Some Progress

Well I got down to ground at around 8-00am started by brushing square with hand pulled drag brush. Things were a little wet, so I fit the six foot brush to the back of tractor and brushed the uncut part of the outfield and lined up stumps to get my stripes back in the process.

I think you will need to enlarge to see the stumps I had lined up to help me get the stripes back.

Things were still wet and I was thinking that the worm casts and bare areas of soil would pick up on the Mastiff, so I fit the rotary brush with the collection bin to the tractor and swept a bin full of leaves up from the edges of the ground-sorry I was that involved that I forgot to take any photos.

It was then a case of just getting on with the job of mowing if I was to do it at all. I set to with the Mastiff and yes it did pick a load of soil up on the front roller and the seat roller so I think I flatted as much grass as I cut.

It did look a lot better when I had finished though.

This part of the ground had the big collecting brush over it, you can see the tractor tyre marks if you look and if you enlarge the picture you can see the red collecting brush I used by the side of the score box.

Some of you will have seen this picture if you follow Harrell's on Face-book these are my "trial plots"# pots" the pot on the right is straight Colosseum  cold season New Zealand  Perennial Rye Grass  and the one on the left is a top quality mix of Sauvignon, Cachmire, and Carnac. The Colosseum is out performing the mix by miles at this time of year. They were both cut on Friday the 24 th Feb photo taken today 29th Feb just look at the difference. Colosseum would be good if we have to overseed/seed in the autumn or even late autumn.

If anyone would like a small sample to try please let me know and I will sort it for you.

Some of you may remember back in Nov/Dec I had this brush in bits well I finally got it back together with a new brush fit today- -actually its my old brush re bristled by Brushes North West their web site is worth a look they have videos of my running up and down with all  kinds of brushes fit to my tractor  http://www.brushesnorthwest.com/ They have an well priced brush for use on astra turf -3G or what ever you can adjust a bar which makes the brush stiffer on not as you require again worth a look. I digress by the time I got the thing put back together it was just about dark. I set the brush so it was just to say touching the soil and brushed half a dozen pitches in the semi-dark as the photo shows.

This is some of the rubbish I got out a yellow brownish colour all this would make thatch if I left it on the surface.

Here you can see the lighter area that I have just brushed, it was almost dark when I took this how good are  cameras now a days. Blimey this has been a marathon of a post make it last cause I am preparing for my art exhibition tomorrow so no post.

Keep the peace.

Hodgy



Looking forward to a full day on the ground

I am thinking that today things have just come in place so I can have a full day down at the ground getting on with some work on the ground. VAT done, four hour club meeting done, orders sent out, weather fair, porridge almost eaten. Away I go, I will report back at end of day if I have the stamina.

This was the 29th March last year lets us hope for another spring like that was.

29th March 2011

4th May 2011 Look how dry already starting to loose the outfield.



Back to it.

After my few days away I was feeling guilty this morning so around lunch time I went down to the ground and started to mow the outfield. I have been keeping off it as much as possible after some spiking and slitting work. Before mowing I brushed with the six foot tractor mounted unit to try and spread the worm casts and get my stripes back in place.

The place looks a lot tidier when the stripes are in place this is after I had mown one side of the square.

My machine was set at 1" height of cut -in theory- how ever if you look at the front roller about 1/2" of worm casts had accumulated on the front roller making the height of cut a lot higher than the machine setting.

This is how much I scraped off after cutting just one side of the square.

I managed to get two sides of the square completed and the square brushed and mown fro the first time this year with the Mastiff.

I brushed the square in one direction and cut in two across and in line of play.

I want to get the outfield finished and treat the square with liquid seaweed and iron tomorrow if time permits in between sorting out some paper work -VAT - I am cant believe the temperature it has been today it was like spring. Last spring I had the boys on grass in the practise nets before the end of March and that's not far away now.

You will need to enlarge this picture. Here is another sign that spring is just around the corner frog spawn

They have a way of knowing what is happening with the weather so I am hoping they have got it right and winter is on its way.

A Few Days Away

As per my last post I have been with my wife Anne up to the Lake District for a few days and the weather did what it always does in the Lakes rain. We travelled up on Sunday a lovely sunny day, arriving about tea time after lunch in Settle on the way.

Monday we got up to rain and low mist, this is looking up from the village of Grasmere.

Looking down the Main Street Grasmere.

While we were up there the national news was telling of drought in the South East of the country. I think all that is needed is one large diameter pipe from up here and the drought problem is sorted forever.

Thursday and the sun came out -well it did on the hill top- so of we went for a walk.

My daughter her partner and granddaughter arrived so we had to go feed the ducks.

This is where we spent a lot of time in the Lamb Inn -my daughter and her partner are at the bar- mines a pint of Red please.

Interesting road sign in the village of Grasmere.

Friday, coming home day and the sun comes out -story of my life. This is Bowness on Lake Windermere we called on the way home.

I have a bit of paper work to catch up on -including my VAT- which I intended finalise on Monday and then get on to the ground, so I should be back with grounds stuff then.



Still Spiking

Today, on a spring like morning I was off to Crossgates Bowls Club to continue their spiking program.

I had a call from Pete the groundsman at Crossgates Bowling Club on Thursday night asking if I could get up there and spike the green for a second time this year, so I loaded up and off I went.

Here is the green on my arrival freshly mown the day before -not looking bad.

Conditions were ideal, not wet on the surface but sufficient moisture to take a spike -in fact it took a good depth I was getting down to around 31/2" -think that is around 87mm for you young ones out there.

I was using the triple head on the groundsman spiker with 3/8 tines -you metric junkies will have to work that one out for your selves. Above you can see the hole patter -better if you enlarge the picture.

Job done, you can hardly tell Ive been apart from a few thousand holes ("Ten thousand holes in Blackburn Lancshire" -first to post with the song title wins a special prize -details to follow)

Machine off the green and ready to load up and off. Nice steady job for a Friday.

I am going away for a few days next week to the Lakes so there may be no updates while I am there we'll see. 



A Post for the Groundmen Followers of this Blog.

Below are some photos of some photos of some sample I grew in plastic beer pots they were sown back in June last year -or was it July matter not. 

On the right is Colosseum which is a cold season Perennial Rye grass and on the left is the best mix I had made up for cricket squares 40% Cachmire 30% Sauvignon  30% Carnac you can make up your own mind about fineness of leaf etc.

They look better when you enlarge the photo.

For me the real interesting thing about the above photos is the amount of dead material that they have both produced, in a relatively short period of time. The one thing I see more than any other when I visit cricket grounds is thatch and those dead leaves you see are what thatch is made up from. This illustrates the need to rake out your pitches in the spring time.  (And I mean rake not scarify we don't want to cut in to the surface and create line of weakness that will open out in to a crack when we dry out our pitch.) You will find it hard to get all this out by raking you square as a whole unless you have some kind of machine rake or power brush -the Sisis Auto Rota Rake with the brush fit is an ideal tool for this. If you have the one but no brush I strongly recommend you get the brush attachment they are available complete from Brushes North West at a fraction of the Sisis price and the quality is excellent I know through experience.

Keep your surface clean!

More fibre and the square yesterday -Monday.

Keep off the Grass

At last, just about all the snow has gone, so after some jobs at home and collecting a bag of grass seed for Rod Heyhoe. I was eager to get to work on the field. Plan get the tractor out and fit the slitter and get some air into the outfield.

The Health and Safety Officer wont be impressed -no guard. There is only me at the ground and I am very aware of the dangers. 



Here you can see a tractor track and -if you enlarge you can see a slit- the conditions were on the wet side at the bottom end of the ground but fine at the top I was thinking.

You can see some slits here along with some pieces it has lifted out -where the roots are shallow. Slitting should help getting the roots down, so it is a matter of having to put up with it for now. 

I got the west side of the square completed and moved over to the east side it was very wet the wheels bringing water up. I continued without turning the field black, however the blades were only penetration about 2". When I completed I was not totally happy because of the lack of depth and thought I would be better if I got the pedestrian Groundsman spiker out.  

Every thing was going well apart from a few stones I was hitting until Bang! Bang! what the heck had I hit?

by the time I had got over the bouncing and regained control of the spiker I had bent many tines. Bugger!

You may recall these were new tines been used once only -oh dear.

These are the 4 bent tines I had to replace with some spare ones I had.

After I replaced the tines it was around 4-30pm so I took a few more photos which I will show on a wet day when I am struggling for material.

On reflection I think today was a day when may be I should have just kept off the grass but I was frustrated after a week of no action and some times you just have to make things happen I probably got it wrong today.



Just a Few Photos

I had to pop down to ground to pick up a bag of grass seed so I took my camera with me.

The spire is Kirkstall St. Stephens Parish Church.

Look at this it is where some idiot has been sliding on the Square.

 And again.

Tonight I am going to the West Yorkshire Branch of the IOG meeting at Cleckheaton we have Lee Jackson coming to give us a talk he is groundsman at Manchester City's Etihad Stadium. I am looking forward to hear what he has to say and catch up with all the guys. We usually get between 35 and 40 at these meetings which is a top effort by our Secretary and Chairman Rod Heyhoe and David Robinson respectively.