Grass Clippings

Prince Charles admires Turf at Cartier Polo

Sunday 27th July saw the highlight of the 2008 Polo Calendar - The Cartier International Polo held at Smith's Lawn , Windsor Great Park, Berkshire. Another truly magnificant summer season sporting event held on natural grass!

The main event of the day was the international game between England and Australia with England lifting the Cup with a 10 - 9 score after some thrilling polo. Prince Charles, a keen polo player himself, presented the Cup to the wining team.

Apart from the game and the many celebrities attending the event, the other highlight was the three streakers who deceided to 'have a go' within the dying minutes of the last chukka! The two Umpires bemused why the crowds were suddenly cheering so loudly.

Will Lawn Art ever catch on?

I had to chuckle at the news story in the daily mail today about Tania Ledger who had a picture of the Mona Lisa created in her lawn.

Does this mean that we are going to see an explosion of lawn art all over the country? I do hope not because I can foresee a host of problems when it comes to lawn maintenance.

The Shooting Star Children's Hospice

At the end of last year we heard a news item on the Capital Radio Breakfast Show hosted by Johnny Vaughan and Denise Van Outen. As part of their Help a London Child Christmas Appeal they were trying to raise funds to help some needy children in London. The recipient of the money raised Last December through the Appeal will be used to build a Play Therapy Room in a new extension at The Shooting Star Children’s Hospice based in Hampton in Middlesex.

Lawns of Historic Gardens looking a little Scilly

This past week, I spent a week yacht sailing from Falmouth to The Isles of Scilly - to get as far away from grass as possible! I was Crew on one of five yachts that slipped their moorings at a very unsociable hour of 04.30am on a Sunday morning to travel the 60 nautical miles from Falmouth to St Agnes to commence our week of circumnavigating the Islands.

The importance of reading the product label

The Greenkeeper, Peter Rae at Haywards Heath Golf Club may well be feeling dreadful at the moment after Gallup total weed killer was applied to the fairway instead of selective herbicide, which was the intention.

Aerial photographs taken from the Daily Mail show extensive damage to fairways and approaches - it could take up to twelve months for the damage to be repaired.

Why Weed Control should not be ignored

There has been a tightening of budgets across the United Kingdom and turf managers everywhere are faced with a dilemma - Do we treat our playing surfaces for Weeds, Worms or Insects or invest in new corner flags, football nets or goal posts?

Our advice to the purse holder who allocates the budgets is think very carefully in the first instance before reducing the maintenance budget for your school playing surfaces.

Getting Weed Free

There is a lot of confusion concerning which chemical product for which job. This not only applies to Selective Weed Control on lawns but also Total Weed Control on Pathways, Patios, Driveways and Non Crop Areas such as Car parks. Total Weed Killers should never be applied to a lawn area unless you want to kill off the lawn or grass area to start again and then you should use a Non Residual active ingredient.

Weeds and weed grasses destroy the fabric of a building, fence line, pathways and driveways. We see weed killers as a management tool compared to digging them out yourself which is time consuming and really only removing the top growth and not the roots.

I often watch consumers at the chemical section of the garden centre - there is too much confusion out there and a lot of head scratching ahead of the product being taken of the shelf - it annoys me! Let me break some of the myths and help you all out on this subject so you can purchase with confidence and save a few ££ as well, but most of all get the right product for the right job to acheive the results you are after.

'A Weed is a Plant whose Virtues have not yet been discovered' - Emerson