£1,995 for a full year of products and a written programme for one bowling green. Delivered to the club, with no VAT to add.

Most bowling clubs in Scotland and the rest of the UK are looked after by their own members. There is no groundsman, the budget is tight, and the people doing the work are doing their best with whatever the last committee bought. The green suffers for it, and so does the bowling.

I put this package together to fix that. It is everything a club needs to feed, condition and renovate one green for a year, at one fixed price, with the programme that tells you what to put on, how much, and when. I have spent my working life on fine turf: head greenkeeper at Lahinch, managing the Kyle and Carrick courses in Ayrshire, and preparing the greens at Ayr Northfield for the World Bowls Championships. The products in the box are the ones I use myself, and the programme is the one I follow.

Order the package · What is in it · The programme · Ask me a question

Who the package is for

It is for a club that wants a good green without a full-time greenkeeper. In particular:

• Clubs run by volunteers, where the person looking after the green changes every few years and the knowledge leaves with them.
• Clubs that have been buying the wrong things. The fertiliser trade is a maze of brand names and analyses, and it is very easy to spend the whole budget on products the green does not need.
• Committees that need to know the year’s turf cost in one figure before the AGM. With the package, the figure is £1,995 and there are no surprises in July.
• Clubs that want someone to phone. I am at the other end of the telephone or an email all year if something goes wrong.

If your club already has a greenkeeper who knows what they are doing, you probably do not need me. If it has a committee member with a spreader and a lot of goodwill, this package will make their year a great deal easier.

What is in the package

Enough product to treat one standard green (roughly 38 by 38 metres, call it 1,500 square metres) for a whole year, following the programme below. Everything is delivered to the club.

• Early spring: granular fertiliser and moss killer. A high nitrogen feed with 11% iron. The iron kills the moss, the nitrogen fills in the gaps it leaves. This is the Spring Turf Care I sell in the shop.
• Playing season: liquid fertiliser. A concentrated liquid feed with seaweed, applied every six weeks or so from May to late summer. Little and often is how a green stays true through the competitions.
• Playing season: liquid seaweed and wetting agent. Applied between the feeds. The seaweed conditions the soil so the fertiliser is used properly, and the wetting agent keeps water moving through the surface in a dry spell instead of sitting on top of it.
• Autumn: granular fertiliser. Low nitrogen, no phosphate, high potassium, with magnesium, iron and seaweed. It hardens the grass for the winter rather than pushing soft growth into the frost. It goes on two to three weeks after the renovation, as soon as the new seed has germinated, so that it feeds the old sward and the new grass together.
• Autumn renovation: seaweed meal and grass seed. Seaweed meal to go on after the green is spiked and scarified, and my bowling green seed mix for overseeding the worn heads.
• Winter: sulphate of iron. For the three iron applications between mid-November and late February that keep moss and disease off the green while it is closed.
• The written programme. A month-by-month plan for the year: application rates and timings for everything above, mowing heights through the seasons, verti-cutting, aeration, rolling, and the autumn renovation step by step.
• Advice through the year. Phone or email me when something is not right. Fusarium in November, a dry patch in June, a mower that will not cut clean: I would rather hear about it the week it happens than see the result in September.

What is not in it, and why

• Top dressing. A green needs about five tonnes of medium-coarse sand dressing a year (a sixth if you hollow core), which costs around £750, and it makes no sense to ship sand across the country. I will tell you where to get good dressing near you, and what grade to ask for.
• Fungicide and weedkiller. Not in the box because a green on this programme should rarely need either. If yours does, I will advise on what to use and where to get it.
• Machinery. If the club needs a mower, a sprayer or a scarifier, or is thinking of hiring a verti-drain for the autumn, I know the suppliers and can usually save a club money. Ask.

The programme it follows

The package is the materials for the programme I have written up in full on this site. Read my definitive guide to maintaining a bowling green for the operations task by task, and a full year’s maintenance of a bowling green for the same programme by time of year. The autumn renovation is the one job that makes or breaks the following season, so it has its own article.

In short: cut at 6 to 8 mm through the winter and bring it down for play; feed lightly and often from spring to late summer; keep water moving with the wetting agent; renovate the day the green closes, and have it finished by the middle of October at the latest; feed again once the new seed is through; and put iron on through the winter. Clubs that follow it have a green that starts the season firm, true and free of moss.

Who is behind it

I am Duncan Gray. I was head greenkeeper at Lahinch in Ireland, then Fine Turf Superintendent for Kyle and Carrick in Ayrshire, in charge of eight golf courses and nine bowling greens. Those greens included Ayr Northfield, which went from never having hosted a national event to staging Scottish and British championships and then the men’s and women’s World Championships, both televised, on turf I prepared. I have advised private bowling clubs across Ayrshire and beyond for over twenty years, and I still look after greens today.

You can read more about how I work with bowling clubs, and about my golf and bowling green consultancy.

How to order

The package is £1,995 for one green for one year, delivered. There are three ways to get it:

1. Order online. Buy the bowling green yearly package in the shop and pay by card. I will be in touch to confirm the delivery details and send you the programme.
2. Phone me. 07801 301712. Most clubs want a chat first, and I am happy to have one.
3. Use the form below. Tell me about your green and I will come back to you. If you want a written quotation for the committee, say so and I will send one.

A club with two greens, or a green well over the standard size, should get in touch for a price rather than ordering online. If the club would rather buy the products separately, everything in the package is in the shop, though delivery on individual items costs more.

When to order. The first product goes on in early spring, so the ideal time to order is between the end of the season and February, which is also when most committees are setting the year’s budget. A club that orders in April is not too late; you simply start the programme where the year is.

Ask me about the package

Give me the name of the club, roughly where you are, and what is bothering you about the green. I will phone or email you back.

Or phone Duncan Gray on 07801 301712, or use the contact page.