T hottest on record in the UK and experts are warning
AERATION , IRRIGATION & DRAINAGE
After the Flood
he year 2022 was the
T 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 treelined spaces , and even domestic back gardens suffer heavy soil compaction . When the rains come , water cannot 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 . One contractor working with London councils has among the sites under their watchful eye many of the city ’ s sports pitches , of which there are ninety-five football pitches , ten cricket squares , bowling greens and running tracks .
“ A lot of the sites are on madeup ground and experience major problems with drainage ,” says their parks officer . “ We have carried out aeration down to 300mm , but it ’ s not enough to get to the pans .”
So , what ’ s the answer ? Terrain Aeration has a range of machines with the ability to send a probe to a depth of one metre . It penetrates the ground with the help of its built-in JCB road breaker , reaching the pan . Here it injects compressed air , working on a grid system and fragmenting the ground into fissures . These interlink to help restructure the soil and let in vital oxygen . Turf roots will grow stronger and uniquely the soil structure is kept open by Terrain Aeration ’ s Terralift machine process . With the Terralift ’ s probe reaching 1m depth , it ’ s also the perfect way to help move excess water away from stagnating around tree roots . By going deeper than the growing roots , excess water can percolate away and save the roots from rotting . Again , vital oxygen is injected into the soil along with other products to help the root system re-establish itself . The results are a healthier and stronger root growth , a visibly stronger canopy and even more fruit on the trees . Diseases such as Phytophthora ( waterborne problems for Yew trees ) can be stopped as opening the soil structure and injecting oxygen back into the soil is beneficial to the health of the tree . In the above examples , Terrain Aeration ’ s system has come to the rescue after the flood for sports grounds , golf courses , racecourses , parks and even new-build gardens for major housebuilders ’ developments .
Terrain Aeration www . terrainaeration . co . uk
48 GroundskeepingJournal . co . uk | November / December 2024