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Celebrating 25 Years In Irrigation

April 9, 2019/in News, People, Press Release/by Robert Drury

Celebrating 25 Years In Irrigation: Celebrating 25 years in the business, Jeremy Green became an authorised Landscape Agent for Rain Bird UK in May 1994. In 2006 he established Evergreen Irrigation in Pitstone and the company has become one of the UK’s most well respected landscape irrigation specialists. Jeremy says: “Irrigation has become important in […]

Riptide Plays Key Role At JCB

April 9, 2019/in News, Press Release, Sport/by Lucy Nicholls

Riptide Plays Key Role At JCB: ICL’s Riptide, the no1 ranked creeping bentgrass, has been a key player in the development of the greens at the stunning JCB Golf and Country Club. Set amid the lush green rolling countryside of Staffordshire lies one of the most exciting new golf courses to be built in the […]

Celebrating 25 Years In Irrigation

April 9, 2019/in News, People, Press Release/by Robert Drury

Riptide Plays Key Role At JCB

April 9, 2019/in News, Press Release, Sport/by Lucy Nicholls

Full Sized Blog Element (Big Preview Pic)

Celebrating 25 Years In Irrigation

April 9, 2019/in News, People, Press Release/by Robert Drury

Celebrating 25 Years In Irrigation: Celebrating 25 years in the business, Jeremy Green became an authorised Landscape Agent for Rain Bird UK in May 1994. In 2006 he established Evergreen Irrigation in Pitstone and the company has become one of the UK’s most well respected landscape irrigation specialists.

Jeremy says: “Irrigation has become important in discussions about landscaping – not just to ensure appropriate watering, but also because of the need for more efficient use of water. Many building projects require irrigation as part of the eco-friendly requirements of local authorities. Increasing numbers of Landscape Designers are including irrigation in their layouts and looking to us to address the watering requirements for various types of plants and trees.”

Jeremy’s original involvement with irrigation was when he began his career in the Middle East, acquiring experience on high profile projects. He familiarised himself with Rain Bird working for the landscape and irrigation project division of the BMTC in Saudi Arabia. “ The Middle East has a demanding climate so effective irrigation is essential. If products are tough enough to operate efficiently there, then the UK should present no problem. I was keen to be associated with Rain Bird on my return to the UK. “

Jeremy sees the most significant recent product development to be dripline surface irrigation that provides water exactly where it is needed. Automatic control systems including Wi-Fi linked and IQ-Cloud systems, which Rain Bird has developed, bring new levels of practicality and bespoke control. There has been a greater emphasis on training: “ Rain Bird and most other large irrigation suppliers provide extensive training programmes. I would like to see the industry take a greater lead in training, implementing recognised qualifications and codes of practice.”

Evergreen Irrigation supplies products for smaller residential installations and local roadside landscaping as well as commercial roof gardens and high profile installations including Royal Albert Hall, London Eye, Arsenal FC Training Ground, National Trust Properties and the HM Treasury. “With increasing awareness of the need to use water responsibly, I see the irrigation industry going from strength to strength. The next 25 years will be an exciting period,” Jeremy concludes.

Evergreen Irrigation, Pitstone Green Business Park, Tunnel Way, Pitstone, Beds, LU7 9GJ

Tel: 01296 668402, office@evergreen-irrigation.co.uk www.evergreen-irrigation.co.uk

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Riptide Plays Key Role At JCB

April 9, 2019/in News, Press Release, Sport/by Lucy Nicholls

Riptide Plays Key Role At JCB: ICL’s Riptide, the no1 ranked creeping bentgrass, has been a key player in the development of the greens at the stunning JCB Golf and Country Club.

Set amid the lush green rolling countryside of Staffordshire lies one of the most exciting new golf courses to be built in the UK over the last decade. No stone has been left unturned in the creation of this remarkable 18-hole course designed by British architect Robin Hiseman of European Golf Design.

“This is a high end facility that people might only visit once a year or even just once in their lifetime. The whole experience has to be there and it is down to us to deliver that on the golf course,” said Callum Wark, Golf Course Manager.

No doubt those who play the course will be fully immersed in the experience and will marvel at the imaginative design concepts of the course. It is also inevitable that the course will provide the backdrop for compelling drama to unfold – history will be made and the finest players in the world will steal the limelight but the unsung heroes responsible for this magnificent course deserve every bit of credit.

The story that will not be told, is that throughout this four year journey, the greenkeeping team at the JCB Golf and Country Club have been involved in the whole construction process from start to finish.

“Myself and four senior greenkeepers were equally involved in all aspects of construction,” said Euan Grant, General Manager. “We had all been around constructions in the past but none of us had ever had direct construction experience. For greenkeepers to jump on excavators and dumpers, and to be ploughing and turning soils over is really quite remarkable. We have been fully engrossed in the project working seven days a week making the best of the weather when we can.

“It is a heavy clay site so we had to work when it was dry. If we got two days of rain then we couldn’t work for ten days and if that meant working at 8 o’clock on a Sunday night then we were working at 8 o’clock on a Sunday night.”

It is no wonder that Euan, Callum and the team speak about their involvement with an overwhelming sense of pride. After all, they have helped to create a world-class golf complex that will stand shoulder to shoulder with the very best. However, these modest greenkeepers are not allowing themselves to get that far ahead…yet.

“The tournaments will happen but first of all we need to achieve agronomic excellence,” said Euan.

“In order to achieve that, and in order to host tournaments, you have to be in that top percentile of golf course reputation and quality,” added Callum.

With the construction coming to an end, their attentions quickly turned to ensuring that they had the correct suppliers and products in place which would indeed help them to reach that top tier – and the greens were the first port of call.

In order to select the ideal grass seed for the greens, Euan created a trial area and split a nursery into five different rootzone amendments which consisted of a profile product – which was porous ceramic, a green waste product, two zeolite products and a straight sand. Six different grasses from six different suppliers were then applied to the rootzone plots.

“We monitored the germination rates, density, colour and disease to find out which product would be the best for our site,” said Euan. “We didn’t put any fungicides on them throughout winter because we wanted to know which diseases would be more prevalent. Based on all of the results, and also by looking closely at which was the strongest grass coming out of winter, we decided that we would go with ICL’s Riptide on a green waste compost / sand mix as per USGA specification.”

Exclusive to ICL, Riptide is the no1 ranked creeping bentgrass variety, it is ideal for seeding new areas or when used for interseeding as part of a course renovation programme. This fine-leaved, densely-shooting, creeping bentgrass establishes quickly, especially in spring, growing upright but low to the ground with high tiller shoot density and keeping its bright mid-green colour right through autumn and winter.

Riptide responds very well to lower nutritional inputs and less frequent watering, potentially significantly reducing costs involved in a higher maintenance programme and offering a more sustainable approach; less fertilizer, fungicide, scarification and verti-cutting.

Furthermore, Riptide was given top rankings for quality of appearance and disease resistance by the The Sports Turf Research Institute (STRI) and the United States based National Turfgrass Evaluation Program (NTEP).

Sowing at an application rate of between 6-8g/m², the team at the JCB Golf and Country Club used Riptide to seed and grow-in eleven greens in the first year and then nine the following year.

“We were germinating in five days and mowing in ten days,” said Euan. “Because it was our first year and it was a soft opening, we were under no pressure whatsoever to cut the grass down to achieve fast speeds. However, we were still getting 10.5ft without significantly chasing that. It is an incredibly fine grass.”

“We haven’t looked back,” added Callum. “The rooting has been amazing – we are 300mm of rootzone over 100mm gravel and even now, a year on from opening, the roots are way down into the gravel. They are incredibly strong roots.”

Commenting on the use of Riptide at the JCB Golf and Country Club, Emma Kilby, Technical Area Sales Manager for ICL, said: “I’m really proud that Riptide has played a big part in the greens here and the development of our seeds is growing all of the time – you just have to look at the new cultivars we’ve got which have a very high rating within the STRI.

“It has been incredible to be involved from the very start. From coming in here and just seeing clay to where they are now is a fantastic achievement. JCB is a great company to work with, in terms of their history, their ethos and their direction.”

Please contact ICL on 01473 237100 or visit www.icl-sf.co.uk or www.icl-sf.ie if you are in Ireland.

For more news and insightful views, you can follow ICL on Twitter @ICL_Turf

For the latest industry news visit turfmatters.co.uk/news

Get all of the big headlines, pictures, opinions and videos on stories that matter to you.

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram for fun, fresh and engaging content.

You can also find us on Facebook for more of your must-see news, features, videos and pictures from Turf Matters.

Half Sized Blog Element (Single Author Style)

Half Sized Blog Element (Multi Author Style)

Celebrating 25 Years In Irrigation

Riptide Plays Key Role At JCB

Celebrating 25 Years In Irrigation

Riptide Plays Key Role At JCB

Full Sized Blog Element (Big Preview Pic)

Celebrating 25 Years In Irrigation

Riptide Plays Key Role At JCB

Riptide Plays Key Role At JCB: ICL’s Riptide, the no1 ranked creeping bentgrass, has been a key player in the development of the greens at the stunning JCB Golf and Country Club.

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