Tag Archive for: wood

Green-tech Supports Woodland Restoration at Rockyfold Wood

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Green-tech Supports Woodland Restoration at Rockyfold Wood: Rockyfold Wood, situated within the Kentchurch Estate in Herefordshire, recently suffered an outbreak of Ash Dieback. Large areas of infected trees had to be felled, leaving the site in need of restocking.

A key challenge of this project was the presence of local deer populations, which posed a threat to young saplings. To safeguard the newly planted trees and give them the best chance of thriving, protective measures were required.

Green-tech Supports Woodland Restoration at Rockyfold Wood

Green-tech Supports Woodland Restoration at Rockyfold Wood

The Project

To effectively restore the woodland and ensure the successful establishment of new trees, Pryor & Rickett Silviculture collaborated with Kilmaha Ltd. to lead the replanting efforts.

Pryor & Rickett Silviculture is a well-respected forestry management company that provides sustainable woodland solutions across the UK. Their work involves long-term planning, biodiversity enhancement, and commercial timber production. Working alongside Kilmaha Ltd, a forestry and countryside management company,  they were tasked with restocking the site while ensuring the new trees had optimal protection from deer browsing.

Products Used

To support healthy tree growth, the team turned to Green-tech, the leading supplier of tree protection materials and the largest distributor of Tubex tree shelters. Green-tech provides shelters and stakes that offer a controlled micro-environment, reducing environmental stress and preventing deer browsing damage.

To maximise tree survival rates and create a thriving woodland, the following products were selected:

  • Tubex 1.5m tree shelters – Chosen for their reliability and effectiveness in shielding young saplings from browsing deer, which aids tree establishment and enhances survival rates while fostering optimal growing conditions.
  • Stakes – Used to securely position the shelters and ensure stability during early tree development.

Green-tech involvement.

Tom Whitchurch, Senior Forest Manager at Pryor & Rickett Silviculture, comments, “We sought competitive quotes and ultimately chose Green-tech as our supplier due to their strong industry reputation, competitive pricing, and high standard of customer service. Our sales advisor, George, provided expert guidance, ensuring that the right products were selected for the project’s specific requirements.”

The Outcome

The Rockyfold Wood restoration project has successfully restocked the woodland, ensuring a new generation of trees can establish and thrive. The use of Tubex tree shelters has provided essential protection against deer, securing the long-term success of the replanting efforts. This initiative restores a vital part of the Kentchurch Estate and contributes to sustainable forestry practices and biodiversity enhancement.

This project demonstrates the value of sustainable woodland management and highlights the strong partnership between Green-tech, Pryor & Rickett Silviculture, and Kilmaha Ltd in delivering high-quality, long-lasting solutions for UK woodlands.

“Green-tech is my go-to supplier for plant protection and landscaping materials. George and his team deliver high-quality service and always come back with solutions to any problems or queries I may have. They price competitively and dispatch efficiently.” Tom Whitchurch, Senior Forest Manager at Pryor & Rickett Silviculture

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Deep aeration at Bricket Wood

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Deep aeration at Bricket Wood: When St Stephen Parish Council had a waterlogging problem with their playing field at Bricket Wood, St Alban’s, they brought in Terrain Aeration. Normal aeration had little or no effect across the field and there was also a wet patch at the entrance.

Following a site visit, work began on the eight thousand seven hundred and twenty-six square metre area. The ground was found to be too boggy for Terrain Aeration to use their usual Super Scamper Terralift machine, so they used their Tracker Terralift. This was able to move around the site without slipping and sliding on the wet ground. The machine works on the same principle with a JCB hammer driving a probe to a depth of one metre. Compressed air is injected which fractures the soil, creating fissures to allow the water to drain and air to get to the grass roots. The process is repeated at two metre intervals on a grid system so the fissures interlink. As the probe withdraws, dried seaweed is injected which expands and contracts and helps keep the ground ‘open’.

Deep aeration at Bricket Wood

Deep aeration at Bricket Wood

“Several members of staff came along to observe,” says St Stephen’s Senior Groundsman Matthew Huddleston. “It’s a fascinating process. When the air is released, you can visibly see the ground move. What we didn’t know, until the metre-deep probe discovered one, is there are drainage pipes under the field. Water started to come up to the surface, so we needed to investigate further.”

Matthew used an excavator and found clogged drains which were unblocked. Water was then gushing down the drainage pipes. Terrain Aeration carried on aerating the whole site and the field showed immediate signs of improvement.

“We are all very pleased with the results, especially now the drains are running,” says Matthew. “We’re now considering having Terrain Aeration deep aerate some of our other sports pitches.”

Terrain Aeration www.terrainaeration.co.uk  01449 673783

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Johnsons proves tough enough at Boreham Wood

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Johnsons proves tough enough at Boreham Wood: Hosting upwards of 70 fixtures in a season, it’s fair to say that the grounds staff at Boreham Wood Football Club have their work cut out when it comes to creating a pitch able to withstand the pressure of sustained levels of play.

Add to that a lack of under soil heating and lighting rigs which means it’s down to mother nature to assist Head Groundsperson Ben Howell in the establishment and germination of seed – which for the last five years has been Johnsons J Premier Pitch, with fantastic results!

Johnsons proves tough enough at Boreham Wood

Johnsons proves tough enough at Boreham Wood

The pitch is home to National League Boreham Wood FC, alongside Arsenal Women and Arsenal Men’s Under 21 home fixtures which was the reason a replica of the Emirates Stadium pitch was installed at Meadow Park in 2017. Ben, part of the Arsenal grounds team, is assisted by Jack Reed and contractors Premiership Lawncare in the maintenance of the ground. “The play schedule is seemingly never-ending but our budget and resources are not, so we have to be sure that every operation we carry out is going to give us the desired result” explains Ben.

“When it comes to seed, wear tolerance is undoubtedly the key for us, but we also need something that recovers well and demonstrates strong resistance to disease.” For this, Ben uses J Premier Pitch from Johnsons Sports Seed. This 100% perennial ryegrass mixture features a proven combination of cultivars that provide high shoot density, rapid recovery and a camera-friendly finish even under intense wear.

“With this mixture, I just know it works! We’ll use it during our full renovation in the summer and then we will overseed again in the spring to repair any damage sustained over the winter which normally sees us through to the end of the season. It gives us the strength we need and holds up well against any disease, even this year which has been a challenging summer with very high disease pressure over an extended period. With the help of our preventative disease management programme, we have been able to deliver a high-quality playing surface.”

Ben adds, “Our local DLF Technical Advisor Craig Spooner comes in regularly to check how the seed is performing and has always been fantastic at helping and advising us should we be looking to make any changes to the programme. He appreciates that with our calendar there is no margin for error, but with J Premier Pitch we always have a surface that is fit and ready for play.”

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Wood Bay Turf Technologies announce new importer

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Wood Bay Turf Technologies announce new importer: Wood Bay Turf Technologies, based in Edmonton in Canada has appointed Henton and Chattell as its UK distributor.

The company is a leading manufacturer of golf, lawn bowling greens and other sports turf maintenance equipment. The company has been creating world class turf maintenance equipment since 1987, with leading products in the range being the greensIRON 3900 and greensIRON 6200 turf rollers; the fds9200 multipurpose turf dethatcher and the famous tungsten carbide tipped vertical cutting blade, dynaBLADE.

Wood Bay Turf Technologies announce new importer

Wood Bay Turf Technologies announce new importer

“We are delighted to be working with the team at Henton and Chattell to further support and develop our turf specialist dealer network in the UK. They are highly regarded in the industry for their innovative marketing and efficient distribution services. The company will work closely with dealers, building on the existing network and will support them with pre-sale enquiries, training and on-going aftersales assistance”, explains Lyall Adams, President and CEO of Wood Bay Turf Technologies.

Henton and Chattell is a family owned business based in Nottingham, working with one of the largest dealer networks in the market, supplying leading brands of turf and garden machinery.

“Over the last 32 years Wood Bay Turf Technologies have developed the highest quality products for turf care applications ranging from golf course management, lawn bowling greens and field sports. Whether your turf is Natural or Synthetic we have the best equipment, precisely engineered to handle its care and maintenance,” states Peter Chaloner, Managing Director of Henton and Chattell.

Along with turf specialist machinery, the company manufactures dynaBlade verti-cut blades for all leading brands of turf machinery. Strong by design with tungsten carbide tips, the blades are engineered to save time and money with the most efficient linear aeration.

For more details from Henton and Chattell, please contact Sam Russo, sales specialist turf machinery, email sr@hentonanchattell.co.uk or call 07716 992587

Further information about Wood Bay and its products can be found at https://www.woodbayturftech.com/

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Coombe Wood GC the ‘best in decades’

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Coombe Wood GC the ‘best in decades’: Coombe Wood Golf Club in Kingston Upon Thames is reaping the benefits of a tailored turf management programme from ICL and a dedicated greenkeeping team – according to Course Manager Laurence Fennemore.

“I knew the course needed a lot of work when I joined, but I saw it as an opportunity,” said Laurence. “It was a chance to test myself and put my name on the map. It helps having a great team around me too.”

Coombe Wood GC the ‘best in decades’

Coombe Wood GC the ‘best in decades’

Laurence always wanted to be a Greenkeeper – ever since embarking on work experience at a local golf club at the age of 15. He has been an apprentice, a deputy and now he finds himself in the top seat at Coombe Wood Golf Club – which he admitted is not without its challenges.

“It is like managing two different courses,” he said. The top half of the course consists of 10 very gravelly holes and the lower half, holes 11-18, is on clay which hold a lot of water. As soon as I came here in 2019, we had a very wet winter, and the lower half of the course wasn’t open at all.

“I found that the grass had died off on the fairways and had been overrun with weeds and there was quite a lot of disease on the greens.”

Laurence explained it was at this point that he got in touch with ICL.

“My old Course Manager worked with an ICL turf management programme, and I saw the successful results from that first hand. With this in mind I got in contact with ICL to see how they could help me out.”

Matt Nutter, ICL Technical Area Sales Manager, worked with Laurence to put a specific programme together for a full season that was within his budget. “We needed to focus on the greens and fairways and take into consideration that it is a very wet site, without any irrigation,” said Matt. “The aim was to apply some controlled release granular fertilisers as base feeds; get some good growth and give the golfers a course that they could use.”

Starting with the greens, the programme first saw Laurence apply Greenmaster Pro-Lite Turf Tonic 8-0-0 – a micro-granular fertiliser before going onto a fortnightly tank-mix consisting of Greenmaster Liquid CalMag, Vitalnova Stressbuster, Primo Maxx II plant growth regulator and Syngenta’s Ryder turf pigment. As part of the programme, Laurence also relies on monthly applications of Vitalnova SeaMax liquid seaweed extract and H2Pro TriSmart wetting agent.

“The greens have seen a big improvement and there is a lot more grass coverage,” said Laurence. “Primo Maxx II is controlling the growth and we are not taking large amounts of clippings off every time we cut; we have a nice tighter sward, and Ryder has really helped visually – it gives the turf a fantastic green colour.”

Matt was in agreement and added that he feels that the tank-mix has been integral to the results on the greens: “This mix is so consistent,” he said. “You don’t get a massive flush of growth and you don’t see the colour dipping off – you get the full 14 days out of it until it is ready for the next application.”

When it came to the fairways, Laurence applies Sportsmaster CRF Mini fertiliser and monthly applications of H2Pro AquaSmart wetting agent.

“The plan was to get moisture in the ground and to make the most of the wet in the spring,” he said. “AquaSmart at 10L/ha every four weeks from March until June really helped to keep enough water in the ground when the dry spells came in August and September. As a result, we didn’t lose any grass coverage.”

Without any irrigation, Laurence was forced to apply AquaSmart when it rained and that meant that he had to be flexible.

Coombe Wood GC the ‘best in decades’

Coombe Wood GC the ‘best in decades’

“We had the plans and everything in place but if it didn’t rain on the day I wanted to apply AquaSmart, then I needed to apply it as close to that day, within the four week window, as possible. This often meant coming in on my days off, but it was worth it because we have a nice even growth now and the moisture meter readings are proving that we have a high percentage of water being retained in the fairways.”

Buoyed by the successful results, Matt is now devising a new programme with some additions and tweaks. In the meantime, Laurence is not the only one to be impressed at Coombe Wood.

“The members are very happy with many commenting that it is the best it has been in decades,” said Laurence. “It is reassuring to have ICL and Matt on-board – I am always asking for suggestions and he is happy to talk it through and give me his opinion.

“It’s great to be able to bounce ideas off one another and the fact that I can have a tailored maintenance programme to suit my budget is invaluable.

“I would also like to add that my team have worked incredibly hard to turn the course around. Some of their practices have really maximised the results of the ICL programme.”

Please contact ICL on 01473 237100 or visit www.icl-sf.co.uk or www.icl-sf.ie if you are in Ireland.

For more news and insightful views, you can follow ICL on Twitter @ICL_Turf

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