Over the next few weeks I will publish a few articles to help you to evaluate your turf with an aim to improving its performance over the long term. Density is perhaps the most important component of turf grass quality. When rating the visual quality of turf it is the shoot density of the grass …
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Bowls Green Maintenance Basics-Green Speed
The great debate about green speed has raged on since the beginning of the game. But what are the factors known to affect green speed? In order of their impact on green speed these are the top 7 factors that you should bear in mind. Obviously there are others such as weather patterns, level of …
50 Years of Sand
From the very beginnings of the game of bowls, most clubs bowled on a green constructed largely of local top soil, built, prepared and seeded by the club members, perhaps with the help of a local gardener or farmer. Maintenance was largely mowing, turning the rinks on flat greens, keeping the surface clear of debris and worm casts and an occasional roll before a big match. In the autumn, a squad of members would descend on the green with forks to aerate or spike the green, before putting it to bed for the winter with a final cut and perhaps a bag of fertiliser.
Opening Day Preparation: Getting the mower ready.
Getting the mower ready is often seen as someone else's responsibility during the close season, but great care should be taken to make sure you are not falling foul of tradition again. Relief grinding and back lapping have become an unfortunate norm in cylinder mower set up, but can be more damaging to the turf and the mower than you might expect. John Quinn explains the theory and suggests a solution that will ensure your mower gives you trouble free service and impressive results all season long.
Sand Top Dressing – Friend or Foe? Soil Texture 5.
Sand Top Dressing - that ubiquitous and apparently simple greenkeeping operation indulged in by most clubs annually is actually a much more complex operation than most give it credit for. In this article John Quinn explains the mechanics of top-dressing. He explains what it can and can't do and why you must understand some soil science before top-dressing is considered.
7 secrets every bowls green keeper should know
Sometimes we over complicate things in greenkeeping. Checking off the points on this short list of things to change in your programme will help a great deal to simplify your life.
A note on the ecology of greens (and squirrels)
Understanding that the ecology of greens exists and what that means is more important for greenkeepers than understanding how that ecology works or indeed any of the scientific components of ecology in isolation. Stepping back and letting nature do its stuff can yield remarkable results.
In this article you'll discover how some commonly applied greenkeeping techniques are actually rather blunt instruments that can result in more harm than good. Top-dressing, applying lawn sand and fungicides are routinely applied to greens in an effort to treat the symptoms of common problems in the soil.
Ecology 7. Disturbing News for Bowling Clubs
In 1988, Grime, Hodgson and Hunt published their study called “Comparative Plant Ecology – A functional approach to common British species”, which on the face of it sounds like ideal bed time reading for insomniacs. However, the work these scientists carried out might make you sit up in bed and take notice when you realise how relevant …
Ecology 5. Environmental pressures
Keeping the bowling green eco-system in balance is important in order to minimise the exposure of our grass plants to a range of environmental stresses. These stresses can be thought of as environmental constraints to growth and regeneration and can come in many guises, such as a shortage of light, water, nutrition or extremes of temperature. Conditions within the soil …
Turf Grass Smoothness and Colour. Performance Evaluation of the Bowling Green Part 6.
In the performance evaluation of the bowling green there are visual and functional measurements we can make to ascertain the likely performance of the green. Colour and Smoothness are the last two visual components we need to look at before moving on to the functional attributes we can measure. On the face of it, colour and smoothness seem like fairly innocuous elements to focus on; almost too obvious you might say. Let's see if they are more important or even different to what we previously thought.