Thursday 14 November 2013

1st and 8th Drainage Works Completed

After 6 (long) weeks we finally finished the fairway draining to holes 1 and 8 last week. It has been an intense period, but secondary drainage went on top of the primary drainage. The big challenge for this area was irrigation pipework and natural falls. Or rather a lack of it! In total we had to cross the irrigation system 30 times, which was a huge challenge in itself and very time consuming. The other issue was the lack of a natural gradient on the 8th fairway. We managed to overcome both and from the video to the left, it's always nice to see water gushing out at the end!


The secondary drainage system consisted of gravel banding at 90degree angles to the land drainage. We included the 4th fairway in with this work which had land drainage installed last year. A small trench was cut about 30mm wide and 200mm deep, with gravel backfilled in to it. We invested in this machine last year and even during the poor weather last week, it left a nice job. We then top-dressed on top of this to finish it off. As we sit on good old London clay, secondary drainage will be as important as primary drainage long term. 

Gravel Bander at work

The Finished 8th Fairway
All this work has been completed in house. As well as the gravel bander we invested in a chain trencher, which enable us to do so. We have now completed our major drainage works for this year and in two years, 4 holes have had drainage installed in them. We will do some other minor works around the place over the winter but the next big phase will commence next autumn. Watch out the 2nd fairway. You are next on the list!!!

2 comments:

  1. Just read an article on your course in GCM magazine, it looks remarkable what you are achieving! I'd love to know more about some of your disease management considering the height you are trimming at! Aaron Carlucci Asst@ Ocean Dunes Golf Links Florence, Oregon USA

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  2. Hi Aaron. Thanks for the reply and comments. We feel that our tight height helps with disease management. A tighter height equals less organic mass to break down and a drier sward. Our number one disease in the UK is microdochium nivale (fusarium). This can occur 12months of the year but the high disease months are from September to December.We find going on a preventative fungicide programme during these months keeps it at bay and the surfaces clean. Like most of our programmes, along the lines of 'little and often' to keep knocking it back works best!

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