Green Performance Explained in terms that show the multitude of characteristics of turfgrass plants and their environment that work together to make up the bowls green eco-system. By working in harmony with this eco-system, greenkeepers can shorten the learning curve on turf surface performance dramatically.
Greenkeepers are bombarded with turf problems in the form of disease, weeds, pests and disorders. Now, with many pesticides being banned and unavailable it’s time for us to take back control of our turf. The good news is that it is actually easier without chemicals, because we are forced to learn more about the underlying causes of problems and become more familiar with the ecology of our greens.
Bowling Green Maintenance can be a complex job at times, so I’ve created a series of articles called Bowling Green Maintenance Tips you can refer to for advice on your annual greenkeeping program and for general bowling green maintenance tips. The articles are sorted by month and can be used as a simple guide to …
A very general title for today’s article, but it reflects the current industry desire for a fix all solution to achieving a good bowling green. Most clubs are unhappy to some extent with the performance of their bowling greens. This leads to an open ended search for solutions where the searcher i.e. the bowling club …
A large proportion of Bowling Clubs are currently experiencing a downturn in their fortunes. The finances at many of these clubs just don’t make sense, yet they struggle on year after year and somehow manage to hang on, even when member numbers are ridiculously low. This shows a determination and drive by clubs to survive …
The season is well underway now and its around this time in the season when suddenly it hits clubs that the green isn’t up to scratch…again! One of the most common problems we hear about from Performance Bowls Greens readers is the difficulty in getting the philosophy to stick at their club. Its all too …
This week I thought I would take some time out to address some of the questions that have led site visitors here from the search engines. We did this for a week last autumn and it was very successful with a lot of good feedback from readers. The first one stood out to me as …
Another very popular subject on this site is over-seeding of greens in Autumn. Over-seeding is commonly carried out as part of the autumn bowling green maintenance and renovation program and is very often a disappointment. You would expect this work to quickly fill in the bare patches and spaces in the sward left by disease, …
"Mair sand" was the call from Tom Morris the most famous and respected greenkeeper of them all, but have we misunderstood him? In reply to an article about fine, firm golf greens John Quinn highlights the similarities between the plight of golf and bowls greens and clears up the apparent contradiction between modern day problems with inert greens and the Tom Morris philosophy.
Localised Dry Patch typically rears its ugly head in June in the UK, but by then it is way too late to do anything about it. Once your green is displaying the large brown patches of desiccated grass and powder dry soil beneath, no amount of watering or wetting agent will bring it back fully this year. Now is the time to inspect your green and deal with it permanently.
