Category: Greenkeeping

November 30, 2023

Key Elements for Success with Natural Greenkeeping

As greenkeepers, we understand the importance of maintaining a healthy, vibrant and resilient green. In over 40 years of greenkeeping, however, I've noticed that a lot of what passes for greenkeeping has actually been very damaging to our soils, making it increasingly difficult to produce a good surface, reliably and economically.

A lot of greens are now difficult to maintain, exhibiting a host of common problems such as Localised Dry Patch, Moss Infestation, Excess Thatch, Disease, Thinning Grass Cover, Puddling, Bumps, Bad Runs and Dips

November 28, 2023

done for you greenkeeping schedules

Done for you greenkeeping schedules. Instead of relying on guesswork, hearsay and myth, wise clubs are putting their faith in science and proven agronomic expertise to help them draw up the correct greenkeeping schedule for their greens. In this article we explain how you can easily tap into John's Master Greenkeeper expertise and have a "done for you' greenkeeping schedule for your green.

November 10, 2023

Rhizosphere and Phyllosphere

Understanding these microhabitats and their roles can help us manage our turf more effectively. By fostering beneficial microbial communities in these areas, we can enhance plant health, improve resistance to stresses, and ultimately, maintain healthier turf.

July 8, 2023

Grass, greenkeepers and the soil food web

The soil food web has become an increasingly popular term in greenkeeping and bowling green management. The problem-solution-problem, or symptoms approach to greenkeeping has been exposed as fundamentally flawed by the diminishing list of available pesticides now available to turf managers. Is there a better way to manage greens...yes. And the extraordinary discovery is that a greenkeeping program that focusses on the green as an eco-system is fully compatible with producing tight, natural turf dominated by the fine perennial Fescue and Bent grasses.

July 7, 2023

Sweat the small stuff, for a high performance bowling green this year

If your green maintenance budget was cut in half this year what would you do?

Most clubs when faced with cuts to the greenkeeping budget, will try at all costs to keep the most important work in the plan. Unfortunately, important frequently gets confused with dramatic, which means that the big expense of top-dressing in the spring and autumn usually stays in the plan and I wish it didn’t for all the reasons I’ve explained over many articles.

Meantime, the work deemed less important and which of course is less dramatic is often sidelined or dropped as a result of a fear of what might go wrong if the big, sexy stuff is missed. These big jobs “must be doing a lot of good”, or so the thinking goes, because they’re so expensive and disruptive?