Tag Archive for: Helps

Verti-Drain helps Rudding Park

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Verti-Drain helps Rudding Park: The recent delivery of a Verti-Drain 7416 from Redexim is proving key in the pre-winter preparations at Harrogate’s Rudding Park Golf Course.

According to Head Greenkeeper Richard Hollingworth there has barely been a day since the Verti-Drain arrived in August that it hasn’t been out – the versatility of 1.6m machine making it ideal for work on all areas of the course including greens, fairways and surrounds.

Verti-Drain helps Rudding Park

Verti-Drain helps Rudding Park

As a corporate golf course and part of the Rudding Park resort, not only does the club have a very active membership, the surfaces have to be fit to sustain play 364 days of the year… which equates to somewhere in the region of 40,000 rounds annually! “Because of the volume of rounds, when it comes to aeration it is critical that we’ve got equipment that is not just fit-for-purpose on the greens. We need to be getting some holes into the clay-based fairways to deliver the perfect course on any given day” explains Richard, who heads-up a maintenance team of nine.

“We had the 7416 on demo last year from our local dealer F. G. Adamson & Son and used it on all 18 greens, and throughout that extensive trial period we could tell it was going to suit us and the various requirements of our course. It was light enough to aerate the greens with minimal surface disruption, yet strong enough to be effective on fairways and surrounds.”  The superior build quality of the Verti-Drain 7416 makes it ideal for the full-range of aeration tasks; a range of tine options delivering flexible and accurate aeration down to depths of 350mm.

“To date, we’ve aerated all of the greens surrounds and multiple weak fairways with ¾” tines, as we tackle compaction and dry patches ahead of the arrival of winter. We’ve also purchased ½” tines for the deep, pre-winter work on the greens and needle tines for the summer.” Richard adds, “Spanning double the acreage of most regular courses, getting the job done well and quickly is so important. In my view, the Verti-Drain still leads the market in terms of ease-of use and performance, all backed-up with excellent support and service from Redexim and their dealer network.”

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Gator helps keep the coast clean

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Gator helps keep the coast clean: A John Deere Gator utility vehicle supplied by dealer Seamus Weldon Groundcare Equipment to Ireland’s largest Clean Coasts group is adding extra muscle and pulling power to beach cleaning efforts along a 25-mile stretch of the east Cork coastline.

The multi award-winning Clean Coasts Ballynamona Group bought the XUV 855M Gator to help step up its ongoing fight against the scourge of marine litter. Group founder Proinsias Ó Tuama says the vehicle is an essential piece of equipment in tackling the tonnes of litter that wash up on their coastline every year.

Gator helps keep the coast clean

Gator helps keep the coast clean

The Gator has a towing capacity of 680kg and can carry over 450kg of cargo. It is mainly used for helping to pull heavy marine litter such as old, abandoned fishing nets and ropes that wash up on the shore, as well as carrying anything from bags of plastic rubbish to rubber tyres.

Founded in 2015, Clean Coasts Ballynamona is now part of the Sea and Land Trust. It has over 300 regular volunteers that clean and maintain an area representing 1.5 per cent of the total Irish coastline, including two Blue Flag and three Green Coast beaches.

Alongside this effort, the group manages 34 acres of meadowland spread across the county, which is grown to encourage pollinators and wildlife. This is maintained by a John Deere X950R rear discharge/rear collect diesel lawn tractor, also supplied by Weldons. In addition, the group consults with businesses and landowners on biodiversity plans covering a further 600 acres of private and public spaces, so these can be managed more sympathetically to benefit the environment – all free of charge.

“In our first year as a group we lifted 12 tonnes of marine litter on less than a mile of beach at Ballynamona – multiply that up by the entire Irish coastline and you can see the scale of the problem,” says Proinsias Ó Tuama, who is a teacher with the Cork Education and Training Board. “We were using a quad bike and trailer before, which were adequate for the job, but the group is very health and safety conscious so we set about looking for a more effective replacement.

“Having had a good experience with the lawn tractor, it made sense to go back to Michael Weldon at the John Deere dealership, so we sold the quad bike and also got Fisheries Local Action Group funding to help pay for the new Gator and a wider trailer. I’m proud to say we have a 100 per cent safety record to date in the volunteer beach cleaning operation, so the Gator’s proved to be an ideal solution.

“When you’re picking up plastic bottles for example, very often they’re full of sea water, sand and other debris, and this can make the collection bags very heavy to carry safely along a long stretch of beach. This is not ideal, particularly for very young children, so it makes sense to use a four-wheel drive vehicle with a load bed and a decent capacity to carry the full bags back to the beach car park for safe disposal.

“Over the years the group’s been active, we have brought more than 1000 people beach cleaning voluntarily. We’ve always tried to be as inclusive as possible of everyone that wishes to help, and we find kids of all ages get hooked from the start. Educating young people about the environment is a key element of our work and effort, so we liaise with local schools and colleges and are very much engaged with the community.

“Pristine coasts are essential. They are not just very important ecosystems, they are also crucial for the local economy. The addition of this new John Deere Gator has really expanded our beach cleaning capabilities, as well as making the job more efficient and safer for our volunteers.”

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Foamstream helps keep Cornwall streets clean

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Foamstream helps keep Cornwall streets clean: Weedingtech’s Foamstream system is helping street and public open spaces cleansing in Cornwall with two Foamstream M1200 systems now being operated in the county.

Foamstream is known to be the most cost-effective and versatile herbicide-free solution for controlling unwanted vegetation and carrying out sanitisation tasks in large green and urban spaces. Its patented low-pressure process combines hot water and biodegradable foam made from natural plant oils and sugars. The active ingredient is the heat from the hot water which the foam insulates to ensure it is maintained and kills or severely damages the unwanted vegetation including weeds, moss and algae.

Foamstream helps keep Cornwall streets clean

Foamstream helps keep Cornwall streets clean

While primarily founded on weed control, Foamstream is also designed for power washing, general sanitisation and chewing gum removal. It is certified organic by the British Soil Association and approved for killing bacteria. As such, it is highly effective for sanitising surfaces and urban cleaning. Optional lances are used in the process, and the eco-friendly system is safe for use around people, animals and delicate environments.

Use of the Foamstream M1200 system ensures minimum environmental impact on Cornwall’s street and public open space weed control and cleansing. The M1200 combines high performance with low-cost operation and fast treatment speed. Mounted on a pickup, flatbed truck or trailer, it comes with a large water capacity and delivers a high flow rate, making it particularly well suited to treating large open areas in urban and rural environments.

For further detail on Weedingtech and Foamstream, please visit: https://www.weedingtech.com/why-foamstream/

You can also see more about how Foamstream works, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4o1ROoBfGxY&feature=youtu.be

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Reesink helps Royal St George’s

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Reesink helps Royal St George’s: Having begun its long relationship with Toro with a fleet deal in 2013, Royal St George’s Golf Club in Kent has continued to trust in the brand, becoming a Toro Total Solutions customer with the installation of new irrigation in 2018 and leasing further machinery in 2019.

And the club, which consistently ranks among the top courses in the world and is the host of The Open this year, has had its faith in the brand pay off, particularly when it comes to Toro irrigation which has helped the course navigate a series of droughts in the last three years.

Reesink helps Royal St George’s

Reesink helps Royal St George’s

Course manager Paul Larsen explains: “We’ve had nothing but drought since the new irrigation system was installed in 2018, so it’s been very hard work to keep the standard of the course high, and Toro has been instrumental in helping us through that.

“We had Toro Lynx Central Control System and over a thousand sprinklers installed across the greens, tees and fairways in 2018. The flexibility of the sprinklers and precision of Lynx control has meant that we’ve been able to target our irrigation to the surfaces that needed it most and conserve water through a series of very dry and hot summers.”

It’s this precision, brought about by Toro’s technological innovation, that was the main reason for the upgrade in 2018. “We wanted to get to the next level with our irrigation, so that meant getting a system on board that utilised innovative technology,” says Paul. “Being able to control water in millimetres with Lynx control is ideal, and the ability to change the trajectory on the sprinkler heads from 15 to 25 degrees depending on the wind is also fantastic.

“Since the new irrigation installation, we’ve expanded on our greens and we’ve been trying to grow back in turf on the fairways which had suffered from drought, so although we’re using more water than before, there would be a lot more wastage if we were still using our old system. Plus, we’ve now created our own reservoir to help with the need for extra water, so we can avoid using mains water and be more sustainable.”

And with The Open now looming, it’s testament to the quality of course maintenance that Royal St George’s employs that getting the course ready is “business as usual”.

“We haven’t changed how we maintain the course in the run up to The Open because we are always maintaining it to the highest standards for our members,” says Paul. “With the irrigation, we have set moisture levels that we want to achieve throughout the year, and with Toro we can see how close we are to those levels and apply the correct amount of irrigation in the right places to achieve that.”

Although the quality of Toro products has certainly played a part in the excellent maintenance of the course, the backup, training and support from Reesink Turfcare has done so as well.

“Reesink has been brilliant throughout the whole process,” says Paul. “I find that it’s easier to learn a product and get the most out of it when you’re dealing with the right people – and that’s certainly Robert Jackson from Reesink. On the rare occasions we’ve had an issue, he’s been able to find a solution, and the training we’ve had on the irrigation system has been superb.

“In fact, the training has meant that we have become self-sufficient and can now carry out small projects and adjustments ourselves, for example adding extra sprinklers to some of the walkways. And it’s no different with the machinery backup as well. It’s all excellent,” concludes Paul.

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Jacobsen helps Hamilton Park race ahead

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Jacobsen helps Hamilton Park race ahead: Track Manager, Darren Bissett, says Hamilton Park’s turf will be more than ready for the start of their flat racing season scheduled to begin in May.

“Course maintenance wise, we are on schedule with the first cut of both the track and the lawns due within the next week, assuming conditions prevail,” said Darren.

Jacobsen helps Hamilton Park race ahead

Jacobsen helps Hamilton Park race ahead

Darren joined the team at Hamilton Park from Ayr Racecourse exactly 12 months ago, and his first year in the job could hardly have been more unexpected.
In June 2020, a delayed and shortened fixture list got underway, with eleven race meetings successfully staged behind closed doors by the time the season concluded at the end of September.

One huge positive for 2020 was that local grounds care dealer, Fairways GM, delivered two new Jacobsen mowers – the HR500 Rotary Mower for the track and the TR320 for Hamilton Park’s extensive fine turf areas.

“The machines were ordered by my predecessor after several very positive recommendations. They’ve worked fantastically, and I’m genuinely very impressed at how effective they are. The HR500 has great width at 3.5 metres which allows us to cut the whole track with just five circuits in around 2.5 hours. It makes quick work and leaves a very clean cut. The room that you get in the cab is exceptional; really spacious, so it’s great for the operator. Also, once you are finished, it’s incredibly easy to maintain.

“In March, we will probably only cut the track once a week until it gets a bit warmer and soil temperatures rise, however, come May we’ll have increased that to at least twice a week. Over the summer months cutting increases to three or four times a week as the fertilisation programme takes effect.

“During the racing season, we like to cut the day before a fixture and then again 48 hours afterwards. Height of the cut is set at 6cm for the next month or so, and when racing starts, we’ll allow it to grow a bit longer before cutting it to around 9cm. Changing the height of cut on the decks takes around half an hour, and it’s a case of moving just ten pins, so it’s very straightforward.

“Away from the track, our lawns are a great backdrop for weddings and events as well as racedays, and hopefully, this summer they will see a lot more visitors. Because it’s been a bit milder these past few weeks, the lawns are starting to grow. The TR320 delivers an exceptionally fine, effective cut, and it is so good at striping the lawns and leaving a professional finish – everything is really level. We cut the track and the lawns on the same day, so there will be times when we are cutting lawns four times a week throughout the summer.

“Last year, sadly, we were unable to welcome racegoers and event guests alike, and so we’re working hard to ensure the grounds will be at their spectacular best for when we can open our gates to the public once more.”

Rob Hogarth, Fairways GM’s Area Sales Manager, said: “The HR500 can cut all day long. Robust and smooth, it has built in consistency delivered via a feature called Automated Assist Drive, so no matter the conditions, the finish remains clean and sharp. The big cab that Darren likes gives the operator a superior view of what’s going on out-front; controls are positioned exactly where they are required, so you can also be extremely precise. The TR320 is good in tight spaces and challenging terrain. It’s a wizard at stripes, so it is great at keeping locations pristine and interesting, a nice touch for important wedding photography.”

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