The Duke’s Green Keeping

Recently at The Duke’s we have been carrying out some aeration work by vertidraining the greens with 10mm solid tines down to a depth of 200mm before swapping the tines to do the fairways with 25mm solid tines to the same depth. Before the fairways get tined we have also applied a top dressing which will be brushed in. Other work at the moment includes installing some rubber mats onto walkways/heavy wear areas.

Last week I went down to Bingley in Yorkshire to the STRI (sports turf research institute) where we mainly were looking at options for seed and the trials that the STRI have carried out on the plots that they manage. Also an interesting talk by Dr Ruth Mann on disease management, showing the trials done and progress made on various options for controlling turfgrass disease.

On another note, we all know how poor our weather has been this year but we should spare a thought for those affected by the recent super storm, which caused severe damage to many golf courses in the New York area. Our bunkers have been washed out and greens flooded this year, but I have to admit that so far we have not had any boats washed onto the course!.

http://albums.phanfare.com/isolated/Rkdk9SST/1/5814014_6631862#imageID=172040643

Thanks

Derek