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Dennis Razor Improves Greens At Mapperley

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Dennis Razor Improves Greens At Mapperley: Michael Dickson, deputy head greenkeeper and mechanic at Mapperley Golf Club, has reported a notable improvement in the quality of the greens at the Nottingham-based club since purchasing two Dennis Razor mowers.

Mapperley is a beautiful parkland course with rolling fairways which have, for more than a century, presented golfers with an interesting challenge from the tee. The 600 plus members also find the tight greens testing while they soak up the stunning views of the nearby Gedling Country Park.

Dennis Razor Improves Greens At Mapperley

Michael is part of a four-man greenkeeping team that works tirelessly to keep the course in immaculate condition all year round. He admits that it can, at times, be a challenge with just four in the team and that it is therefore imperative they have the correct maintenance equipment in place.

In particular, cutting by hand in summer at Mapperley is just too tall a task for the four-man team but in winter there is no other option.

“You don’t get much hillier than Mapperley, says Michael. “It can get incredibly wet in winter and no vehicle can get to some of our greens without either marking the ground or sliding all over the place – and that can be very dangerous.

“Our previous greens mowers were getting old, they were always breaking down and the quality of cut was never brilliant so we knew that we wanted to upgrade. Ultimately, what we wanted was a good quality mower to cut the greens in winter.”

Michael visited BIGGA’s BTME exhibition to see what was on the market and after visiting a number of stands he drew up a shortlist of potential greens mowers – one of which was the Dennis Razor fine turf mower. Upon returning to Mapperley, various mowers were demonstrated but for Michael and the team there was one which particularly stood out.

“We had the Razor on demo and were instantly impressed. The members loved it and they could instantly tell which green it had been demonstrated on. Even when the treasurer came out, he saw the quality of cut and said ‘”right, we’re having them now.”’

Dennis Razor Improves Greens At Mapperley

“The other mowers we tried just felt very heavy and more difficult to manoeuvre in comparison to the Razor. It was the best option by far.”

Superbly balanced and ideal for golf greens and other fine turf surfaces, the Razor features a 560mm (22in), 11 blade cutting cylinder for a perfect finish. An ultra-short wheelbase ensures easy manoeuvrability and excellent performance, even on undulating surfaces. The Dennis Razor encompasses the simple ‘no tools required’ click height adjusters for quick and easy operation, a feature which particularly struck a chord with Michael and his team.

“I don’t like machines with too many gizmos – I like one that is simple, straight forward to use and does the job which it is supposed to do. We’ve been using the Razors for a year now and they have been fantastic.

“In my opinion the best features on the Razor are that they are reliable, incredibly well built and easy to use. They keep the weight off the greens in winter and the cut that it offers in terms of presentation is fantastic. Since we’ve been using the Razor the greens have been a different quality.

For further information or a no obligation demonstration, please contact Dennis 01332 824 777 or visit www.dennisuk.com

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Stallion Success For CEuk At SALTEX

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Stallion Success For CEuk At SALTEX: Stallion telescopic polesaws from CEuk were one of the high-profile industry products on display at this year’s IOG Saltex held at the NEC Birmingham.

Displayed to show the varying telescopic lengths of the polesaws they offered a wow factor to the CEuk stand, with Cutting-Edge founder Chris Gottfried able to demonstrate the full CEuk range including Trojan handsaws and Root Assassin shovels.

Stallion Success For CEuk At SALTEX

“We had a huge amount of interest in our pruning tools and shovels and it was great to be able to extend the Stallion polesaws to show the high reach pruning capability they can achieve. The exhibition is renowned for its exposure to outdoor and open space industries and our products are well-suited for many of these: – for example as a useful tool for professionals in estate, grounds and park maintenance, fencing contractors and gardeners to name just a few”.

Chris continued “I’ve always found that Saltex gives visitors the chance to see and experience our products and for us it means that we can show them the features of the product and explain just how best to operate them in different pruning scenarios.”

For many visitors to Saltex, it was also their first opportunity to see the Root Assassin shovel in its 2 size options, the original 48” length shaft and the mini 32” length shaft.

“The Root Assassin shovel is gathering pace with more professional users benefiting from its useful 2-in-1 saw and shovel action for cutting roots and digging tasks. We’ve all come across a scenario where an area of overgrown weeds needs extracting or a fence post hole leads to the unveiling of small spindly roots that flex and bow under leverage. Often deep in the ground and difficult to access, it can be a time consuming and pain staking task repeatedly hitting the roots only for them to splinter” explained Chris.

The ultra-light weight, Mini Root Assassin has been developed for users who work on sloping banks or uneven ground where it is difficult to access the root cleanly standing up. The Mini Root Assassin shovel provides a good cutting action when you are restricted to kneeling or working closer to the ground

The traditional sized Root Assassin shovel has a larger profile head and wider foot placement. The serrated teeth can be sharpened on both shovel options.

“Before the Root Assassin shovel, it would be a case of using a spade with brute strength and a handsaw or axe to break the stubborn roots, yet potentially blunting the tools used. The Root Assassin shovel combines a profiled spade head with serrated teeth on either side allowing soil, roots and debris in the ground to be cut quickly on both the push and pull stroke. Saltex has been a great show for us this year and we look forward to introducing more new customers to the CEuk range” Chris concluded.

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Duncan Ross At Longridge GC

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Duncan Ross At Longridge GC: Duncan Ross Sports Contractors has used its drainage expertise to successfully revitalise three fairways at Longridge Golf Club that had previously suffered heavily with water retention.

The 18-hole, 5,904-yard, course provides outstanding views over the Ribble Valley, Forest of Bowland and the Fylde coast, and, is maintained to an exceptional standard by Course Manager, Andrew Read, and his four staff.

Duncan Ross At Longridge GC

During his 18-years at the club, Andrew had to contend with moisture retention on the third and ninth fairways. Recently, this had caused the third fairway to become near unplayable and action was taken to bring it, and the ninth and eleventh fairways, back in line with the rest of the course.

Duncan Ross was picked to rectify the drainage issue based on Andrews requirement to find a contractor capable of delivering a high quality and tidy project.

He said: “It is the first time that Duncan has worked on our course. I know of the company’s reputation through word of mouth from other greenkeepers and going on Twitter and seeing the videos and work they have done recently, so it’s the overall reputation and recommendations which swayed it for me.

“The third fairway this time last year was horrible. It was black in places, you could hardly walk on it, so if you can’t walk on it you can’t really play golf on it.

“We had more problems when it came to cutting because it would make a mess. In the autumn it never dried up, so I had a meeting with our greens chairman and explained that we needed drainage work done, and they went to the council and funds were made available.

“We then got Duncan on site and he looked at the third, ninth and eleventh fairways and came back with a plan. I had drawn some plans up and Duncan looked at those and decided what the best way to achieve it was, and he’s got the experience, so we were happy to go with what he recommended.

“Going into September we’ve had over 160mm of rain and the drains have started working well. We’ve checked the outlets and there is loads of water coming out of them, so it’s been a sound long-term investment.

“The third fairway and the ninth, which is a short fairway, are now playable. I checked the outlets on the ninth recently and they were running well, and the fairway is dry.

“Golf is a 12-months a year sport now, in the past getting into September and October people started putting their clubs away but now they want to play all year round. The ninth used to get churned up because we’d need to have buggies on for people that couldn’t walk around the course, so we did the ninth because it was wet but also to make it more playable and get the buggies going on there.”

Whilst the main objective of the drainage installation was achieved on the third, ninth and eleventh fairway, Andrew and the club’s members were also impressed with the clean and diligent nature the Duncan Ross team carried out the project.

Because the course had to be allowed time to dry out from the wet winter, work began during May for two weeks when the course was in use. This meant work needed to be flexible and accommodate competitions the course was hosting, requiring the work to be done in a clean and tidy way, something the company is renowned for doing.

“The men worked around us, if we had a competition on then they would move onto another fairway, so the only disruption was the drainage lines that were left afterwards but they were nice and tidy, and the golfers were really impressed with the work and how tidy everything was,” Andrew explained.

“The golfers are happy and we’re happy because we didn’t have to spend time clearing up after the work, we were able to concentrate on looking after the rest of the course instead.

“The club members and the council will look at it and be happy to use them again because the site was always left in a tidy condition.”

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Grow Lights At The Allianz Arena

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Grow Lights At The Allianz Arena: Although LED technology isn’t new, there haven’t been any sports surfaces grown on a large scale successfully with the help of LED light yet. After extensive research, development and testing, Allianz Arena are convinced they will now be the first, by using the SGL LED grow lighting system.

Allianz Arena have purchased four LED systems from SGL, with integrated and fully automatic Infrared Radiation and irrigation, which together cover the entire width of the pitch. Since 2009 Allianz Arena had successfully been using the conventional HPS* lighting units from SGL. Their ambitious sustainability goals were the reason to look into possibilities for a more sustainable grow lighting system. Jürgen Muth, Managing Director Allianz Arena: “In order to get and keep a perfect pitch with a very good natural grass quality, the use of technical support has already been essential to us for many years. SGL and their light technology have been a very important and helpful partner since 2009. Now we climb a new step and look forward to the new LED Lighting Units coming from SGL. After extensive tests we are confident to get good results with these additional lights on our pitch.“

Grow Lights At The Allianz Arena

SGL founder Nico van Vuuren explains the challenge of creating top quality growth with LED: “LED is a fast developing technology and a lot of research is still being done in regards to its use for plant growth. There are many choices to be made in order to get the same quality at lower costs as the HPS armatures. Apart from looking at the energy efficiency side of the story, it’s crucial to look at the plant physiological side, practical side and investment costs too. LED has many advantages, such as the flexibility in light spectrum and the energy efficiency, but also some challenges such as the high investment costs, the lack of Infrared Radiation and the weight.”

While many know LED for its sustainable character, another unique feature that LED has is the possibility to create a so-called ‘light recipe’. This means you can choose the colours of the light spectrum that are used by the plant for specific purposes. The success of an LED armature greatly depends on the right choice of colours. Van Vuuren: “Grass uses red and blue light for photosynthesis. We’ve extensively tested different red to blue ratios, at our own test centre in the Netherlands and at the Allianz Arena. Based on the test results we’ve created the most efficient light recipe for grass growth, recovery and plant resistance.”

One of the reasons that grass has not yet been grown successfully on a large scale with LED is the lack of additional heat. In Europe grow lights are generally used in winter, in times that there is not enough natural light for optimal plant growth and temperatures are low. This means that, besides additional light, the plant also needs extra heat in order to get quality growth. Van Vuuren: “HPS armatures radiate PAR light and Infrared light to the surface while LED radiates almost no heat to the surface. Therefore we have added Infrared Technology to the LED unit. Naturally, this means you lose some of the energy savings you have obtained by using LED. In order to minimize the extra energy input, our Infrared armatures automatically turn on and off to reach and maintain the ideal temperatures for grass growth. Whether the energy saving is still sufficient for a high ROI, depends on the many growth circumstances that a pitch is subject to. Therefore we always run pitch data through our light source efficiency model to determine which light source is most efficient for the specific playing surface. The Allianz Arena is very dark very early in the year, which means they start their lighting season relatively early when temperatures are still high. Therefore they can save a significant amount of energy, since there’s no infrared required at those times.”

The SGL LED system was tested along with other LED lighting units on the Allianz Arena pitch, to compare efficiency, quality and user friendliness of the system. The SGL LED grow lighting system has been able to tackle the challenges and achieve top quality, with a system that is affordable and easy operable by the grounds teams. The LED lighting units will be used along with the HPS systems, with the goal to phase-wise switch to all LED in the coming years.

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Rigby Taylor At Hever Castle

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Rigby Taylor At Hever Castle: The “fantastic” success of Hever Castle’s use of Rigby Taylor’s Euroflor urban meadow flower seed mixes has spurred the Kent-based stately home to not only increase the number of areas that will be planted next year and existing plots enlarged, but it has also led to additional, similar projects off-site and the potential launch of a retail scheme which could see the flower seeds being offered to visitors.

Sitting on an estate covering over 400 acres, including an adjoining golf course, the project initiated by Hever Castle Golf Club head greenkeeper Rob Peers to “encourage visitors to both the golf course and the estate to fully enjoy and be immersed by and engaged with the complete site” has, he says, “been an overwhelming success” with the varied displays attracting:

Rigby Taylor At Hever Castle

  • A social media frenzy of visitor photos, plus local and national press coverage;
  • An endless stream of laudable comments from visitors, as well as from Hever Castle staff and proprietors; and
  • Numerous requests (from visitors) asking how they can achieve similar displays of the eye-catching colours and wonderful scents.

After carefully choosing a number of strategic areas for meadow flower seeding, some by the golf course and others between the course and the estate, a variety of Euroflor mixes (from Top Green, the largest seed producer in Europe) were selected; mixes identified as ‘best fit’ options in terms of colour and height, as well as in texture and form. The chosen mixes were:

  • Flora Britannica – 26 species including Black Medick, Viper’s Bugloss and Red Clover;
  • Rainbow annuals – 14 species including English Marigold, Tickseed and China Aster;
  • Posy (cut flower mix), comprising 12 species;
  • Sarah Bouquet – 30 species;
  • Peace (white), six to eight species;
  • Honey – 12 species including Borage, Cosmos and Baby’s Breath; and
  • The Souvenir 100% Red Poppy mix.

“After clearing the unused, mainly overgrown plots – which largely entailed the removal of grass, brambles and weeds – the areas were prepared for seeding and there is no doubt that the key to flowering success was in the preparation of the beds, especially the applications of weedkiller,” says Rob.

“We sowed on May 21-23 and within just five days saw the first seeds germinate. Despite having no rain for the following 62 days, we enjoyed a fantastic display beginning at the end of July – and it continues to last now [October] well into late autumn.”

Lack of natural rainfall this summer put obvious pressure on germination and plant growth: “But I was determined the project wouldn’t fail, and it was a case of all hands to the pump – including family members – to keep the seeds/flowers watered using bowsers and watering cans three times a week. Since the end of July, when it did rain again, the plots have largely taken care of themselves.”

Rigby Taylor At Hever Castle

He adds: “It would be egotistical to say that the displays have added to the footfall here – Hever Castle puts on many added-value attractions throughout the summer to attract visitors – but there has clearly been more people making their ways to the areas of the estate where we planted and there’s been lots of favourable comments.”

In addition, Rob says, “I’ve never seen so many pollinators on the estate – a wonderful sight” – an aspect that is in tune with his enthusiasm for biodiversity and environmental issues.

For 2019, a number of the areas will be left ‘to do their own thing’ in terms of re-seeding, while other patches will be expanded and new areas added. In addition, the success of the meadow flower seed mixes has also generated plans for plantings on other properties.

And now, due to visitor response, discussions are taking place about the possibility of retail offerings – perhaps packets of seed, or potted wildflowers or, indeed, a ‘lay down and plant’ package using Rigby Taylor’s FloraFleece biodegradable matting, which will eliminate the need for extensive soil preparation.

For more information, visit: www.rigbytaylor.com

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