Overnight Rain

Well the rain that was forecast overnight arrived, which was good as it has helped to wash the fertiliser I spread yesterday  into my square...... its good when a plan come together.

I had some other business things to sort out this morning so I got down to the ground in the afternoon. I was torn as to what to do. Do I work on getting some leaves up or spike the square. Well I reckoned that the overnight rain would help the spiker tines slide in and out of the turf without lifting. I have the triple heads with 3/8" tines fit at the moment and with triples there is always a danger that the could pull a triangle out. So I was watching carefully and had no problems, I think that is partly because the water was acting as a lubricant and the tines are used ones with a smooth shinny surface so there was nothing to grab.

I managed to get to a depth of about 21/2"-3" which I think is good for the first time in the autumn.

You will see from the photos that I didn't go over the ends I though that they are not quite strong enough just yet and I didn't want to start ploughing, so best keep off for the time being.

Just started

Job done the grass is mowed at about 1" so you can see a lot of flattening

it will soon spring back up.

The weather is still very mild and we have had good growth this autumn, which should stand us in good stead for the winter. I hit the square with some liquid iron last week you may recall, that should toughen it up a bit however I am thinking should I spray with a fungicide? or not? and hope that I don't get any disease.

This is interesting.

Way back on the 15th June we had vandals on the square they poured oil on a couple of pitches and tipped glass on every pitch. The above photo shows how I am still struggling to get grass to grow in the area, despite treating the pitch with liquid carbon which is supposed to neutralise the oil.

One thing I have learned is that the carbon has some effect on the grass I think it makes the nitrogen more available to the roots. If you enlarge the picture you will see what a healthy grass stand I have around the area of spilage. I have just been reading an artical about the Carbon-Nitrogen balance in the soil above is a clear indication that adding the carbon helps the grass growth.

I heard part of a program on RadioFour today they were talking about the benificial  Fungi in the soil I am now going to check to see if I can listen to the whole program on iplayer.