By late 2007 DMK construction had left site and the grow in began - all the greens where seeded out with fescue and the rootzone was the natural sands from the site. This caused some problems as some greens where more exposed than others and in the end we turfed 5 of the shore greens. The fairways where mown out of the existing swards which involved strimming and collecting. Rabbit damage was a huge problem and there where an estimated 350.000 of them on site when we arrived (a successful cull has now taken place) but at the time every green site had to be fenced off. As no chemicals are allowed to be used on the SSSI (apart from on greens and tees) weeds like ragwort and thistles had to be pulled manually which took up huge amounts of manpower. The roughs in the beginning where to be maintained by sheep we purchased 25 hebridians and we "lend" up to 300 suffolks during the winter from a local farmer. Every greensite and tee complex that was chosen the existing turf had to be moved to another similar area within the SSSI this is where our ecologist played one of her crucial roles. One of the many "rules" we work within is that we are not allowed to import any turf or non native seed to the site - so patching damaged areas was very time consuming.
No comments:
Post a Comment