New Tines and Bushes Fit

What a grand day weather wise -will do me for February. I fit the new tines and bushes to my Groundsman spiker first job today.

Here you can see the new tines -all black after case hardening- it is a little harder to see the new bushes -they are the black bits above the tine holders. I wanted to get the tines nice and shiny so that they would not grab, so I had a session spiking the outfield to the west of the square.

 

Here you can see the area I worked on. I got from the edge of the square nearly to the boundary -our shortest. The tines were penetrating a good three inches which I am happy with.

While I had the camera out I took a couple of shots of the square -not bad for the time of year though I say it myself -hold on a minute is that a sign of a happy groundsman?

No don't be silly.

Result a lot of holes in the outfield, nice shiny tines and a slightly bent one, where I hit a stone -ah well that's how it goes.

This is interesting -sorry my photos don't tell the full story- I bought a very cheap soil water gauge you can see above, now I know I have dry patch on the ridge and furrows in the outfield. So I put the gauge in the soil on top of the ridge and the above is the reading. I then put it in the furrow and the photo below shows the result.

This is the reading at the base of the furrow I know its not good to see - the gauge reads from 0 to 10 -ten being the wettest, the red area is the driest. 

I tried a couple more areas results in photos below.

Top of the ridge reading.

Bottom of the furrow reading.



The last two readings are from the square a whole lot wetter than any reading on the outfield.

If any of you are as daft as I am. I think you can buy such gauges from garden centres -the one I have came from a wholesale company I deal with- I think it cost less  than £5-00.