Bowled over by automatic watering systems.

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bowling green, bowls green, bowls green care, bowls green irrigation, bowls green maintenance, bowls green water, bowls green watering, bowls irrigation, bowls irrigation kits, bowls irrigation systems, DIY bowls irrigation, football pitch irrigation, irrigation, landscape irrigation, soccer pitch water, weatherproofing

A well-designed bowls green watering system produces a consistent, quality playing surface, even in the middle of summer.

So, the bowls season is over. The clubhouse is closed, the seats and scoreboard are cleared away and the green is closed down. It’s time for winter bowls green maintenance to commence, or at the very least be planned for the coming months.

Summer 2013 has been hot and dry for most of us…the best summer for many years. Most of us benefited from long periods of dry weather, and we certainly enjoyed it. Most bowls clubs will have watered their greens at some point during the season. Even without an irrigation system, I bet the hose pipes and sprinklers were switched on to keep the grass alive and keep the green looking and playing it’s best.

Putting a water sprinkler on during the day wastes a heck of a lot of water, as most of the water evaporates skywards due to warmer air and ground temperatures. In fact, as much as 30% of the water applied may be wasted (so not being used to help keep your grass alive) compared to watering your bowls green during the night.

If a standard irrigation sprinkler is set to operate from the mains supply, it may use 800 litres of water during a 60 minute operation time. That may not sound a lot, but if you think that if the irrigation sprinkler is moved around the green 4 times throughout the day, each time running for 1 hour that’s 3,200 litres! With almost 1,000 litres of precious water wasted, and not benefiting the grass on your bowls green. Amazingly, if you water your bowls green every day for 3 weeks, thats over 21,000 litres of wasted water!

Enjoying the sunshine (and the bowls) during the 2013 summer.

An automatic bowls green watering system will help to radically reduce water wastage, by watering at night when the ground temperature is at its lowest, the wind speed is reduced, and by applying water evenly across the bowls green surface, will make much better use of this precious resource.

At Buy Irrigation, we hear many different opinions on bowls green irrigation, including the negative ones, like these: “Automatic watering is a waste of time, it puts on too much water”, “Bowls greens should be naturally brown during the summer”, “Watering makes the green too soft”, “Watering promotes disease”.

Ok. Some of these statements may apply to some situations. All of these may be true, for a handful of greens and clubs. But for most clubs, the watering system is an important management tool for the bowls green to attain the required playing surface. Like your mower, if the cutting height is set too low, the grass dies, if you apply too much fertilizer it may damage the playing surface, if you overwater you will damage the green. However, most modern bowls green irrigation systems allow very fine tuning of the system, ensuring this does not need to happen. An automatic bowls green watering system allows you to water your green as often or as little as you like, and allows you to plan your top dressing and fertilizer regimes, without reliance on the good old British weather.

Bowls green sprinklers apply water automatically and evenly during the night when most efficient.

No irrigation system is meant to be set at the start of the season and left to look after itself totally throughout the season. Good groundsmen assess the green on a regular basis checking for signs of disease, grass lengths, nutrient requirements, and also how the green is responding to irrigation. Is it too wet? Do the watering times need increasing? Are the sprinklers operating correctly?
There may be times when certain parts of the green need a spot of additional water. An automatic irrigation system works best in conjunction with the skills of the expert who maintains your green.

One thing is certain: installing a well-designed watering system to your bowls green really helps a club apply water efficiently and evenly, at the right time, and reduces the amount of time spent moving sprinklers and hoses during the day, when really it doesn’t work that well.

Buy Irrigation supply bowls watering kits for you to install yourself (with plenty of advice from us if you need it) or we can install for you. If you’d like some advice, specific to your club’s bowls green, give us a call on 08456 808168 or email here.

Water water everywhere…and not a drop to irrigate.

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Full to the brim…are rain soaked summers the future?

According to recent news, here in the UK we’ve just had the second wettest year on record. Seems a long time since those water bans were put in place earlier in 2012, doesn’t it?

Rusty barbeques and sodden vegetable patches all over Britain attest what a lousy summer we enjoyed, and the rainfall we endured was exceptionally heavy and prolonged. Now, climate experts tell us that we should expect this type of pattern to continue into the future. Woop.

Lovely weather for ducks (and swans). Not so great for plants and turf though.

Is this the end for the UK irrigation industry? Are the 100 plus (wild guess there) UK irrigation companies ready to shut the doors and move to warmer climes? I think not. I believe that most will see the climate situation as an opportunity for increased business in challenging times. Adapt and survive, as they say.

While we may see heavier, more frequent heavy downpours of rain throughout summer and winter periods, we will still get warm summers when golf courses, sports fields, plants and lawns require water at specific times during dry periods.

Cancelled games, postponed matches. 2012 rainfall played havoc with sports pitches.

You could argue that a heavy deluge of rain (where most of the water runs off the land into ditches and rivers) is not effective at irrigating the ground, as the soil just can’t physically accept the water quick enough for it to do any good. So, we could therefore assume that more irrigation is required…maybe a little simplistic, but I suspect it contains more than a shred of truth.

Whether we get these high volumes of rainfall or not, water is one of the planet’s most valuable commodities, as the drought situation earlier in 2012 testified. It therefore suggests that if we can store rapid-falling rain for use during a drought, or during dry periods, then we can be self-sufficient. This is absolutely true, however the storage of water can be very expensive because of the quantities required for long-term irrigation purposes.

A bowling green, for instance, or any area of fine turf lawn of a similar size could need a very conservative estimate of 20 cubic meters (4400 gallons) of water for just 1 week of watering (and that’s just half the quantity recommended by turf professionals). That’s a tank measuring 5m long x 2m high x 2m wide…just for 1 week’s water at half a full application.

The same scenario applies to planting areas. Just think how long your water butt lasts if you are using it every day to water your plants or vegetables.

Anyone for golf? Don’t forget to bring your snorkel.

Golf courses, especially, need masses of water to irrigate the course. An 18 hole course could require 250 cubic meters (55000 gallons) just to water the greens over a week in the hottest part of the summer. That’s a very large and expensive storage requirement for any period of time in drought, and to maximise the collected rainfall.

Right now, the challenge for professional irrigation advisors and installers is give the client an irrigation system which, contrary to opinion, will still be valid and useful in the future. An irrigation system which makes the best use of natural resources (the free water falling from the sky), while keeping costs at economic levels. More importantly, to design an irrigation system that uses that water as efficiently as possible, without wastage.

Underground water storage tanks could help you deliver water efficiently.

Irrigation equipment manufacturers are currently investing millions in the quest to provide the latest highly efficient controllers, sensors and delivery equipment, proven and tested around the globe, to make the best use of the water available.

In summary, even if we continue to get more rainfall, there will be times of the year when you will need to water your garden…golf course…bowling green. So, if you do decide on a system, think about storage of surplus water and remember you’ll need a large storage capacity for long term use, (usually bigger than you think). Don’t consider this storage without thinking about a highly efficient irrigation system. The more efficient the system the longer this storage will last.

Finally, seek professional advice (mine, preferably!). If you don’t feel as though you are getting the right answers, or your needs are not fully covered, try someone else (like me!).

Weather-proof your bowling green (effectively and economically)

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bowling green, bowls green, bowls green watering, bowls irrigation, bowls irrigation kits, bowls irrigation systems, DIY bowls irrigation

Whatever the UK weather decides to chuck at us, there’s always a need to water your bowls green throughout the season. Your bowls green may need watering whilst your annual maintenance program is underway, or after applying fertilizer, or (if we’re really lucky), during a extended period of sunshine and dry weather.

There are plenty of bowls green watering systems on the market – from using a small sprinkler and hose to an expensive pop-up watering system that waters the bowls green from the perimeter of the area. The simplest and most sophisticated systems each have their advantages and disadvantages.

Here’s our take on them:

The simplest systems using a hose and sprinkler connected to a standard mains water supply are usually used during the day, as the weather is at its warmest. This can be a struggle due to low water pressure and/or because there is just not enough water available to cover the green satisfactorily.

Larger sprinkler systems, featuring 4 sprinklers positioned around the bowls green’s perimeter, mean installing large pipework and pumping equipment to get the sprinklers to reach the centre of the green. The water droplets from the sprinklers tend to be large (the sprinklers are delivering more than 10x the flow that comes from a normal water tap and typically at 3 times the pressure). Sometimes, if not managed properly, this can cause compaction and capping problems. These larger bowls green irrigation systems can also be very expensive, putting them way out of financial reach for smaller bowls clubs.

Our ProBowl System provides a solution. Offering a really effective automatic watering system specifically designed for the smaller clubs with matching budgets. The ProBowl irrigation system is designed as a DIY kit; self installation avoiding installing charges, making it a much more realistic financial alternative.

Just like the more expensive bowls green irrigation systems, with the ProBowl watering can be programmed to start during the night (when most effective) and application is very even across the whole area. Power requirements are smaller, pipework is smaller and the whole system is designed to be installed by irrigation ‘amateurs’.

The kit is delivered to site by one of our engineers, who’ll take the Club’s installation team through the installation procedure, spending as much time as required so the club is completely satisfied (usually a couple of hours). Any questions that arise during the installation can be addressed to the buyirrigation team via email or phone.

With over 20 ProBowl irrigation systems installed around the UK in the last 3 years, there should be an operating ProBowl system somewhere close by, should the Club wish to inspect. Check the map here, to locate the ProBowl system closest to you.