Tag Archive for: Cause

Could grass intruder cause the trend of plastic carpet?

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Could grass intruder cause the trend of plastic carpet?: Look all around you and there is grass thriving everywhere – on road verges, in parks and on hillsides. And 40 years ago, it was the same in our gardens. Back then, your average lawn was an amazing thing. It might not always have been in tip-top condition, but it soldiered on, year after year.

So why do so many modern lawns fail? Why is failure almost built-in?

Could grass intruder cause the trend of plastic carpet?

Could grass intruder cause the trend of plastic carpet?

Welcome to one of the biggest mistakes or cons in the history of lawn care.

The idea is brilliantly simple – sell a product you know will eventually fail, let the users blame themselves for not doing things right – and they’ll keep coming back to buy some more. And what is that product?  Ryegrass; is a grass sold for its strength, its fast germination and its good colour. But ryegrass was never intended for lawns and wasn’t used in lawns before the 1990s. And it has NO place in them today.

Let me tell you about this ‘apparent ‘wonder grass…

Some say it is a native species, having been around since at least the 1600s. But back then this coarse perennial grass was sown and grown as cattle feed. Yes, you read that right!  Fast-forward to the 1980s and some enterprising seed breeders created a much finer ryegrass specifically for use on winter sports grounds. It’s a tough grass, just what’s needed to cope with the rough and tumble of football.

Just ten or so years later, in the 1990s, this wonder grass suddenly starts to flood our gardens, added to our native fescue seed mixes.  Hurrah, they cry, it’s just what gardeners have been asking for, a tough and fast-growing grass that can withstand the rigours of modern family living!  And a drought-tolerant species too. That’s all true, but…

… it’s what they didn’t tell you that counts.
In the 1600s, farmers were sowing new ryegrass each and every year. And today the footie pitch maintenance crews are sowing new pitches each and every year. Because if they didn’t, they would soon have bare soil.

The science is really simple to understand. All grass plants have a finite life and need replacing. But our traditional grasses do most of that all by themselves. A brand new bent or fescue plant grown from seed will grow more plants (sideways) through shoots and stolons, and these in turn will grow more plants sideways, and so on – hence, a healthy native lawn is pretty much self-sustaining.

Ryegrass doesn’t do this. One plant is only ever one plant. When it dies, that’s it, no little baby grasses to carry on the family line. No, the only option is to go out and spend more money on more seed and start again.

That’s why the grass is killing your lawn

Keeping a ryegrass or majority ryegrass lawn thick and lush requires repeated reseeding. So, as your lawn starts to look thin and bare, you go off to buy some more of this “wonder grass” seed. Ker-ching go the shop tills, and up go the shareholder dividends as gardeners buy more grass seed than ever before.

So, avoid the ‘failure’ seed and buy instead what has always worked.

What about those hillsides, mountains, parks, road verges and all those houses pre-dating 1990? Why aren’t those grasses dying off each year? It’s because they are predominantly traditional British bents and fescues and other native species– the same grasses we always had in our lawns until the great ryegrass robbery took off.

Don’t let your lawn fail!

We need healthy living lawns. They oxygenate the air we breathe. They remove CO2. They support biodiversity. They play a key role in our collective battle to stop killing the world and everything that lives on it.  Listen to what nature tells you!

And it’s so easy! All you have to do is read what it says on the packet. If the seed includes ryegrass, we’d suggest to put it back on the shelf.

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Vandals cause £1000 of pitch damage

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Vandals cause £1000 of pitch damage: Members of Old Laurentian RFC and Old Laurentians Minis & Juniors have been left saddened after finding £1,000 of damage to their pitches.

On the night of Wednesday, October 9 – October 10, vandals caused around £1,000 of damage to two out of the three pitches on the site, off Lime Tree Avenue.

The damage means that the hundreds of under 7s and under 12s players were facing not being able to play this weekend.

But Market Bosworth RFC kindly offered the use of their facilities this weekend – and until the pitches can be brought back up to standard.

Kevin Vince, chairman of the Minis and Juniors branch of the club, told the Advertiser: “Volunteers put a lot of time and effort over the summer to get these pitches to the point they are possibly the best in the county.

“And then some little scumbags come onto the pitch and cause £1,000 worth of damage in one night – we’ve been set back by months.

“I would be saying to them, ‘if you’re big enough and brave enough to cause this damage, why don’t you come up and explain to hundreds of children why they can’t play rugby on their pitches this weekend? But they won’t, because they’re cowards’.

“For a lot of the children, this is the highlight of their week.

“This mindless act of vandalism has achieved nothing. For a quick fix of laughs they have disappointed hundreds of kids.

Mr Vince praised the rugby-playing community and the residents of the town for their kind responses.

He said: “The rugby-playing community has come together with loads of people offering to help in whatever way they can, and the local community is helping out and checking CCTV.

Mr Vince said the club’s hundreds of members are all intent on catching the vandals so the police can deal with them.

He said: “Our club, when you include the families, is over 800 strong. We’re all listening and eventually one of us will hear something.

“Everyone is disgusted with this act of mindless vandalism, but we’re going to come back even stronger as a club.”

Andrew Spriggs, chairman of Old Laurentian RFC, said: “Since the incident our volunteers have been working hard to undo the damage.

“One contractor dropped everything they were doing and drove up from the Cotswolds to help.

“It’s disappointing – we try to be open to the community and encourage our neighbours on Lime Tree Avenue to come and use the grounds walk their dogs.

“We don’t want to close the grounds off to sensible people, but we are looking at having security posts and CCTV installed to deter anything like this from happening again.

“The response from the community has been marvelous.

“We’re hoping the pitches can be repaired next week.”

Mr Spriggs said there has already been some CCTV unearthed which could help with the investigation.

“We’re all going to do everything we can to see that these people are caught and brought to justice,” he added.

A spokesperson for the club took to Facebook, stating: “We have a team of volunteers who work tirelessly to keep our wonderful pitches in top condition and the impact of this will affect every single one of our players.”

Anyone with information is asked to call Warwickshire Police on 101, quoting crime ref 23/42725/19.

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Vandals Cause Grass Pain

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Vandals Cause Grass Pain: Volunteers at an East End football club have blasted vandals who repeatedly trash its pitch for five years.

Cosmos Football Academy, in Tollcross, which trains kids as young as four-years-old, raised concerns with Glasgow City Council about the repeated problems.

The club says that as well as smashing glass bottles on and near the pitch, teenagers have been ripping up the grass with their quad bikes.

There are also problems with dog fouling on the area which is leased to the club and is not public ground. The swing parks at either end remain public property.

Groundkeeper Billy McNaught said: “The park is subjected to vandalism from kids on motor and quad bikes who rip up the grass.

“We don’t have a problem with them using the park – we just ask that they respect it.

“We are asking the council for signs to be put up across the park telling people to look after it.”

Club secretary Claire Lindsay also highlighted problems with gangs of youths loitering during training and intimidating coaches and players.

Most of the issues seem to come with young people who are early to mid-teens.

She said: “We want the public to know that this is a leased park – it is not a public park.

“We train kids from four to 12-years-old but most of the problems we have are with 14 to 16-year-olds.

“When you are training the kids, you can hear the youths at the other end of the park. Their actions cause a lot of damage to the grounds – it isn’t fair.”

The club is currently on an annual lease from City Property, run by Glasgow City Council, but hopes to get at least a 10-year minimum lease which would help bosses apply for grant funding to maintain the facility.

Mr McNaught added: “If we do get a 10-year lease we can get the park fenced off and shower and changing units installed provided we were successful in getting a grant.”

Councillor Thomas Kerr visited the pitch to try and help find a solution for the club.

He said: “I got in touch with the officers to see if they could arrange a visit. There had been some email correspondence, but I thought it would be better to visit and see the issues first hand.”

A spokesman for the council said: “We had a very positive meeting with Cosmos and agreed to a number of actions that we hope will help them run football on their pitch. We will be putting up signage to make it clear the pitch is for the sole use of Cosmos to make it easier for them to manage the space.

“Nearby drainage gullies will be cleaned out to help protect the pitch from the risk of flooding and we will enhancing the cleansing operation around the

park.

“Community Enforcement will increase patrols to address anti-social behaviour in the area and also we’ll undertake some other bits of general maintenance that will help improve the overall environment.

“Cosmos deserve a lot of credit for the work they have done to improve their pitch and to encourage young people to get involved in football in the Tollcross area.

“This is the kind of community-driven initiative that can really make a difference to an area and we will be supporting their efforts as much as possible.”

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Chemical Cause For Concern

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Chemical Cause For Concern: With a dwindling chemical arsenal, more and more greenkeepers are embracing natural alternatives, chief among them being enriched biochar from UK company Carbon Gold. But who are Carbon Gold, what is enriched biochar and, critically, does it work?  

With iprodione banned and propiconazole and chlorothalonil on their way out, the three “silver bullets” of professional sports turf, which the entire industry has relied on for decades to keep our various courses and pitches green and playable, are all at once unavailable.  Compounding the issue, it’s almost certain that nutrient application will be stymied on environmental grounds to prevent run off into the water table in the near future.

Chemical Cause For Concern

However, although it’s no doubt a source of anxiety, few greenkeepers are truly despairing just yet, and some are completely at ease having already replaced their chemical and nutrient arsenal with an organic alternative before the chemicals have stopped being sold. That organic alternative? Carbon Gold’s enriched biochar product, Turf Improver.

Biochar is a high-carbon form of charcoal that improves the water-holding capacity, nutrient retention, aeration and structure of soils and substrates.  It also provides a permanent protective refuge for beneficial microbiology.

Carbon Gold’s Turf Improver is biochar enriched with beneficial fungi, nutrients and bacteria and delivers improved turf health and vitality, improves rooting and nutrient retention.

Does it work?  Commercial trials indicate yes.

At Mullion Golf Club, the most southernly course in the country, enriched biochar Turf Improver was incorporated into the 14th green which was considered the course’s problem green in Jan 2018. Just eight months on, despite an outbreak of Fusarium on some of the courses untreated greens in the autumn, the 14th green is completely disease free, the grass is showing better rooting, feels firmer and is looking much healthier.

At Okehampton Golf Club in Devon, the incorporation of enriched biochar Turf Improver into the 5th and 12th greens in March 2017 resulted in a 20% fertiliser reduction and a 100% fungicide reduction on both greens.

So who are Carbon Gold?

The company was founded by Craig Sams, founder of Green & Blacks Chocolate, back in 2007 as an organic, peat-free planting aid for the retail sector.  But with a few years of incredible results from third-party scientific trials looking into enriched biochar’s effect on plant health in the commercial crop growing and tree care sectors, trade eventually superseded the company’s retail offering.

Chemical Cause For Concern

Enriched biochar is used extremely effectively in the incredibly controlled growing conditions of both organic and conventional greenhouses in the UK and Europe, and is quickly establishing itself as the standard for tree planting and care.  It was introduced to the professional sports turf market by Carbon Gold only a year ago but has already picked up the distribution support of Sherriff Amenity, the UK’s leading sports turf consultants and suppliers.

The times are certainly changing, but so are the tools we have at our disposal to keep our turf healthy.  With this new generation of environmentally friendly products, like Carbon Gold’s enriched biochar, retiring chemical fungicides and pesticides might not be the handicap it’s expected to be.

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Vandals Cause Golf Course Closure

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Vandals Cause Golf Course Closure: Golf course bosses have been left gutted after vandals went on a spree at the site, forcing the course to close.

Bishopswood Golf Course, in Tadley, had to be closed today after, overnight, vandals caused extensive damage to the course’s greens.

Rakes and flags were used to cause the damage before they were either broken or thrown into the water hazards at the course.

General manager at the course Kevin Pickett said: “We have greenkeepers here who work hard and give a lot of dedication and then they come into work to see this, it is just gutting for them and for everyone.

“It is just malicious vandalism.

“We have had to close for the day which means there are loss of earnings for us, but it is more the time it takes to repair all of the damage.

“It has happened before with damage done to the course, but this is a bit more.”

Police say the damage was believed to have been done from between 7.30pm on Wednesday and 7.15am today though the golf course staff believe it was more likely to have happened yesterday evening.

It is hoped the course will reopen on Friday.

Anyone who saw anything suspicious or who may have any information about this crime is asked to call 101, quoting reference 44190062690.

Alternatively, call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

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