From surf to turf

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It can be a little tricky to see what this picture actually shows, but if you look carefully, you will see the Cutty Sark in the background. Here we are, fixing up the compacted lawns and laying new turf for idverde by the Royal Naval College in Greenwich. It's chilly work in January, but actually, it's quite a good case study of the care needed by hard-worn turf between seasons.

For this project, we first de-compacted the lawns using a vertidrainer with solid tines, to a depth of 8” in two directions. Then we used a Koro Field Top Maker over the surface to remove any existing vegetation. Next, we spread 70/30 rootzone to top dress the lawns and fill any low spots, and finally, laid 5,580 square metres (which is nearly the surface area of a standard football pitch) of Big Roll Grasslands Rysport turf.

Dear old Cutty Sark - one of the very last tea clippers, built in 1869, had a good run until 1922, when the steamship really had taken over, then used for training until 1954, since when she has been laid up at Greenwich. And now she sails the Rysport turf, forever heading North along the meridian.