Harmsworth Park is currently having its annual pre-season
make-over. As well as maintenance on the drains, and spreading of fertiliser
and weed killer several other pieces of work have also been undertaken this
year.
Over 100 tons of sand has been spread and the park has been over-seeded
with 60Kg of grass seed.
In an attempt to break the pan of compacted soil beneath the
surface and help with the drainage the club has also brought in a specialist
contractor to carry out a deep aeration treatment.
A machine is used to
hydraulically hammer a probe about 1½" in diameter into the soil to a depth
of about a meter. It then releases a blast of compressed air to fracture and
fissure the soil. On the tail end of the air blast, dried milled seaweed is
injected under pressure which sticks to the walls of the fractures and over a
period of time this swells and contracts with the moisture content in the soil.
When the probe is
removed, the machine moves forward and the process is repeated using two metre
centre spacings on a staggered grid pattern. The probe holes are then
backfilled with aggregate to provide a semi long-term aeration/ventilation
shaft allowing air and water to percolate into the fissures. The aim in
breaking the compacted ground pan is that surface water will be able to reach
one-metre fairly quickly before percolating deeper.
The club has also purchased
a verti-drain soil reliever machine which will be used frequently on the park,
spiking it providing aeration and again hopefully improve drainage.
Pictured is the
machine used to carry out the deep aeration treatment
