Search for circle of decline - 58 results found

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?

June 4, 2023

Finding the Sweet Spot in Bowling Green Performance

The Sweet Spot in greenkeeping is when your green's Physical, Chemical and Biological components come into line to deliver results you couldn't previously have imagined were possible. Hitting that sweet spot is a lot simpler than you might imagine too, as focus on the soil's biology will naturally correct some of the worst Chemical problems and compensate for some of the worst Physical ones. There should be no problem "selling" this idea to your club either as first of all it saves money and secondly it massively improves green performance and consistency.

May 26, 2023

How to painlessly transform greens from Poa annua to bent/fescue

Transitioning your green from Poa annua to bent/fescue is not only critical to achieving a Performance Bowling Green, but is actually a realistic goal. The spongy, soft turf associated with annual meadow grass is less than ideal for bowls. Common wisdom says that this can't be done without major disruption and that even after it is achieved it wont last. This article explains in detail how to undertake the transition of your green from Poa annua to bent/fescue turf and dispels the myths about stressing Poa. This is the way to change your green permanently and without fuss. It will also save your club money on maintenance, so what's not to like?

March 13, 2023

Get a Brew on for a High Performance Green

On greens that have been managed in the conventional way for any length of time i.e. using pesticides and inorganic fertilisers, it’s likely that the soil microbe population will be significantly depleted. There might also be gaps in the eco-system, essentially “missing microbes”.

February 27, 2023

Thatch – Public Enemy Number 1

In the green renovation phase we are mainly concerned with the physical and quick reduction of the existing thatch layer, A process that will create vastly improved soil conditions and will encourage the increase of soil microbial activity.

February 6, 2023

Practical Tips to Achieve Performance Bowling Greens

I’ve sometimes asked readers of this blog to take on board some fairly lofty principles, which at first, might seem unrelated to the real world of daily greenkeeping with all the incumbent pressures and demands it brings. Bowling green performance is a long term game and consistently paying attention to 3 key principles will pay great dividends. In stark contrast to this we have the chopping and changing of techniques, materials and ideas I see and hear about at clubs all over the UK which almost always results in disappointment.

January 6, 2023

New Seasonal Packs

Over the course of many years of providing the Bowls Central Soil Analysis service and based on the thousands of reports I’ve written, certain trends have been revealed, and these relate very closely to a group of problems I have termed collectively as The Circle of Decline in fine turf. Perhaps the most annoying and …

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January 5, 2023

Peak Sand Autumn Renovation Pack

This Pack of materials will help you carry out a thorough Autumn Renovation Programme on your green and is most suited to greens that exhibit problems including excessive sand content of the rootzone, LDP, low organic matter, thatch, low calcium content, all of which are common traits in greens where the rootzone has become excessively sandy.

March 20, 2022

The two legged problem in the room

Ecology is a fascinating subject in and of itself. If you’re not convinced of that, I defy you not to be awestruck by Chris Packham’s brilliant BBC series on the subject. This particular episode is heavy on fungus, but also explains a remarkable synergy between animals and plants. The pine trees a reliant on the …

May 28, 2021

Fix your bowling green step 2

In this article we take the soil samples you removed in Fix your bowling green Step1 and look more closely at them to discover what's going on under your green. This is one of the most valuable practices that any greenkeeper can undertake as it can reveal a wealth of information about the condition of your green that you could previously only guess at.