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Good Seed, Good Drainage and Common Sense

Talk to David Powell, Head Groundsman, about his approach to maintaining the pitch at Franklyn Gardens, home of Northampton Saints, and you will find him succinct, direct but also extremely modest. Recalling the times he played for England and the British Lions over 30 years ago, he has seen a terrific transformation in rugby pitch care and presentation but plays down his role in improving pitches.

“I approach ground care from a farming perspective,” he says. “The basics are the same. To grow good grass. The key is to get the drainage right and choose the grass seed mix that will deliver the type of growth you want.”

For the past five years, the grass seed mix chosen for Franklyn Gardens has been DLF PRO Master 81. This perennial ryegrass mix includes both Bizet and New Himalaya varieties that help provide excellent sward density and wear tolerance, two key demands for a hard worked rugby pitch.

Colourful solution to spoil bank has low establishment and maintenance costs

When Alec Davies, Course Manager at Denton Golf Club, Manchester was tasked with removing a roundabout and upgrade an access road leading to the clubhouse, he also had to work out what to do with the resultant 600 tonnes of rubble and spoil. Job one was to form it into 150m by 30m bank, graded to a height of around 3m.

“I needed to ensure the spoil bank was turned into a feature and was finished properly as it can be seen from the clubhouse,” says Mr Davies. “I was not sure what to do in the long term but initially thought we could turf the bank as and when funds became available and keep it green and weed free in the interim.”

After an initial period that saw periodic spraying to keep weeds, that included docks and thistles in check, Mr Davies decided to seed the bank with a native annual wildflower mixture from DLF Trifolium’s Masterline range. DLF are one of the UKs largest suppliers of native wild flower mixtures. Expecting weeds to continue to be a problem, he selected an annual mix which would allow spraying to be carried out before the wildflowers would germinate.