Tag Archive for: Months

Six months work experience on Ryder Cup course

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Six months work experience on Ryder Cup course: Four young greenkeepers from around Europe are coming to the end of a unique six-month work experience placement at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club in Rome, the host of this year’s Ryder Cup. And their stay will culminate in golf’s biggest spectacle, the Cup itself, being held in the last week of September.

The placement scheme was organised by FEGGA, the Federation of European Golf Greenkeeping Associations, and sponsored by CapillaryFlow, the leader in water, carbon dioxide and oxygen management techniques for golf courses and other sports fields, and equipment giant Toro. It is the second time Capillary and FEGGA have combined to give greenkeepers work experience at a Ryder Cup site, but this scheme is very different to the one run at Le Golf National in Paris in 2018.

Six months work experience on Ryder Cup course

Six months work experience on Ryder Cup course

“In Paris, ten greenkeepers came from Europe and ten from the USA, but they were just there for tournament week,” says FEGGA executive officer Dean Cleaver. “Unlike all the other volunteers, who had to pay their own way to Paris, we took care of all our delegations costs for getting there and back. It worked really well, bringing greenkeepers from across the world together. But this programme is on a completely different level.”

The four scholars, Oscar Gummesson from Sweden, Ciaran Killeen from Ireland, Michele Lazzeri from Italy, and Mathis Reboullot from France, have been part of the greenkeeping team at Marco Simone since April, including for the Italian Open in May, and will remain there until the end of the Ryder Cup. “We’ve taken care of their accommodation, gave some help with flying in and out, and there has been regular education throughout the programme,” says Cleaver. “Toro has been and delivered a course on irrigation, Kneale Diamond from CapillaryFlow is going to do one on bunkers, and Alejandro Reyes, who is serving as director of agronomy for Marco Simone, has been educating them on the grass choices that were made for the golf course. It has been a really great experience for them, and I’m confident that what the four of them have learned during the placement will help them go on to become leaders of the greenkeeping community in their countries.”

CapillaryFlow chief executive Martin Sternberg, himself a qualified course superintendent, says: “We were really happy to be involved with the programme in Paris, and are even more so this year. As a company, our mission is to help improve the standard and economics of golf course – and other sports field – presentation, and improving the education of the greenkeepers who take care of those courses is a really important part of that. It’s been a fantastic programme, and I hope our scholars will go home afterwards and remember it as one of the highlights of their careers.”

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Stock Up On Pest Control For Warmer Winter Months

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Stock Up On Pest Control For Warmer Winter Months: It is becoming clear that the planet is becoming warmer and warmer each year, and particularly in 2018 gardens have experienced the full force of Mother Nature. From the Beast from the East in March bringing endless amounts of snow to the scorching hot summer in July, the growth of grass, plants and trees may have taken a hit. But as we coast into winter, we have been experiencing increasingly mild temperatures for this time of year – with a number of pests staying put in the garden instead of hibernating away as they would usually.

Because of this warmer winter weather, it is creating the perfect breeding ground for slugs to still attack and wreak havoc in your garden, even in the winter. This is why it is important to stock up and take control with pest solutions now in preparation for the uncertain weather temperatures ahead.

Stock Up On Pest Control For Warmer Winter Months

The slug killer, Nemaslug by BASF, offers a biological solution to pest control and can protect your vegetables, fruit, flowers, shrubs and trees from a variety of pests – even in December. To use, all you do is mix the product with water and apply from a watering can with a coarse rose over the soil area. The temperature of the soil you are treating should be nothing lower than 5 degrees Celsius, which for December this would usually pose an issue, but for the climatic weather, it is not been a problem this year. Also, there is no need to keep children or pets away from treated areas and the whole programme is entirely biological.

Individual slugs are capable of breeding throughout the year but do so typically in times of favourable conditions, warm and wet weather, and it would seem even in December and January. If you were to leave the slugs be until the spring season, which is when pest control typically begins, you would find foliar damage which would be severe enough to cause significant plant loss on a vast number of susceptible crops very early in the season.

Nemaslug orders can be placed online, with an entire season’s worth being sent out as and when needed. This means that you can tackle the slugs in the garden now but also be prepared for the spring and summer months ahead – allowing you to concentrate on planting and growing in your garden, safe in the knowledge that your pest control is taken care of.

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