Message Board - Not Turf Related: Harrogate show/ Saltex

With these two shows being separate why can't they just combine both together and have them in the centre of country somewhere, would be alot bigger and probably more people would turn up.

Hi Troy, isn't Harrogate in the centre of the country? Is bigger better? Not looking to create controversy, but I don't see necessarily see a change of location would help?

Harrogate is too far for me to do in a day so wouldnt bother. Ian

Saltex is too far for me to do in a day so wouldnt bother. ste

Saltex and Harrogate are over 100 miles either way from me. Ok, so its a couple hours drive. But it's once a year, twice if you go to both.
I can't ever see there being a one show. But if there was i would like to see it in the midlands. We have everything in place at the NEC, rail, motorways, airports. All on the door step.

Never the twain will meet......

Count yourselves lucky you don't have to board a sardine can of a plane to attend either!!

Mike,

The rate your bringing in equipment, you could have your own bloody show.
Jealous me.

Another one arrived on the island 4 hours ago AJ! Sparkling new roller from Swillington now takes pride of place in our shed.

We're getting there slowly, Andy - two more machines and our fleet is complete... big ol' ship, she's a turnin round.

Been looking through the figures, iro 60k in the last 6 years... in the 30 or so years before that, barely a penny!

Mike, do you have any before and after pictures of your site you could post on here?

Take it all whilst you can Mike in the sure knowledge that it will change at some point.

Cueball - I did have, but unfortunately, one piece of kit that I neglected to update was my pc, which blew up over Christmas, so I had to buy a new one, so the only pics I have are recent ones off my phone.

To paint a picture of what we have been left to sort out by the previous regimn, here is a pic of a small part of the woodland at the prep school - that whole area has now been cleared, and is to be turned into a high value ecological area. As you can see from the pic, scruffy, and unacceptable at a public school, more akin to a tip.

Everything that we are doing now is undoing neglect, leftovers from poor practices and workmanship, to get us to a blank canvas, then we can really start to make a difference.

Bit of thatch from the first ever pitch renovation...

My assistant's expression and pose displays how happy we were to have won the many battles we had to go through to get let of the leash and actually start changing things... Success!!!

Typical of the tree problems we have - this big elm come down onto neighboring garages on the eve of our founders day...

Oh Scheisse....

Dismantling another elm (circa 150 years old) on Christmas eve - this one had shifted it's root plate in the storms and was fixing to come down on a cottage

Worked bloody hard today boys, take a break...

More woodland clearance...

Vic, I know it will dry up, but we are buying wisely to future proof ourselves. To be fair though, on the face of it, it looks like we are spending big time, so consider this:

£60k capital investment in the fleet in 6 years
£10k pa operational budget for two schools

So, if we look over 6 years, we have spent approx £120k - when I was last over with you, I spoke to a fair few school groundsmen, most of whom's annual operational budgets blow that figure out of the water - one I spoke to was over double that. I just prioriitise though - I take a big hit on the operational budget to allow for capital investment - this is a short term measure, because the way I see it is if you don't have the kit to do the right cultural's, what's the point of spending a fortune on products as their efficacy will be severely hindered. Money is tight, so we simply have to invest it in the long term, and ensure that we get maximum bang for our buck for what money we do spend.

Mike

All credit to you Mike, I am very green!

Credit goes to my team, Vic - they all play as equally big a part as I do.

Looks like you've had fun. When i started here we were given 50k for capital expense. It was a new team and we went nuts. Only have two bits of the original kit left after 7 years. Slowly doing it properly now and buying wisley.

Slowly doing it properly now and buying wisley

Bloody hell Neil. You must have a big budget. Who is going to do all the gardening?

Mike,
Your doing a grand job turning things around and honest with the facts too, Good luck.

We used to hire in the Green Mech kombi you have there once a year to get rid of our winter crap, good tool.
Is that machine on hire? Noticed the chipper on the side has been blocked off.
They had a attedency of blocking up if the material was wet. Still did the job though.
Sadly, the company we used to hire off is no longer.

We borrowed the Greenmech off a local authority. I have been helping them with their Bowling greens and football pitches for a couple of years - they have been wanting to pay me for helping them, but I suggested that the use of the Greenmech and a packet of doughnuts would do it!