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Makita Hold Back The Water

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Makita Hold Back The Water: The 10th Welcome to Yorkshire garden at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2019, designed by multi award-winner Mark Gregory, features an authentically built canal with flowing water and genuine canal lock gates.  A massive volume of water will be circulated by several Makita submersible water pumps that will ensure the towpath, lock keepers lodge and, importantly, RHS Chelsea’s Main Avenue remains safe, dry and disaster-free for the anticipated 157,000 annual visitors and members of the Royal family.

This atmospheric garden is inspired by Yorkshire’s proud history of industry, manufacturing and innovation and the county’s unrivalled natural environment and green spaces.  The working canal has two gates and a bypass sluice system that runs alongside a perennial meadow and the planting will celebrate the rich diversity of native flora typically abundant in Yorkshire.

Makita Hold Back The Water

“I’m honoured to be involved yet again on the Welcome to Yorkshire’s garden at this year’s RHS Chelsea show,” comments Mark Gregory, the 22-time Gold medal winner and Managing Director of Landform Consultants.  “The scale of this project is huge and complex but, as last year, I hope it will be effortless and flow beautifully, just as the canals did centuries ago.”  Mark has taken inspiration for his design from a narrow canal in Huddersfield and has enjoyed the adventures and discoveries of recreating this historic vista.  This will be the 99th garden Mark has worked on at this prestigious, internationally renowned show.

No less than ten Makita PF1110 submersible pumps will push the flow of water in the Welcome to Yorkshire garden.  Each pump will deliver a minimum of 250 litres of water per minute from a submersion depth of 5m, to a max head height of 10m.  These pumps have a stainless steel body making them suitable for draining muddy water, wells and tanks and are also ideal for lifting water for irrigation.  Each pump weighs 7kg, has an input wattage of 1100w and is available in 240V only.

“Submersible pumps are among the most efficient options available when it is necessary to pump liquid from a large body of water,” says Mark Earles, Business Development Manager OPE, Makita UK.  “Whereas most water pumps are positioned outside a body of water and pull water to the surface, submersible pumps are submerged within the water and push water to the surface.  Our pumps will do a great job pushing almost 150,000 litres of water per hour throughout the duration of the five-day Show in what we hope will be another huge success for Landform Consultants.”

For more information on the Welcome to Yorkshire garden: https://www.yorkshire.com/inspiration/chelsea/the-welcome-to-yorkshire-garden-2019

For more information about Landform Consultants: www.landformconsultants.co.uk

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Save Time With The Husqvarna Automower

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Save Time With The Husqvarna Automower: The Husqvarna Automower 500 Series is a range of robotic mowers specifically developed for the needs of commercial customers.

The mowers allow grassed areas to be maintained efficiently and to a consistently high standard whilst enabling the redeployment of resources onto more labour intensive tasks.

Save Time With The Husqvarna Automower

The range produces no direct emissions and are near silent making them ideal for night time operation or in noise sensitive areas. They are also extremely cost effective to operate.

Three models are available with area capacity up to 5000m2 per machine. Multiple machines can be used in areas greater than 5000m2.

The new Husqvarna Automower 535 AWD allows slopes of up to 70% to be maintained as well as rough terrain, the standard models have slope performance of 45%.

The robotic mowers are designed to cut little and often recycling the micro-clippings back into the soil improving grass quality whilst maintaining a consistent grass length throughout the growing season.

Husqvarna Fleet Services which is a fleet management tool is in-built on the Automower 500 Series.

Performance, settings, locations and machine health of an entire fleet of Husqvarna robotic mowers can be tracked from anywhere using the software solution.

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Limagrain Stays In The Family

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Limagrain Stays In The Family: Alex Exton, head groundsman at Witham Hall in Lincolnshire, claims he has not looked back since using a range of MM grass seed from Limagrain UK, having had the mixture recommended by his father Keith.

Keith Exton has enjoyed a long and prosperous career in the turf industry and Alex, long inspired by his dad, is now carving his own successful path in the industry. However, he admits that he would be foolish to not soak up some of the wisdom Keith has accumulated over the years.

Limagrain Stays In The Family

“I first heard about Limagrain through my father who is a big fan of them,” said Alex. “He’s been quite successful within the industry and I suppose I have just tried to follow in his footsteps.

“I know he used Limagrain when he was at Oakham School for 16 years or so and then continued to use them when he went to Glamorgan County Cricket Club.  ​He is now at Grantham CC and is still using MM50 and Action Replay to this day”.

Alex is entering his ninth year at the prestigious Witham Hall which is a thriving boarding and day school for boys and girls aged 4-13 years. The school is committed to providing a first-class education both in and beyond the classroom and sport is a fundamental part of the curriculum – which is where Alex comes in.

The children can enjoy the major team sports of rugby, football, hockey, cricket, netball and rounders, and Alex alongside two other members of staff, maintain the fabulous sports pitches, grounds and facilities all year round.

Alex has a busy schedule which sees a tight turnaround in transforming the pitches for the relevant sports in between terms. As you can imagine, the playing fields experience an incredibly high amount of usage all year round but Alex claims that his use of Limagrain grass seed helps the turf to withstand such high wear.

Throughout his tenure at Witham Hall, he has relied on Limagrain’s MM50 for the cricket squares and Action Replay for all of the outfields which includes the rugby, hockey and football pitches.

MM is one of the most respected brands in the UK sportsturf and amenity industries and is relied upon at top sports grounds throughout the UK and beyond. In particular, MM50 is ideal for cricket squares and outfields. This hard-wearing mix has rapid germination, very fine leaved appearance, high shoot density and is tolerant to very close mowing, along with high disease resistance. All these attributes together produce a fantastic sward that has great colour all year round

Limagrain’s Action Replay belongs to the company’s Designer range of amenity grass seed and is an excellent mixture to use when renovating winter sports pitches. It will establish very quickly producing a dense, hard wearing sward for all heavy-duty sports areas.

According to Alex, both of these products provide him with everything he is looking for in a grass seed.

Limagrain Stays In The Family

“We try to put Action Replay down in the spring and autumn as part of our renovations. I have just recently purchased a disc seeder so I tend to put it down between 20-25g/m2.

“On the cricket square it all depends on what I’m doing. If I have cleaned a track out in the playing season and want to reuse it, I will groove out and apply the product with the pedestrian push spreader. When I’m over-seeding the whole square, as part of our end of season renovations, I must admit that I put plenty on. I will normally apply two bags with the pedestrian spreader, to fall into the grooves made by the scarifier and then I will go over it in four directions with our SISIS Variseeder, again with another two bags.

“I know it sounds a lot but our square is on a slope, so when watering, the water can run and take a fair bit of seed with it. I just think that doing it this way works really well for our site and I get a fantastic take and coverage.

“The MM50 is excellent for the cricket – it stands the sort mowing, the heavy rolling and recovers incredibly well. In fact, both products perform consistently well and I never have any bad results or problems. It’s as simple as that really – they are good solid products.

“If I’m ever asked what seed I use, I only ever say Limagrain and I would recommend MM50 and Action Replay to anyone.”

For further information, please contact Limagrain UK on 01472 371471 or visit the company’s website www.lgseeds.co.uk/mm. You can also follow the company on Twitter: @MM_Seed

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Basildon Facilities Encourage The Next Max Whitlock

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Basildon Facilities Encourage The Next Max Whitlock: Basildon sport has received a shot in the arm following the opening of a near £1m scheme at Everyone Active’s Eversley Leisure Centre.

Witham-based ETC Sports Surfaces has installed new 3G football pitches and floodlights for 11-, nine-, seven- and five-a-side football, while contractor Morgan Sindall focused on the centre’s internal development.

Basildon Facilities Encourage The Next Max Whitlock

The sports hall has been transformed into a state-of-the-art gym to add to the Basildon Sporting Village base of South Essex Gymnastic Club (SEGC) that has turned out star members, including Max Whitlock, Amy Tinkler and Brinn Bevan.

Basildon Council has invested £570,000 in the first outdoor all-weather pitch in Pitsea, combined with £230,000 from SEGC and £123,900 from the Veolia Pitsea Marshes Maintenance Trust.

The full size 3G football pitch allows play all year round and provides players with the look and feel of natural turf and all the benefits of a hardwearing, weather and stud-resistant surface.

ETC worked alongside Zaun Ltd, who manufactured and supplied its Duo8 Super Rebound sports fencing system and gates to surround the pitch.

Duo8 Super Rebound forms a robust play area that is highly durable, low maintenance and ‘graffiti-proof’, with great rebound properties similar to a wall and rubber inserts between panels and posts to keep ‘rattle’ during play to a minimum.

Councillor Kevin Blake, Basildon Council’s chairman of the leisure, culture and environment committee, said: “The development of a second gymnastics hub for the borough is a great opportunity for young people to try the sport for the first time.

“Together with the new 3G pitches they will help boost participation in sport and tackle local health inequalities.”

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Beware Of The Mix Up

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Beware Of The Mix Up: Do you know what you are mixing up in your sprayer and what it is going to do?

By Chris Humphrey MBPR FQA – Technical Manager, Collier Turf Care

I don’t know how many times I have heard someone say “I was told I could mix these things in the spray tank”

Beware Of The Mix Up

Before you mix anything in the spray tank you must first ask yourself what am I trying to achieve? Some things just do not mix chemically, some things will mix but one may well deactivate another; sometimes what mixes well may have an inappropriate water volume.

When applying a fungicide, do you put a bit of iron in the mix? It gives you colour and dries out any mycelium but most iron products will not tank mix with such active ingredients as they react badly due to the acidic ph. In addition most iron products contain sulphates which can react.

This reaction produces insoluble precipitate sediment which forms a sediment in the spray tank. This can block the sprayer, nozzles, pumps and pipework, and render the products ineffective. This can also result in uneven spray applications.

Tank mixing can be a great timesaver but only if your active ingredients are going to do what you want them to. For example, do not mix a foliar feed with a wetting agent. Although they may mix quite nicely in the spray tank, the wetting agent is designed to get into the soil and it will take the foliar feed with it. This is not ideal as you want the foliar feed on the leaf and you will get no response from it if you take it into the soil.

You may be told that by adding something to the spray tank it will improve the performance for your chemical. That is an Adjuvant. An adjuvant is officially defined as materials other than water that increase the effectiveness of an active ingredient but have no biological activity in themselves. For a product to be classed as an adjuvant it must be tested, registered and have an adjuvant number.

For all advice on tank mixing, you must ensure you consult a BASIS qualified advisor. You don’t want to end up with a tank full of jelly where chemicals react or render your expensive fungicide useless by adding an inappropriate product.

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