Fertilised Square

Sorry there has been no update for a day or two. Had a busy weekend which included a "Stars in you Eyes" night at the club. All to help raise much needed funds to see us through the winter months when we still have  virtually the same overheads but with little income. So we rely on club nights and private hires and hope that the small surplus we have built up over the summer will see us through.

We have been fortunate enough to get an ECB grant which will go towards replacement of our old

in-efficient and unreliable boiler. That is work that is just starting and I have the job of sorting it out with the plumber all of which takes time out of my working day.

I as you all will be, am an avid weather watcher and I saw that rain is forecast to-night so I took advantage and got some Autumn Winter fertiliser on my square. I hope it will start to wash it in over night.

On Wednesday this week I am off on the train up to Scotland, to the IOG'S Scotsturf with my fellow groundsman Henry it is our annual day out. I would very much like to go to SALTEX but it falls right in my busy period at the start of September.....you don't win them all. I hope I will pick up some new ideas to put to test. I want to visit the Symbio stand as I am looking at a new ways to manage my square, if possible by getting all the good bugs on my side and helping the grass through the roots. Lets see what they say.

Sorry no pictures taken today which is not how I intended it to be, lets just remember the summer when there was some action. The top photo was taken on the 27th August 2011  and the second  was taken at the first out door practise (or should it be practice?) on the 29th March 2011. Look how dry it was back in the Spring time.

Part time artist

I said there would be no update today but just thought I would sneak these two painting in I have completed today. In the winter months I spend most Thursdays painting with a group of artists I am a member of. We are working towards an exhibition next spring not ---sure how that will work with my ground responsibilities.

Anne walking down a ginnell in Keswick

Acrylic on canvas.

The walk to easedale Tarn Grasmere
Acrylic on canvas.

This is the sort of thing I need to do to supplement my earnings as a Groundsman, hope you enjoyed this little diversion sorry if you were looking for grounds stuff.

Brush trials

If you read the top of this blog you will see that I am a part time groundsman, one other thing I am involved with is the design, manufacture and sales of turf brushes. Today my colleagues Phil the brush maker Brushes North West and Walter the fabricator came to my ground so we could do some trials on a new brush system we are developing. The photos here record the sort of things we got up to.

Walter fiddling with a chain. Here the system is fastened to the tractors 3 point linkage via an "A" frame.

You can clearly see the "A" frame here.

View from back of tractor.

Frame lifted of the ground via 3 point linkage for turning.

Phil from Brushes North West getting a close up..... heavy dew this morning after last nights thunder storm.

Now you can see we are pulling the frame with a chain so this unit can be pulled by almost any mode of transport. We had feared that we might get some bounce but having done previous tests we got the bristles in the brush and the angle of of pulling right and it worked very very well indeed we almost surprised ourselves.

A contented Walter

 After avisit with Phil to the engineers merchants I returned to the ground by which time it was late in the afternoon, so I had a look round for job I could take on in the limited time I had left.

 The net area needed a cut so I got the rotary out and topped it while doing so I noticed how yellow it was looking, that indicated to me that it was time to for a feed the last time was when it was seeded on the

3rd September. 

Good thick cover spoilt by the yellowing

Time for the Autumn Winter fertiliser,just 3% nitrogen.

Look how yellow it really is. Application rate around 1 oz/sq yrd. On completion of this job it was about time for home I took a few photos of some grass I am growing it plastic containers to get a comparison and try to find out which will best suit my needs in the future I will post some photos on a rainy day.

No post tomorrow I will be painting.



No Battery

The battery on my camera had run out when I tried to take a photo -its on charge as I type- So no photos today.
Not much to report had a meeting with a bar fitter as we are looking at revamping the club house bar.
Went to iron mongers and got new pad lock and bolt for gate as reported yesterday. I then fixed the gate and did some more outfield spiking. Some day's as with all work, groundsmanship is mundane and today was just that.
I got a phone call from a local crown green bowls club, they ordered a couple of tonne of 70/30 sand soil mix for top dressing the green along with a bag of seed. I think they will struggle to get the bent fescue mix to germinate this late hope they don't blame the seed. 

"Monday Monday can't trust that day"

Arrived at ground today only to fined that vandals had ripped the bolt of the side gate.

What a start to Monday!!!!  This means that one day this week I will have to sort out a new bolt, padlock and bull ring as it has been broken on the other side of the gate,what a pain, typical for school holidays.

My first job was to fit the new belt to the rotary mower and cut the whole square, the rotary is good because it picks up a few of the leafs, its nice having a ground surrounded by trees until autumn time then its a pain.

After mowing I mixed some liquid seaweed and iron and treated the square and net area, this will help get the bacteria going and the iron will give a green up knock back any moss and tuffen up the grass plant. When the square had dried I brushed it in both directions, this process not only helps presentation (I like it to look good if possible) but also lifts some leafs from the base, I hope they blow away overnight.

My pedestrian Acuspray I used for spraying it's a million times better than my old knapsack unit

My square after mowing, spraying and brushing.

I have a big problem with the outfield it was never constructed as as cricket field and still has the old "Ridge and Furrow" from when it was agricultural land. Until the last few years apart from mowing it has had no other work carried out on it excepting Verti-Draining once since we had drainage installed. 

As a result I have dry patch and about 25mm (1") of thatch in parts. 

Poor photography here you can see the toe of my boot

I am trying to spike as much as I can of the outfield however I only have a Groundsman 346 pedestrian machine which is about 18" (don't know how many mm that is) wide across the spike holes, so I am doing a section at a time. I am looking at having the outfield sprayed with a wetting agent so the more hole I can get in before that is done and the better.

While spiking the low parts the tines were going in about 4" (75mm) but on the drypatch parts it was bouncing and penetrating only around  11/2" (37mm) as you can see from the two following pictures.

A good spot hole about 4" deep

Not quit so good if you look you can see the mark I made on the peg from the first hole.

Next picture you can see the different depth of penetration.

The two marks on the peg show the two depths.

I hope you are still following me and haven't drifted off to sleep.

Part of the spiked area.

This is a part of the outfield I worked on about three weeks ago you can see the new seed has germinated well If you enlarge it.

Nothing Ventured

Saturday I helped a friend construct a couple of extra pitches on the side of a cricket square at a local school.

It was all cut down when I arrived

We scarified to a depth of 12mm (1/2") in lots of directions with the Sisis RR600

Collecting the arising's with the Rotorake we got a good clean surface.

The area was flat, had no thatch, but had a reasonable strength soil when we started.

Close up of surface with a good key and grooves ready for the two tonne of new loam.

After seed and fertiliser application Eddie brushed to get the seed down in the grooves so it would be in contact with loam, this is important as we need fast germination, taking on such a job this late in the season.

Two tonne of Boughton County loam was then roughly put down.

We then leveled as best we could with rakes and lutes.

It would have been good if we had a six foot lute or even a aluminium ladder the best we could do was a four foot pallet.

We pulled it out lengthways and across, its hard work.

When we were happy that the surface was flat with no hollows or bumps we finished off with the B.N.W.

six foot drag brush.

Worms eye view.

To finish off it was covered with germination sheets and roped off.

Now I can hear you all saying that this is not to the ECB specification as in the TS4 or what ever number we are on, however it will do the job the school need and was affordable.

To take on such a job this late in the season is a risk, especially as far north as Leeds, however we are not expecting it to be ready for play in April or May and indeed it may need overseeding and a light top dressing in the spring. The school have been made fully aware of the situation and were happy to take the gamble.

Nothing Ventured Nothing Gained!  

Back at my ground with the long shadows of the autumn sun, I love it.

Nothing Ventured

Sorry this post is just about the practicalities of a Cricket Club. This morning I got a text from Cheryl -who runs or bar and generally organises events and lots of other things- asking if I know anything about the glass washer, any way to cut the chase I ended up tying to fix it which I did to a point. So alas not work on the ground.
This afternoon I will be taking two tonne of loam to a local school the idea is that tomorrow I and a colleague will be taking the top off and area to the side of the cricket square in order to create two new pitches. Yes I can hear you all saying this is far too late, however the school are fully aware of the situation and the risks involved in taking such work on so late in the year but if we have a mild spell we may well get away with it. The pitches aren't needed next year and the standard of Cricket is not that great so we can over sow in the spring time if required " nothing ventured nothing gained"!
I will try get some photos.

What a beautiful day

Had some domestic and office jobs to do this morning so didn't get down to ground till after lunch. What a shame on such a beautiful day. I thought I would cut the outfield just to even it up a bit. I got the tractor out and fitted the old Huxley triple, it needed some fiddling with to higher the cut as I had not used it since the season had ended.

I should have brushed the outfield first as the rollers were picking up worm casts in parts however wanting to get on I didn't. I was thinking that I was flattening the grass not cutting it which was the case where the grass was short and had not grown much since it was last cut but it was cutting the longer areas and evening it up a bit. As my outfield contains all sorts of different kinds of grasses it grows very unevenly and is hard to present well.

I had a visit from a little black cat that has been coming around for a few years now I encourage it thinking it might catch a mouse or two I have enough with the pigeons eating my seed.

Thought I would then do a bit of mowing around the score box and net area with the rotary mower. All was going well until I heard a mighty clanging sound coming from it, on inspection the belt had jumped off the pulley and got tangled in the blade -bad news- I re fit it only for a second occurrence. So I am thinking oh no! that's a trip to the belt shop, when I made an important discovery hung up an the wall I had a spare belt I had got the last time this happened - I am getting old and cant remember things, so it was a total surprise to me that I had been that organised once-

 I will need to get it fitted the next time I am down at ground witch won't be tomorrow Thursday, as I will be painting with my artist colleagues. Below are some random photos I took today.

It not all good this area has been over sown.

If you enlarge this one with the apple tree you might be able to see the squirel

Sorry no post tomorow painting