AERATION , IRRIGATION & DRAINAGE
After the Flood
he year 2022
T was the hottest on record in the UK and experts are warning the unprecedented heat is a sign of things to come . With the ground dried out and continued heavy footfall , amenity areas , sports fields , golf courses , parks , other tree lined spaces and even domestic back gardens suffer heavy soil compaction . When the rains come , water is unable to penetrate the soil and sports grounds in particular turn into quagmires , stopping play and resulting for many in lost revenue . Exceptionally heavy rainfall leading to flooding has a number of other knock-on effects for turf and trees . Flood waters are heavy enough to force the oxygen out of the soil structure , leading to dead or dying turf and trees showing signs of severe stress , leaf fall and rotting roots . No amount of normal aeration , spiking or decompaction of the topsoil is going to solve a problem that goes much deeper . That is where deep aeration specialists are called for and one company , Terrain Aeration , has been solving these problems for well over thirty years .
Take some typical examples . A bowling green in Wales that has seen over ninety years of play . Built on shale , like so many , even with regular Vertidraining , the ground had become compacted at depth . The club treasurer remembers well the day in 2018 .
“ The green was filling with water before my very eyes ,” he says , “ and after the heavy showers it remained quite sodden and unplayable . It seemed no amount of work could get it back into shape .” This left fifty or so members without playing facilities until it dried out .
24 GroundskeepingJournal . co . uk | January / February 2024