Meet the greenkeeping team at South Essex

 

 

from the left Sam Cooke,Sean Eady (Deputy)Craig Raymond,Terry Sapsford,Luke Herron and myself Peter Dawson.
The summer months can prove a little difficult as we take our summer holidays,so we are usually one staff member down at this time.At the moment we have another shortage as Terry tales time off with his wife to celebrate the birth of there first child a daughter.
The recent rain has helped green the course up again especially the tees,so we have applied a little feed and weed and growth regulator to them.

Ragwort seen below is found on the course and although poisonous to horses and cattles (not many of them on the course thankfully) it is home to the cinnaber moth caterpillars which love to eat it ,they store the poisons from the plant  in there bodies which then makes them un-palatable to birds .The moth is totally different to the caterpillars see photo below

cinnabar caterpillars

cinnabar moth

 I took this photo on the course of a common carder bumble bee ,so far I have seen 5 species of bee on the course

 We were able to receive a free load of bark,and Luke is spreading it out  on the bed by the 9th green vixen

The recent thunderstorms early on Tuesday morning flooded the carpark for a brief period,but quickly drained  and replenished our irrigation pond behind the clubhouse after concentrated use through the very hot period when we were watering the greens.

 

The heavy rainfall of 23mm in just a few hours highlighted a problem on the 9th green vixen.Here the water was reluctant to flow away quickly when near the gully pot at the front of the green.Investigation found the old solid pipe blocked and broken .This was dug out and removed and a a 80mm drainage pipe was installed with clean shingle.this will move water from the front of the green away to the pond on the right of the green

During these periods of hot weather we rely on our irrigation system for automatic as well as manual water of the greens,but failures do occur which must be quickly repaired if possible, decoder and wiring breakages are a common repair in the irrigation boxes situated near greens.

decoder testing

On the greens we control any weed invasion by removing them, when seen by the staff ,by hand.This saves on money by not blanket spraying the greens with chemical and is more environmently friendly.Moss problems on the greens have to be sprayed as often cultural controls are not always effective.This is done by using either a hand held applicator or knapsack and only targeting the moss rather than spraying the entire green

 

 

 

New to South Essex was Football Golf played recently on the Vixen on a Sunday Afternoon ,no clubs required only the ability to kick a larger ball into a larger hole  on an 18 hole specially laid out course.

Sean digging out one of the holes with a Pick Axe (not our usual hole changing equipment )

 

We have had to have a contractor in to remove over hanging branches from some of the dead trees on the 3rd, and 9th holes Vixen and 9th hole Heron.Althought all dead trees are a valuable habitat and food sourse for many animals and  plants, Health and Safety considerations to golfers and staff meant we had to act as there was a risk from dead branches suddenly breaking off,we have kept the main trunks  were possible to contine as wildlife habitats.

 

 

 

3rd vixen

 

One pleasing aspect not seen by the golfer but essential to the playing quality of the green is root growth and better still deep root growth,the picture below was taken this month on the first green of the Hawk

 

Finally a couple of pictures of wildlife on the course,a Common orchid and red tailed bumble bee with a friend

 

 

 

 

July

The long rough around some of our fairway bunkers has been cut down to help speed up play although it removes the definition and shaping that the longer grass gives to these areas.



9th hawk before

9th hawk after

We have been hand spiking the dry areas on the greens before hand watering with a wetting agent pellet to help the grass recover from the hydrophobic soil

 

 

All the greens were sarel rolled in 2 directions to open up the surface before we sprayed them with a Dawson's special cocktail mix of soluble fertilisers,seaweed products,growth inhibitors and wetting agents.These products improve the grass growth and root development

 

 

One of the unseen maintenance tasks that we have to carry out is regular servicing of our machinery,to keep them in worrking order.The greens units have been taken to Stapleford Abbotts Golf Club to use there Grinding equipment to sharpen the cylinders and give a clean cut.One of the benefits of being part of a group organisation is to be able to share selected equipment as well as information and ideas.Paul Selbie Course Manager at Stapleford and I regularly meet to talk shop on golf course matters

 

 

The wildflower and clubhouse beds areas are looking good and the bees are taking advantage of there rich nectar source
 

 

 

We have recently had volunteers working near the course for Essex County Council on public footpath maintenance.Volunteers are essential in so many clubs and organisations,doing a great job often with out much praise or thanks for what they do.

 

 

We have been very active on the course in recent weeks as growth rates increase,the greens were verticut in two opposite directions,then mini solid tined or as now refered to as "venting the greens" and then topdressed and brushed.This is routine work as far as greens maintenance goes as part of our set programme.

Terry brushing in topdressing 8th Hawk

New flags.pins and cups have been put out on all 3 courses which will give a better presentation to eveyone playing on the greens

Sean Eady placing a new hole 8th Hawk with a new flag and pin

 

Watering the greens is always best done by rain  but when the weather is kind to golfers we rely on our irrigation system which is never as efficent to irrigate the greens.This often shows up issues like dry patch on the greens.These are areas which have become hydrophobic,and repel water,this in turn causes the grass to become stressed ,seen as brown areas,To help over come this we solid tine  them and treat these areas with wetting agents which helps to re-wet the droughted areas and aid the recovery of the grass,
 



3rd Green Hawk

To enable us to carry out the many tasks required on the course having the right machinery is very important to us ,as old machine become less reliable and more costly to maintain replacing them become necessary,and we now have  a new Gator  

One of the tasks carried out recently and not covered by my greenkeeping college course was to repair the entrance drive way with its numerous pot holes  the result of  last years record rainfall and winter snow and ice.Using disc grinders and wacker plates we have  now repaired them,they say Jack of all trades............... we are now available tor roads,driveways !

Sean and Luke work on the pot holes

 

On the course we have sprayed the mown rough areas to contol weed invasion especially white clover and to improve the visual apperance and uniformity of it

if not carried out the weed plants will become more invasive

spraying on the 3rd Hawk

Finally as the longest day of the year approches the grass plant is reaching its peak ,as its natural state is to flower and set seed and this is much in evidence especially in the environmental roughs were the grass is allowed to mature,this gives definition to many of our golf holes as well as being good for the flora and fauna habitats,after setting seed the leaf will start to die



Blue skies contrasts nicely with the green hues of the golf course,and if warm as well not only will it give density to the sward but encourage golfers to come and play and enjoy the surroundings .

6th Vixen

Warmer temperatures increase the grass growth which has to be maintained,team work is essential to achieve this,and many hands make like work especially when using strimmers which can be a back straining task when used to cut ditches.This is to allow golfers and mower operators to see the ditch edge,without totally destroying the natural flora and fauna which will use the areas as vital wildlife corridors.



strimming ditch 9th hawk

We are trialing a product called Rescue on selected areas .This product removes certain grass species from the sward  like rye grass and yorkshire fog,leaving behind the finer grass species like fescue and bents.The idea is to create a finer sward in the roughs,so ball finding and playing will be easier and the visual appearence improved,early days as yet to make judgement

9th Hawk
This is the first year that we have made up our own hanging baskets for outsde the clubhouse as its a lot cheaper and more satisfying  to do,we have also been growing our own plants for the clubhouse beds either from seed,cuttings or bought plant plugs.

Below Sam Cooke is potting up lavendar cuttings taken from our plants outside the clubhouse last autumn,this will be planted out in our beds when they are bigger plants.

We have completed the weed and feed spraying on the fairways and the clover is now starting to die off to give a cleaner sward, the feed will encourage the grass to fill as the clover dies off.we will continue to weed spray into the cut rough when we have the right spraying window to do so,very often there is to much breeze to allow spraying to take place.Below clover on the 5th hawk dying out.

Golf and the Environment are intrinsically linked and South Essex is dedicated to providing an ecological rich,healthy and stunning golf landscape;maximising the unique natural and cultural assets of the site,and minimizing resources consumption to ensure a net - positive environmental impact.
South Essex Golf Centre is extremely proud to have earned the status of GEO Certified.This prestigious international award signfies that we have met comprehensive and advanced sustainability requirements and are committed to continually improving our environmental performance across the areas of landscape&ecosystems;water;energy and resources;products and supply chains;environmental quality and people & communities.
GEO Certified follows holistic approach and its independently verifed every three years and its transparency makes it the most credible international environmental certification in golf today
Details of our GEO Certified report can be viewed at .
http://golfenvironment.org/oncourse/directory

Only 9 other golf clubs in the United kingdom are certified with the GEO though there are others in Europe and Australia

See South Essex Golf Centre profile and read the Verifers report

 

The Golf Environment Oraganisation is the only international non profit exclusively dedicated to helping golf' embrace sustainability......driving the Green in golf.

GEO serves the golf industry by administering golf's international ecolabel,GEO Certified and providing simple,practical guidance and tools to help clubs and developments achieve the distinction.

GEO Certified is endorsed by a growing number of golf,goverment and environmental bodies worldwide

The green keeping day now starts early so we often see the dawn,this enables us to get ahead of the first golfers with the days main tasks.

9th green vixen

The greens have been brushed to remove any debris and lift up the sward to get an even cut, the cutting height has been lowered to 4.5mm which will give a faster ball roll and we have also sarel rolled the greens this helps to vent the surface area and allow water to move through  the profile without any disturbance to the putting surface

Craig Raymond Brushing the putting green

The bunkers have been strimmed and we still have some sand left to topup selected bunkers once we have fitted a new throttle cable on to the tractor.
 



Luke Herron *th Hawk

After some issues on the irrigation system over the may bank holiday which left the greens drier than we would have liked we have now rectified the issues and tested the greens ready for the next period of dry weather
 

We have been adding plants to the flower beds around the car park to give visual interest and provide nectar and pollen for bees and insects,these will soon start to provide colour to the area. Over the autumn we took seeds and cuttings to increase our stock and its cheaper as well, Sam Cooke has been potting on our Lavender cuttings