Some of the most popular posts on Bowls Central are the “Performance Greenkeeping Tasks this Month” articles I publish, but even with the best of intent, it’s difficult for me to be absolutely specific enough to suit every club, as every green has it’s own idiosyncrasies and is at a different point along the way to high performance. That means that the best I can do in those articles is cover the baseline maintenance that I’ve found of benefit to most greens that are in some stage of recovery from the Circle of Decline and whose greenkeepers want to get to work implementing the Performance Greens Program.

Searching for Help

“Done for you greenkeeping schedules”, or some permutation of this phrase is one of the most popular search terms leading new readers to the site, so I decided it was time that I did something about that.

Now you can take advantage of my new done for you greenkeeping schedules service.

But…what are done for you greenkeeping schedules?

Done for you, greenkeeping schedules

There is a growing list of clubs who get in touch with me to see if I can help them to set up a suitable greenkeeping schedule and I can certainly do this given a bit more information. To do this, I will usually ask clubs a few very specific questions about the condition of their green, ask for some photos in some cases, but most importantly, I will review the latest soil analysis for the green in question. Sometimes clubs already have a recent enough soil analysis and I’ll study this and then write a report with a full maintenance schedule aimed at making the improvements the club desires. If they don’t already have this information I can arrange a comprehensive soil analysis and then write my report based on this fresh information.

The result of this is a fully specified greenkeeping schedule for the year ahead, including all mechanical and nutritional operations needed to make the necessary improvements required…but first comes the report.

Bowls Green Soil Condition and Greenkeeping Reports

Annual soil analysis isn’t something I’ve always held a great deal of passion for, but that has been due to the form that the analysis commonly takes. In many cases when you order a soil analysis for your green, all you’ll get back is one or two pages of facts and figures with no explanation of what any of them really mean for your greenkeeping program going forward, other than a list of fertilisers and chemicals that might help of course 🙂

I decided that if I was going to offer soil analysis it would have to be a more comprehensive service that adds value by helping clubs and greenkeepers to make positive choices and changes for their greenkeeping programs. In addition to this I decided that the soils reports that came out from any service I offered would have detailed explanations of the results and that these would be fully explained in terms of greenkeeping and green condition. In this way I can ensure that the report you get holds a great deal of value in terms of green performance and costs savings for your club.

 

The Process

After you order your soil analysis, I will immediately send you a soil sampling kit, which consists of full sampling instructions and professional packaging for returning your samples to a totally independent professional soils lab, free of charge.

Once you’ve mailed off your samples to the lab, they will run the tests quickly and send back the results directly to me. What do I get back from the lab? Yes, you’ve guessed it, two pages of indecipherable numbers! Fortunately, I can decipher these for you and its at that point I will start to write you a full report that does 3 things. First of all I will interpret the results and relay them to you in your report exactly as they come back from the lab; the raw data if you like. Just in case you need some bed-time reading! Next, I will put together a few pages of graphics to show how these results look in terms of availability of individual nutrients. Within this I will report on all of the major soil held nutrients, as well as the secondary and trace nutrients, all of which have important roles to play in a performance green. Then we’ll look at the Base Saturation of your soil and find out where, if any, the nutrient imbalances that are holding your green performance back occur. Cation exchange, pH and general nutrient availability are all driven by the base saturation of your soil. Soil Organic Matter  content is measured, another significant influencer of soil health and green performance.

The Program

The last part of the reporting process is for me to draw up suggested greenkeeping program for you which will include a done for you, greenkeeping schedule for the full year ahead, including all routine and non-routine maintenance. Of course, I’ll be relying on you to provide me with some extra information to help with this, but by the end of the process you will have a full greenkeeping schedule drawn up by me which is targeted on improving the performance of your green for the long term.

How to get started

It’s easy to get the ball rolling on this. Just order your soil analysis by clicking the add to basket button below, complete the checkout process and that’s it. Remember to include your club name, address and contact details and sit back and let me do the rest.

You will receive a confirmation email with a link to download your full soil sampling instructions and your sampling kit will arrive in the post in a few days.

Thens it’s simply a case of following the soil sampling instructions on your green and sending back the sample in the box provided to the lab. A few days after that I will email you your report and greenkeeping schedule for the coming year.

Of course, this isn’t the end, merely the beginning of the advice I provide to bowls-central readers. We can keep in touch as often as you wish for updates and advice going forward, whether that is for advice on materials, frequency of operations or any other aspect of greenkeeping on your green.

Why not get started now and order your Soil Analysis Today:

Further soil analysis services available