Association Updates—TGA Launches Its “Meet the Grower” series

ASSOCIATION UPDATES

TURFGRASS GROWERS ASSOCIATION

UPDATES

A TGA Update from the Chairman, Richard Owens.

Richard Owens, TGA Chairman

As I write this update (in early June), the sun is shining, and the world is moving carefully, and slowly towards some form of normality.

Back in the turf world, irrigation season, certainly for us, is now in full swing, and it is definitely noticeable in our neck of the woods that there seems to be an ongoing trend towards “Drought Springs.” After an unseasonably cold May, the lack of precipitation, coupled with night-time temperatures still regularly around freezing, certainly added yet another challenge to an already challenging industry. We have just entered the British summer time, the warmer temperatures and sunshine levels feeling more normal for the time of year. A few months ago, we held our Spring meeting (virtually once more), where our affiliate members were given the opportunity to update grower members on new developments within their respective line of business. It was great to catch up with everyone, and it was good to see all the companies involved doing well, and as always, offering advanced and innovative solutions to all of our needs and requirements, in all areas. A big thank you to all those companies and representatives who kindly took the time to talk to us.

Regarding future “live” meetings/events, we are constantly monitoring the government guidelines and will once more be organizing events as soon as it is safe and sensible to do so.

The Association has just launched our “Meet the Grower” promotion, and you will see on the following pages our first article, featuring Stephen Edwards from Inturf.

Editor’s note: This “Meet the Grower” article was provided by TGA’s Coral Russell. As she reports, “With the launch of the new TGA website, we are also launching a “Meet the Grower” section. Each month there will be an opportunity for one of our grower members to introduce themselves and their company, both on our website and via our social media channels.” The “Meet the Grower” article that follows is in the question-and-answer format as developed by TGA, with the grower’s answers printed as provided.

Meet the Grower— Stephen Edwards of INTURF Tells All

How long have been growing turfgrass? We have been turf growing for 36 years, and it all started with 50 acres, we now produce well in excess of 2000 acres, or more than 800 hectares in new money. My father, Derek Edwards, worked with another turf growing company in the late seventies and early eighties, and helped shape the face of the cultivated turf industry into what it is today, but wanted to carve his own path in the sportsturf World. This was extremely successful, customers included: the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (AELTCC) in Wimbledon, Wembley National Stadium, and many famous golf courses.

Since then, we have mechanised and now supply nearly all of the national DIY chains, various Building Merchants, and many Open Championship Golf Courses. We also grew turf in Northern France in the 1990s from where we re-turfed the Parc des Princes, Paris, using our patented ‘turf tile’ and ‘thickcut big roll’ systems; pioneering systems which were adopted by a handful of other turf growers across the UK and Europe and helped numerous football clubs re-turf during the playing season. We also introduced the ‘standard big roll’ turf format in 1991, and by 1992 no other turf grower anywhere in the world was using this so ubiquitously as Inturf!

Tell Us About Your Team We have a very dedicated team at Inturf, the majority of whom have been with us for many years, 30 years plus in a few cases, and we are hiring new recruits regularly to keep pace with an inexorable increase in demand for our turf. As the business grows, we will require more and more staff to drive the latest technology and to occupy the growing office.

Employee training and engagement are key markers to retain staff and for success, and we leave no stone un-turned in the respect. Valuing staff is a priority for Inturf. What is your proudest achievement? There are many, however, I think the proudest moment was re-surfacing ‘Centre Court’ at the AELTCC in August 1997. My brother (Alex) and I completed this work behind closed doors for the club during a very long hot summer. Nearly every court had been re-surfaced using our custom-grownturf service (another first in the turf world), either before or following the centre court re-turf… to my knowledge, this had not been undertaken before or since our time working with the AELTCC, which spanned circa 20 years.

Why do you love producing turfgrass? Most importantly, turf is good for our planet… socially, environmentally, and economically and generally speaking, the people who operate within the industry are down to earth and helpful. We have an amazing manicured 2000-acre plus garden too, so we benefit from the abundance of positive health benefits turf offers. For instance, its noise reduction qualities, flood defensive applications (it reduces water run-off), it has a high efficacy

of carbon capturing, in fact, better than any tree per square metre of plantation, and turf really does have the ability to calm even the busiest of minds… just try walking on your natural lawn in bare-feet… wearing footwear is an exclusively human characteristic!

What is your favourite piece of machinery? It has got to be the turf harvesters, albeit they are temperamental, they cut 4 million square metres of natural turfgrass every year, and without them, we simply could not grow the business in the way we have… hats-off to the Americans for this technology!

If you had one piece of advice for turfgrass customers, what would it be? Prior to turfing, get the ground preparation right by following our ‘online’ advice and easy steps or call a trusted landscaper, lay the turf as quickly as possible (preferably on the day of delivery) and water it well until it is rooted to approximately 100 mm or 4 inches and for no longer than 28 days. What do you think is the biggest challenge facing the future of the turf growing industry? In the short-term, artificial turf has become more ubiquitous and the money and marketing behind the carpet manufacturers are matchless. That said, I think that in the medium- to long-term, we have to be careful not to ‘over-cook’ the current high demand for natural turf by using quicker growing methods, such as using plastic netting, which isn’t good for the environment and will only serve to offer the artificial turf producers more ammunition and indeed mitigation against using natural turf in the future… oh, and another global pandemic, because next time, we might not be so lucky! For more information on INTURF, visit their website https:// www.inturf.com/.

The Turfgrass Growers Association (TGA) is a membership organisation representing UK turfgrass growers. It is the only professional organization in the UK and Ireland dedicated to the advancement of quality turf production. Richard Owens is the Chairman of the TGA and leads the work of the TGA with the aid of the TGA Council. Owens is the Golf and Technical Manager at Tillers Turf. Coral Russell is the Company Secretary for the TGA, managing all processes involved with running the day to day with the Association. For more information, visit the website at www.turfgrass.co.uk, or contact Coral Russell at Coral.russell@ britishgrowers.org. anager g ll@