GMA) for the promotion of SALTEX.

The Kent based agency confirmed to its shareholders in January that the decision had been made to serve a three-month notice period after delivering a successful 2021 event.

Fusion Media parts ways with SALTEX

Fusion Media parts ways with SALTEX

Since SALTEX moved from its original home at Windsor Racecourse to the NEC Birmingham in 2015, Fusion Media has been integral to the success of the show.

Highlights of Fusion Media’s six-year SALTEX campaign include:

  • Achieved record-breaking pre-reg and final attendance figures year on year.
  • Significantly grew the show’s international audience.
  • Increased a younger demographic of visitor.
  • Increased visitors from the local authority and landscaping sectors.
  • Increased returning visitor percentage and first-time visitor percentage.
  • Created social media accounts and accumulated a following of over 12K.
  • Carried out strategic PR campaigns with regular coverage in over 75 publications throughout the UK, Europe, and America.

Fusion Media’s work on SALTEX was also recently recognised by the wider events industry after it picked up a prestigious Exhibition News (EN) Award and shortlisted in another.

Commenting on the decision, Fusion Media managing director Christopher Bassett said: “I am extremely proud of the Fusion team and what we’ve been able to achieve over the past six years to make SALTEX the success that it is and grow the show.

“The past two years has changed the way we look at all of our contracts and we are looking forward to the new and exciting challenges ahead. Working with the GMA and the wider team to put on a show the size of SALTEX has been a great experience. I wish the GMA and SALTEX success in the future.”

For more information, please visit www.fusion-media.eu

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2022 Garden Trend Report

2022 Garden Trend Report: A new study by garden furniture retailer, Moda Furnishings, has looked into a variety of data sources to see what types of gardens people are looking at for inspiration this year, their favourite colours, furniture trends, flowers and more.

As spring is here people are looking to give their garden a refresh or maybe even a total makeover. Moda Furnishings has put together their 2022 Garden Trend Report showing all the most popular garden trends!

2022 Garden Trend Report

2022 Garden Trend Report

As warm weather hits the UK people are beginning to plant their flowers for the Spring and Summer seasons. Moda analysed search patterns to discover what flowers people were most interested in as spring approaches. Violets came out on top with over 659,000 searches and tulips were not far behind in second with 558,100 searches. View the full list here:

Flower Searches
Violets 659,000
Tulips 558,100
Ammaryllis 442,900
Daffodils 373,100
Hyacinth 286,600
Primrose 207,800
Forget Me Nots 194,200
Ranunculus 186,900
Pansies 175,800
Lillies 104,800

The study analysed Pinterest data and was able to find the number of pins used for each key term to determine which ones people were getting the most excited about. The winner was in fact “Colourful gardens” with almost 1.5 million pins in users’ inspiration boards, showing that people are wanting a splash of colour in their garden as we move closer to the warmer and longer days. Coming in a very close second is “Natural gardens” with 1.3 million pins, which shows that people are taking inspiration from the current climate to create more natural-looking spaces.  See the full list below:

THEME NAME PINS
Colourful Garden 1,435,672
Natural Garden 1,340,090
Entertaining Garden 1,034,231
Modern Garden 903,350
Sustainable Garden 672,280
Cottage Garden 567,210
Wild Garden 448,540
White Garden 256,788
Balcony Garden 132,475
Foliage Garden 101,435

Moda also looked at what colours seem to be trending this year when searching for garden furniture, flowers and accents. The most popular colours people were incorporating into their gardens are natural colours like greens, nudes, whites and greys or pastels, blues, purples and surprisingly yellow.  

With the warmer weather and longer days on the horizon people might be looking for some furniture to kit out their garden or balcony, but the big question is what type of furniture are people looking at this year? Rattan garden furniture took the top of the list with almost 9.1X as many searches as the second place, wooden furniture. I think it is safe to assume rattan furniture reigns supreme this year. See below for the full list!

TYPE OF FURNITURE SEARCHES
Rattan 301,000
Wooden 33,100
Aluminum 14,800
Metal 12,00
Teak 9,900
Wicker 6,600
Plastic 5,400
Iron 3,600
Bamboo 2,900
Recycled Materials 1,100

As we all know trends come and go so sometimes the best way to spruce up your garden is with an accent piece. Moda looked at searches across garden furniture trends to see which trends are booming this year. Firepits have quickly risen to the top of the list this year with the always favourite “egg chair” close behind. Check out the full list to see other ways you can bring your garden to life!

ACCENT PIECE SEARCHES
Firepits 433,000
Egg Chair 299,000
Outdoor Rugs 195,000
Unique Lighting 169,000
Bistro Set 97,400
Large Sofa 82,600
Water Feature 82,400
Outdoor Bar 71,800
Sunbed 58,000
Dinning Set 46,600

To read more about Moda and its products please visit here.

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STRI appoints Ben Morgan

STRI appoints Ben Morgan: STRI Group has appointed Ben Morgan as Consultant Agronomist regionally based in York, also working out of STRI Group Bingley Headquarters.

Ben has worked in the turfgrass industry for just over 20 years including as a greenkeeper for 15 years, working on golf courses both in the UK and USA and gaining a BSc Honours Degree in addition to FACTS and BASIS qualifications. More recently Ben has gained 6 years commercial experience working as a technical sales manager expanding his knowledge across a range of sports.

STRI appoints Ben Morgan

STRI appoints Ben Morgan

He comments: “This is a genuinely exciting time for me to be joining STRI and working with many established and highly experienced staff across the agronomy team and other experts working with STRI Group. The company has so much history and proven success backed by research and innovation delivering support and solutions for resilient and sustainable, sports, commercial, recreational and public spaces.

Paul Woodham, Head of Agronomy adds, “we are delighted to welcome Ben to STRI. His experience to date will be a great asset and he will be working with some of the very best in the industry and experience many new and exciting projects as we assist clients who are shaping their strategies and ongoing management plans for the future challenges posed by climate change, legislative restrictions and player expectations”.

Contact Details

Ben.Morgan@strigroup.com

07894 096399

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Newquay GC wins Operation Pollinator Award

Newquay GC wins Operation Pollinator Award: Congratulations to Dan Kendle, Head Greenkeeper at Newquay Golf Club, for his success in winning this year’s Syngenta Operation Pollinator Award – presented at the Golf Environment Awards during BTME 2022.

Situated right on the rugged north Cornish coast and running behind the entire length of the surfing mecca, Fistral Beach, the course provides an amazing links golf experience, along with providing an immense ecological resource.

Newquay GC wins Operation Pollinator Award

Newquay GC wins Operation Pollinator Award

Over the past few years, Dan and the team at Newquay have been working hard to refine the long ecological rough areas. “It’s already paying huge dividends, with an increase in wildflower populations in areas which were cut and scarified, including yellow rattle, kidney vetch, birds-foot trefoil and pyramidal orchids,” he reported.

At the same time, he signed the Club up to Syngenta’s Operation Pollinator. “As part of that we over-seeded an area outside our maintenance building with a coastal mix of wildflowers.

“It’s created a lot of positive feedback from both club members and also members of the public. The area has been alive with insects, including several species of bumblebee, including red tailed and garden bumblebees.”

Elsewhere on the course bunkers are used by solitary bees, with sandpit mining bees and sandpit blood bees both having been recorded.

Commenting on his success in Operation Pollinator Awards, Dan said: “to find out we had won the award was amazing.

“It’s a great achievement for us and I want to thank all the team for their hard work they have put in to helping contribute to the award. Along with the members and committee of Newquay Golf Club for their continued support in everything we do.”

Syngenta Technical Manager, Sean Loakes, added: “Dan has really embodied the spirit of Operation Pollinator in continuing to manage the golf course for the benefit of the Club’s members, while at the same time managing the out of play areas and particularly the ecological rough for the benefit of pollinators and the vast biodiversity.”

Golf clubs can sign up to join Operation Pollinator and receive a wealth of resources and advice on ecological management from the Syngenta website: www.syngentaturf.co.uk/operation-pollinator

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Tillers Turf invests in Kubota power

Tillers Turf invests in Kubota power: Leading turf grower and supplier Tillers Turf has invested in Kubota’s new M6-142 tractor to provide the power for high output maintenance and harvesting equipment.

The 142hp tractor from the latest M6002 series is powered by a Kubota Stage V 6.1 litre four-cylinder engine and weighs in at just six tonnes, offering an excellent power to weight ratio for work with more demanding implements while maintaining a light tread on the top quality turf, which is used in leading sports venues around the country.

Tillers Turf invests in Kubota power

Tillers Turf invests in Kubota power

Its 24×24 (36×36 with creeper) speed Powershift transmission makes the best use of the engine’s muscle whether on the road or in the field, and rear linkage lift capacity of 7000kg with up to four spool valves means that it can handle a wide range of implements.

For Tillers Turf’s specialist requirements the M6-142 has been equipped with the latest Egnos guidance system for increased accuracy on tasks such as mowing. It has also been fitted with BKT turf tyres which exert minimal ground pressure as possible and have a wide, flat bottom tyres to avoid making indentations in the ground.

The tractor immediately impressed when paired with a 23 reel, 16m working width V-Mow cylinder gang mower, purpose-built for large scale turf production, but the team at Tillers’ Turf also put their prospective purchase through an extensive series of trials, as Production Manager Charles Applewhite explains:

“We run a fleet of some 20 tractors of 100-160hp for a variety of turf growing tasks and when we had M6 on demo we trialled it on 12 different applications from towing large trailers of turf rolls from the field to rotary mowing, cylinder mowing and powering specialist equipment for drainage operations, all of which it performed really well.”

This was thought provoking for the company, he adds:

“We even used it for some of the land work applications that are normally carried out using six-cylinder tractors. The M6 has an interesting engine – a 6.1 litre, four-cylinder which is a very large displacement, so there’s less lag. It’s a more traditional approach than some other engines, but easy to operate and it really surprised us with the variety of tasks it can do.”

Tillers Turf also asked eight different operators to put the tractor through its paces and Mr Applewhite comments that it got the thumbs up.

“They really liked it – they praised the suspension, which gives the ride you’d expect from a bigger tractor, and found the Kubota extremely comfortable on the road.”

“The decent DAB radio, heating and air conditioning and comfortable seat were also appreciated,” he reports. “It may sound trivial, but when you are putting in long hours in the tractor, comfort is very important.”

The M6 also scored highly for its manoeuvrability, with a good steering lock, and for how it performed on the turf, he explains:

“It’s light and power dense, which is crucial for us as we don’t want to put excessive ground pressure on the areas that we are working on.”

With the M6-142 now in its first season at Tillers Turf, and its bigger brother the M7003, also now in for evaluation, the tractors’ capabilities have led him to think of the future:

“We have five front line tractors which are changed every couple of years, but we also have 15-20 much older tractors which are kept in the fleet because they are simpler and we can maintain them ourselves in our own workshop. With the front line tractors, we are slowly losing the ability to do this, because everything needs a computer and specialist tooling,” he explains.

“The M6 is unique because while it’s as straightforward to maintain as one from the early 2000s, it still offers all the benefits of a modern tractor. We may be able to replace our older fleet with the Kubotas, which is where we saw it fitting in.”

“What surprised us, however, is there were jobs that we thought only a six-cylinder tractor could do, but it could perform these. So looking to the future, a tractor like this with 140hp under the bonnet, but being so light and capable, could fit into our business model very well.”

Tillers Turf Production Manager Charles Applewhite put the Kubota M6-1452 through a comprehensive evaluation process before purchase.

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