Bowling Green Maintenance: 38d. Minimal Resources and Low Club Membership

Mowing This is a key question a club with a small membership must consider as a priority.

With good forward planning and ignoring the all-too-common poor practice of mowing too short and maintaining a good frequency of cut, a suitable green which is fit for purpose should be able to be achieved (and this is what we are aiming to achieve, not a championship green).

The most we will cut is on 3 occasions per week, but this will reduce to twice a week as growth slows and only weekly and less as growth is negligible over the winter period. The height of cut will be no lower than 6mm during the main playing season, raising to 8mm if prolonged dry periods arise, whilst outside of the playing season, starting as soon as the season finishes and going right through to a couple of weeks before the start again in spring the following year, the height of cut will be raised to 13mm to encourage as much root growth as possible. Three weeks prior to the start of the playing season the height of cut can be lowered to 12mm, the following week, 11mm, the week prior to the playing season start it will be 10mm, whilst on the first day of the playing season have the height of cut at 9mm, no lower.

Even during prolonged dry periods, it is important to mow on a regular basis to prevent flower stalks from being produced within the sward. The grass plants present within the sward will start to produce flowering stalks with the aim to set seed so they can continue their life cycle and existence. Regular mowing encourages grasses to reproduce vegetatively (called asexual reproduction), however, when conditions become dry and mowing reduces or stops the grass plant will want to reproduce by other means so will start to withdraw nutrients and energy from its leaves and roots and concentrate these into its seed for reproduction later on. A consequence of reducing mowing or leaving long periods without mowing is that the sward will thin significantly as the grass plant is focusing all of its energy on staying alive – by producing a flower stalk with seeds on.

Boxing off clippings is the norm, however, with the likelihood of less leaf growth due to reduced fertiliser and artificial water inputs the opportunity to return clippings can be considered on a periodic basis throughout the season. Returning clippings will also aid in returning nutrients and aiding moisture retention, but too much reliance on this will only encourage a softer more easily worn surface, annual meadow, an increase in disease susceptibility and more likelihood of earthworm surface casting, so a balance of boxing off to returning clippings needs to be made.

The time taken to mow a green might take about 1½ hours, but this will depend on the amount of grass removed and number of boxes needing to be emptied. With minimal fertiliser application and artificial watering taking place there might only be a few occasions of natural conditions when higher quantities of leaf are needing to be removed at any one time.

A guide frequency might be as follows: