Tag Archive for: Aeration

Terra Spike GXi8 HD helps Woolley Park advance aeration

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Terra Spike GXi8 HD helps Woolley Park advance aeration: Playing ‘catch up’ is a necessary evil for many turf professionals. Whether juggling weather windows, staff availability or extended playing schedules, quite often something falls behind.

Happily for the team at Woolley Park Golf Club, Wakefield, the delivery of a new Terra Spike in November, and four months of constant hole punching, has them ahead of the curve with their advanced aeration programme.

Terra Spike GXi8 HD helps Woolley Park advance aeration

Terra Spike GXi8 HD helps Woolley Park advance aeration

The West Yorkshire club is a family run business which features a challenging 18-hole course, and a measured Par 3 course, in the spacious and peaceful setting of an old deer park. The site is beautifully landscaped and ringed by trees.

This season, John Rowbottom and his team of four greenkeepers and apprentice, retired their long-standing greens aerator and separate fairways machine selecting the Wiedenmann Terra Spike GXi8 HD to replace both.

John Rowbottom, head greenkeeper, said:

“Over the last 8 months aeration across both our courses was taking too long to complete. Being a 27-hole golf centre, we need speed on the greens. Previously to get around them all could take 3-4 days; and it was a job no one wanted.

“In seasons past, we tried a shallow aerator, which was quick, but didn’t give sufficient depth. Last year with Balmers GM, Wakefield, we looked at what was on the market, favouring the ’two birds with one stone’ option and happened upon the GXi8 HD, with its access all areas credentials.

“We knew it was fast and incredibly smooth and were excited for its great results and minimal disruption, so reducing the impact of maintenance work on our golfers.

“All in we have 22 hectares of fairways and 3 hectares of greens.  Since November, we have achieved an aeration pass on the greens in each of the four winter months, varying depths as we’ve gone. We’ve also covered the fairways twice. During the last week of November, we hired an additional GXi8 from our dealers, Balmers to take best advantage of a weather window: completing one full rotation. We’ve been out with Our Terra Spike pretty much every day since, and have now two full circuits across booth courses.

“Our whole ethos is investment into the golf course. Our greenkeeping team are resourced with the machines they need for task.  Through sheer volume of work we’ve got through ten sets of tines, but the upside is we’ve an exceptional volume of holes in the ground. We’ve literally hammered holes in every square inch of this place but we are better for it. It’s helped no end to get that little bit of extra depth.

“The Wiedenmann has revolutionised the way we aerate. If we set our minds to it, with an early start and a late finish we can get all 27 greens done in a day, rather than the three to four days it took previously.

“Covering fairways used to be a two-to-three-week job and if you got bad weather in and amongst then heaven help you!

“Now the job is much less frustrating and takes less than a week. The team feel they are making real progress rather than plodding at a slow speed.

“On the fairways ideally, we only want to work the soil up to 15 cm. Ninety-five per cent of our land is built upon coal measures sandstone so we are just hoping to prick through the top soil and then let the stone layer do its thing. We have the off fairway where we know we have a clay pocket. On those we’ve been able to drill down to full depth; getting as deep as we can to help mother nature.

“In our part of Yorkshire we’re the last golf course to shut for rain and the first one to reopen after it.

“Aeration really is essential. With wetter winters and golfers wanting to play longer into the season, the GXi8 just brought us straight back up to speed. Keeping the surface open and, keeping it free draining in combination with managing footfall really helps.  The Wiedenmann is a real eye opener and fantastic piece of equipment.”

Darren Barker, Sales Director, Balmers GM said:

Thank you to John, Philip & Jane Rowbottom and the team at Woolley Park Golf Club for their purchase and positive feedback. We knew this machine would work hard and be put through its paces. The Wiedenmann is all about speed, reliability and increasing aeration productivity.”

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Deep aeration at Bricket Wood

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Deep aeration at Bricket Wood: When St Stephen Parish Council had a waterlogging problem with their playing field at Bricket Wood, St Alban’s, they brought in Terrain Aeration. Normal aeration had little or no effect across the field and there was also a wet patch at the entrance.

Following a site visit, work began on the eight thousand seven hundred and twenty-six square metre area. The ground was found to be too boggy for Terrain Aeration to use their usual Super Scamper Terralift machine, so they used their Tracker Terralift. This was able to move around the site without slipping and sliding on the wet ground. The machine works on the same principle with a JCB hammer driving a probe to a depth of one metre. Compressed air is injected which fractures the soil, creating fissures to allow the water to drain and air to get to the grass roots. The process is repeated at two metre intervals on a grid system so the fissures interlink. As the probe withdraws, dried seaweed is injected which expands and contracts and helps keep the ground ‘open’.

Deep aeration at Bricket Wood

Deep aeration at Bricket Wood

“Several members of staff came along to observe,” says St Stephen’s Senior Groundsman Matthew Huddleston. “It’s a fascinating process. When the air is released, you can visibly see the ground move. What we didn’t know, until the metre-deep probe discovered one, is there are drainage pipes under the field. Water started to come up to the surface, so we needed to investigate further.”

Matthew used an excavator and found clogged drains which were unblocked. Water was then gushing down the drainage pipes. Terrain Aeration carried on aerating the whole site and the field showed immediate signs of improvement.

“We are all very pleased with the results, especially now the drains are running,” says Matthew. “We’re now considering having Terrain Aeration deep aerate some of our other sports pitches.”

Terrain Aeration www.terrainaeration.co.uk  01449 673783

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Terrain Aeration for England’s largest Sequoias

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Terrain Aeration for England’s largest Sequoias: Darlington’s South Park is home to two of what are believed to be the largest giant Redwood trees or multi-stemmed Sequoiadendron giganteum in England. Planted in March 1863 to commemorate the marriage of the future King Edward VII to Princess Alexandra of Denmark, the trees are placed in the top ten in Britain.

The only other multi-stemmed Wellingtonia is at Stratfield House, the former home of the Duke of Wellington. It was planted by the 2nd Duchess of Wellington in 1857 in memory of the Duke and the Battle of Waterloo, hence the alternative naming of the tree as Wellingtonia. This caused outrage among US botanists when the Sequoia was rediscovered in 1852 in Sierra Nevada and a sample taken to England to become named after the recently dead duke. The tree council believes the trees in South Park are most likely from the same seed as the Stratfield trees.

Terrain Aeration for England’s largest Sequoias

Terrain Aeration for England’s largest Sequoias

Recent times have seen one of the Darlington trees suffering from the effects of compaction. The top roots are, in fact, visible and travel a long way from the tree on one side, with a steep hill down to a river on the other. The tree over-compensates to get all its energy.

Darlington Council took action by calling on the services of Terrain Aeration’s Tree Division to provide specialist deep aeration of the area using their Terralift machines. The key to successful treatment is usually to work along the dripline, one metre inside and one metre outside, where the rainwater drips from the canopy. Working either side of the dripline reaches beyond the growing roots, increases the percentage of oxygen intake and allows maximum drainage. Rainwater can penetrate deeper, resulting in a stronger root growth and a healthier canopy spread with an aerated soil structure and relief of compaction panning. Once the trees receive significant rainfall, they pick up as they receive more water and nutrients.

With the South Park trees, all the lawn was aerated as well with mycorrhizal funghi. These attach themselves to the tips of the roots and help them break through hard soil, leaving the tree more energy to grow leaves and in size. The soil was very hard and dry around the base, so some fractures were done near to the tree. Water storing polymer was injected into the area to help retain available water from rainfall for the tree roots. Unlike normal aeration, the Terralift is designed to penetrate as deep as one metre using a probe, which releases compressed air at a maximum of 20Bar (280psi). The effect this creates is to fracture the soil, resulting in fissures that interlink as the Terralift repeats the process on a grid system of two-metre spacings. The network of fissures allows maximum penetration of air and water.

Terrain Aeration 01449 673783 www.terrainaeration.com

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Terrain Aeration relief for housebuilders

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Terrain Aeration relief for housebuilders: One problem facing housebuilders both before and after development is ground compaction. Open spaces designated for building may suffer years of neglect, constant foot traffic or use of wheeled machinery resulting in panning deep below the surface.

Similarly, during the building process bulldozers, diggers, dumper trucks and concrete mixer lorries flatten the air out of the soil in areas that will eventually become gardens and shared grassed areas. Often the land itself may have had previous buildings, and the subsoil contains old bricks, rubble and landfill. All these factors contribute to waterlogging which normal aeration cannot relieve.

Terrain Aeration relief for housebuilders

Terrain Aeration relief for housebuilders

Terrain Aeration’s Housebuilder’s Division has developed the specialist machinery and a full service needed for deep penetration aeration to relieve the problem of heavy compaction and waterlogging. Designed to access tight areas, their Terralift tracked aerator can enter small gardens through a gateway or garage and provide unique one-metre-deep aeration. At this depth, compressed air is released via a probe to fracture the soil and create fissures, allowing drainage and letting oxygen reach deep into the soil. Such work has been carried out for many years by Terrain Aeration for the UK’s leading housebuilders including Taylor-Wimpey, Barratt and Persimmon. A typical recent contract saw them treating ten small gardens and a small open flower meadow for Barratt David Wilson Homes in East Anglia while a project for Taylor-Wimpey was treating an open space so the housing development could be signed off with the council as ‘decompacted’. In this instance, the full-size Terralift machines were used, driving the JCB road breaker probe into the ground. At one metre depth the compressed air, up to 20Bar/280psi, was released from the probe which, on the tail-end of the blast, injects dried seaweed. This sticks to the fissures created as the Terralift process is repeated at two-metre centre spacing on a staggered grid. The seaweed expands and contracts with the soil’s moisture content to allow drainage and aeration.

The Terrain Aeration process has been in operation for over thirty years, providing compaction relief for new-build gardens, sports grounds, golf courses, amenity areas and public spaces. The Terrain Aeration Tree Division provides the specialist treatment for Royal Parks and arboriculturalists throughout the UK.  Terrain Aeration 01449 673783 www.terrainaeration.co.uk

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Terrain Aeration launches Tree Division

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Terrain Aeration launches Tree Division: David Churchyard has joined Terrain Aeration Services to head up the new Terrain Aeration Tree Division. The company has been treating trees for over thirty years and sees this as an opportunity to expand their specialist service. David brings an extensive wealth of knowledge regarding pests, diseases and fungal growths to trees as well as turf.

He was employed as a head forester for twenty-one years on a 6000 acre estate where he was involved in working on and looking after all aspects of the estate’s extensive woodlands. This covered planting heritage oaks, caring for the veteran 900-year-old trees and drawing up management plans for current and future works. To increase his knowledge over the years, David has taken part in many lectures and courses on veteran trees in various locations, including Windsor Castle estate. He also took part in a film on AOD (Acute Oak Decline), the relatively new disease that began affecting many British oak trees since the last quarter of the 20th century. Climate changes are strongly affecting our trees and helping keep them alive is now a priority and one which David relishes in having a key role in.

Terrain Aeration launches Tree Division

Terrain Aeration launches Tree Division

Terrain Aeration’s Terralift machine is recognised by Tree Officers as a solution to deep aeration and relief of compaction panning around tree roots. The Terralift is the only machine which can aerate around the root zone and put oxygen back into the soil. It breaks up compaction and panning, providing relief from waterlogging and the danger of the waterborne disease Phytophthora. Terrain Aeration’s Tree Division can inspect and advise on suitable treatment without exposing entire areas of tree roots, which may cause undue stress to the trees. One metre deep penetration aeration treatment is used around trees and to treat compacted turf and grass areas. David has joined Terrain to head and expand the division and to get the critical message out there that “it’s the roots that are the root of the problem!” Many trees of all ages are struggling with compaction. This means that essential nutrients are not getting down to the life-giving area of the tree. The message is simple, take care of the bottom-the roots-and the top of the tree will look after itself.

Terrain Aeration 01449 673783 www.terrainaeration.com

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