Tag Archive for: Delivers

ShockWave delivers excellent surfaces at Repton School

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ShockWave delivers excellent surfaces at Repton School: Repton School in the heart of the Derbyshire countryside has an educational history spanning over 1000 years. Although outstanding on so many levels the school encourages pupils to adopt a healthy balance between their studies and sporting activities.

Parents and pupils seek out Repton because they know the school invests both in terms of pre-eminent coaches and world-class facilities to realise ability and sporting ambition.

ShockWave delivers excellent surfaces at Repton School

ShockWave delivers excellent surfaces at Repton School

Sports facilities at Repton School are of a superb standard and significant investments in recent years give pupils and the wider community access to state-of-the-art facilities including two floodlit water-based Astroturf hockey pitches and a sand-based Astroturf.

Alongside the 25m indoor swimming pool, fully equipped gym and fitness suite, are two multi-purpose indoor sports hall and tennis courts run activities such as tennis, netball, squash, and of course football, rugby, cricket and athletics.

It is these sports surfaces that Andy Butler, Head of Grounds and Gardens, is responsible for, covering an area of 66 acres at Repton and a further 44 acres at the preparatory school.

Already an experienced groundsman at Repton for 14 years, Andy took over 18 months ago as the man in charge. His priority was to review and re-structure the working days of the entire grounds team.

“We have a very experienced, and enthusiastic team of gardeners and grounds staff all willing to look at ways to improve our maintenance practices.” Explained Andy “Although in the past we have relied on outside contractors, our current objective is to bring as much as we can in-house and use our expertise to its full potential.

“When I considered how much equipment we already had available in the sheds, it was obvious that we could utilise them much more effectively with better organisation. I consulted all our suppliers regarding the timings of applying fertilisers, seeds, spraying, researching the available weather data and soil analysis, and organised a timetable for a new structured, planned approach to our grounds maintenance.”

Andy cited an example of the Imants ShockWave decompactor, supplied through Campey Turf Care Product Specialist Simon Holland.

“We have had the Imants ShockWave on-site now for over six years, using it intermittently for areas with excessive compaction or standing water issues. Now, in the new system, we schedule the ShockWave treatment for all turf pitches over the Autumn period when the conditions are perfect for this process, neither too cold nor too dry.”

The minimal surface disturbance of the ShockWave, results in no disruption or cancelled games following treatment and all of Repton School training sessions went ahead as planned. The timing allowed the turf to then lay dormant over the cold winter spell, while creating the perfect soil and root structure to encourage excellent turf growth in the Spring. This in turn created natural turf sports surfaces that were strong and resistant to the amount of wear and tear played out throughout the sporting fixtures.

Andy continued “Other practices such as spreading, seeding, fertilising, all follow a strict but not rigid pattern, as the weather plays a huge part in any professional groundsman’s day.

“We plan a complete renovation of our sports turf surfaces at Easter, using the Vredo Seeder and Dakota spreader to top dress after renovating, and the turf is back in full swing after three weeks.”

“There is no doubt that this approach has led to a huge improvement in our productivity without compromising on standards or requirements, and I would recommend that any establishment that is able to bring some if not all of their routine practices back under their own control, would benefit.”

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4turf® delivers a sustainable drought-tolerant sward

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4turf® delivers a sustainable drought-tolerant sward: Opened in late 2019, Stoneham Lane Football Complex comprises 64sq.Km of artificial and natural sports pitches – supporting grass roots football for players of all ages and abilities.

Part of the FA’s Parklife Project, the maintenance of the Complex falls under the remit of Hampshire FA Facility Operations Manager Pete Hussey who, in conjunction with seed from DLF, keeps the five grass pitches fit for more than 425 matches per season.

4turf® delivers a sustainable drought-tolerant sward

4turf® delivers a sustainable drought-tolerant sward

Alongside the Stoneham Lane facility in Eastleigh, Pete also manages operations at the Winklebury Football Complex in Basingstoke and the Front Lawn Community Hub in Havant – all designed to support and fund grass roots sport within the local area. “I’ve been in this role for three and a half years, but have worked with DLF for 17 years, having used various seed formulations at my previous venue” explains Pete.

“When Stoneham was constructed, one of the major focuses was on drainage – giving us incredible infiltration rates in the region of 52mm per hour. However, the flip side of that is that we have no irrigation meaning that in the dry months, pitches struggle to retain moisture and thin out quickly.” Foreseeing the challenges that lay ahead, Pete spoke to his DLF Regional Technical Manager Ian Barnett to explore more drought-tolerant varieties – and just in time, before one of the most prolonged droughts experienced in the UK, in the summer of 2022!

“We opted to switch from the 100% diploid perennial ryegrass mix to Johnsons J 4Turf 50, sown in May 2022, and we couldn’t have been more impressed with the results.” J 4Turf 50 incorporates 4turf® tetraploid perennial ryegrass, a larger seed with higher energy reserves to deliver deeper rooting, better establishing plants – including in cooler temperatures – with enhanced colour, disease resistance and drought tolerance. The 2023 formulation contains 50% 4turf® tetraploid rye and 50% diploid perennial ryegrass.

“The J 4Turf 50 established well before the hot conditions arrived. We were limited on how much water we could get onto the pitches and were thinking we would need to do a lot of recovery work ahead of the new season, however after the rain returned, the pitches recovered amazingly! We didn’t need to do any additional overseeding or fertilising, we relied on mother nature and the seed to do what it promised it would, and it did exactly that.”

Pete continues, “As the season progressed, the J 4Turf 50 coped with the high wear, recovered fast and remained strong enough that we saw no disease activity at all last year. In fact the pitches looked so good, we were able to wait until after Christmas to put a feed down.” He adds, “This switch has given us everything we want in terms of performance, but more than that, has moved us towards a lower input sward which is more sustainable to manage.”

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Huxley Golf delivers security of play

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Huxley Golf delivers security of play: All members and visitors to Royal Troon Golf Club look forward to playing what is one of the most famous holes in golf, the Postage Stamp. The par 3 eighth hole on the 19th Century Club’s Old Course might be the shortest hole on the Open rota but it is one of the most challenging and revered.

That is why Huxley Golf was honoured to be asked to create an alternative winter tee for this iconic golf destination this autumn. The installation will help to ensure continuity of the Postage Stamp experience without compromise, using Huxley Golf Premier Tee Turf 2, the closest all-weather surface to natural grass. Royal Troon had previously trialled the idea of creating a separate winter tee from natural turf, but it was unable to withstand the extraordinary levels of wear and tear, as Course Manager, Billy McLachlan, explains:

Huxley Golf delivers security of play

Huxley Golf delivers security of play

“The Postage Stamp is an important feature of our Club. Being a short hole, the impacts of wear and tear on the tee are concentrated over a small area. This not only affects play during the winter, but it also impacts the start of the golf season because natural grass takes time to recover fully.

“Our recourse was to turn to Huxley Golf to help us find the optimal solution for our precise needs: one that would look good aesthetically and critically, live up to players’ expectations. As a result, we now have a permanent feature that we can switch to with minimal interruption when the landscape demands it. Over time, this will help preserve play to this exceptional hole.”

Huxley Golf used its superior Premier Tee Turf 2 to create the 12ft x 12ft (3.6m x 3.6m) tee, and supplemented this with a fringe surround, which will enable natural grass to seamlessly marry in around it.

Hugh Fraser, Scotland and North East England Area Manager at Huxley Golf, commented: “We understand that it can be a difficult decision for historic environments to work with the new generation of all-weather turf, but most now realise that Huxley Golf Premier Tee Turf 2 offers a superb option for winter play and to relieve wear and tear at any time of year. It has benefits to both the environment, the greenkeeping team and players, as it protects natural features, requires virtually no maintenance, and yet, offers golfers an incredibly realistic surface to hit from. Its unique surface gives players an excellent experience, even in the most demanding of situations and climates.”

The Huxley name has been synonymous with premium all-weather golf surfaces and products. Endorsed by the UK’s leading golf organisations as well as many legendary golfers and celebrities and their coaching teams, the Hampshire-based company’s artificial golf surfaces are in use all around the world at top-flight courses, resorts, and training academies. Across Scotland, Huxley Golf has also recently worked with St Andrews Links, Gleneagles Academy, the Royal Burgess Golfing Society of Edinburgh, Gullane Golf Club and The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers Muirfield.

For more information visit www.huxleygolf.com or call 01730 829608.

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Euroflor delivers dazzling transformation

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Euroflor delivers dazzling transformation: Seed from the Origin Amenity Solutions (OAS) Euroflor range has transformed three meadow areas within Worth Park, as part of a wider conservation project underway by Crawley Borough Council.

With the aim of increasing plant diversity and providing all-important habitat and food for pollinators, the wildflowers were introduced by Head Gardener Stephen Peters using OAS’s biodegradable FloraFleece – helping to deliver maximum visual and ecological benefit, with minimal impact on the environment.

Euroflor delivers dazzling transformation

Euroflor delivers dazzling transformation

Worth Park Conservation Garden sits within 8.5 hectares of green space which has undergone a complete restoration over the last few years, making it an important community and destination venue for residents and visitors to Crawley. “The objective of the wildflower project was to provide an essential food source (nectar) for pollinators and demonstrate that making a healthier ecosystem that benefits both humans and wildlife need not be complicated or involve intensive preparations with harmful chemicals that we traditionally see” explains Stephen, who is also Horticulture Advisor to Crawley’s Tilgate and Goff Parks.

“Together with my Horticulture Apprentice Tom, we prepared three areas using the FloraFleece from OAS.” The FloraFleece is composed of 50% jute, 25% cotton, 25% brown wool and hessian scrim that acts to suppress weeds and provide an ideal seed bed for wildflowers, before biodegrading naturally over the next seven or eight months. “We just had to roll the matting out, lay three or four inches of soil over the top and sow the seed – all of which was complete in a day.”

Stephen continues, “Following many visits and conversations about the project, Mike Ring from Origin Amenity came in with a catalogue and together we opted for the Euroflor Discovery box. I really liked this option because it incorporated a range of Euroflor mixtures which would give us annuals, bi-annuals and perennials for a rich source of nectar for our pollinators and wildlife, along with maximum colour and plant diversity. These were sown in mid-March and we started to see growth in approximately six weeks.”

“The results were nothing short of beautiful. We had people taking photographs, sharing feedback on social media and we even had a local artist in her 90’s paint one of the wildflower meadows, the end result now proudly hanging in the community room of Ridley’s Court. Importantly, we have also noted a big increase in the number of pollinators we’ve seen so the project did its job and more!”

Once the flowering period was over, the meadows were harvested down to four inches with the trimmings left in piles before being passed through a small shredder. “We scattered the shredded material back over the plots and found that where the seed had been chipped through the shredding process, we saw the emergence of young seedlings growing again in less than two weeks.”

He concludes, “This project has demonstrated what can be achieved if we all look to ‘recycle, reuse, reseed and rejuvenate’. We couldn’t have hoped for a more successful trial and our aim now is to build on this with the help of OAS, to create new wildflower areas in some of the other parks under my remit.”

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New bermudagrass delivers total package

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New bermudagrass delivers total package: Pure Seed and Atlas Turf International announced the introduction of Sun Queen, their newest seeded bermudagrass for the golf, sports field, and landscape markets. This new release from the breeding program of Pure-Seed Testing, Inc. delivers the total package in elite seeded bermudagrass, with reliable growth, maximum protection, and advanced playability and appearance.

“Pure-Seed Testing developed Sun Queen using germplasm obtained from Mississippi State University,” said Dr. Melodee Fraser, director of Pure-Seed Testing, Inc. East.   “It has demonstrated wide adaptability by exhibiting excellent turf performance in multiple trial locations over a range of environments and management conditions. Sun Queen is well-adapted for sports turfs, golf courses, parks, lawns, and amenity turf areas.”

New bermudagrass delivers total package

New bermudagrass delivers total package

Consistently ranked as a top establishing bermudagrass in NTEP trials, Sun Queen provides rapid grow-in. From there, the durability of Sun Queen takes over with extreme wear tolerance, demonstrated through leading results in trials for performance under traffic stress at the University of Tennessee. And when injury does occur, Sun Queen’s aggressive growth delivers quick recovery.

The harshest turfgrass challenges are no match for Sun Queen. As its name implies, Sun Queen withstands extreme heat without sacrificing performance. Adding further sustainability, it offers dependable drought tolerance. The powerful protection of Sun Queen continues with proven disease resistance.

The total package would not be complete without advances in aesthetics and playability. Sun Queen features a beautiful dark green color, refined leaf texture, and early spring green-up. Combine these attributes with excellent turf quality and density, and Sun Queen produces a better and more beautiful playing surface.

For added assurance during the grow-in stage, Sun Queen is protected by PureCoat+™ water absorbent seed coating. PureCoat+ guards the seed against environmental pressures and provides faster germination, quicker establishment, and improved water efficiency for stronger, healthier plants.

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