Terrain Aeration

2021 News from Terrain Aeration

David and Lynda would like to wish everyone a safe 2021.

This is our update on our position during lockdown and to say as soon as the B&B’s start opening we will get on with our backlog of work that requires overnight stays. We are pleased to say we are able to resume day work within travelling distances and these are starting up.
We like everyone else have been caught out with the Covid-19 pandemic and its mutations.
We have been unable to work away from base as this requires us to night stop in Bed and Breakfast places, as well as needing somewhere to eat in the evenings. Travelodge are very proud and pleased that they are able to stay open to have beds available for the NHS staff but we feel that the extra risks involved sharing this sort of accommodation for some of our staff who are “shielding” vulnerable family members is not safe despite the efforts put in by the hotel staff to keep the virus at bay.

In November 2020 when lockdown was eased and infection rates were low, we took on more staff in order to be able to work our way through the backlog of work which has been accumulating. The new variant of the Coronavirus and the repeated lockdowns meant that even with extra capacity we could not treat any areas because of the lack of safe accommodation.

The staff are being kept upgrading our machinery for when it is safe for them to go out and work.
The extraordinary efforts to get those who are most vulnerable vaccinated will be a welcome relief, once our staff are able to get their jabs – unfortunately this could well be as late as September!

We have ear-marked our work on a map and will do the work in “batches” to save us running up and down the country doing a garden or sports field here and there. With the new staff, we can double up on our work and hopefully with totally rebuilt machinery, get the work done quickly. Once suitable accommodation is found, we will be able to use it as a base, so our staff are reduced in their exposure to the virus, which will unfortunately, still be around.

All safety precautions will be taken by our staff – there is no need to come into contact with our clients: phone calls and photos will suffice. We have all the PPE required – no chances will be taken.

On a new note of caution – with our machines working in gardens, more people are staying at home and on “Zoom”. We must remind them that our machines do make a great deal of noise and that they will be unable to hear any Zoom meetings.

We are on a pretty tight schedule and having to switch off the machine and stop work for the homeowner to use “Zoom” will have a knock on effect and delay our schedule – perhaps even making us stay over another night to get the work completed and delaying all other work for the rest of the week.

Rest assured that Terrain Aeration are not closing their doors but are simply staying safe.

There is no area of grass however revered and loved that is worth the life of a Terrain Aeration member of staff or one of their vulnerable family members.

We thank you for your patience and we will get around to treating your ground.

Great Field project for Terrain Aeration

Poundbury, the urban extension on the outskirts of Dorchester is well-known for reflecting the design principles of HRH The Prince of Wales, on whose land, the Duchy of Cornwall, it is built. The Great Field, at some 12 ha, is the largest area of green space in Poundbury and work began on it in 2014, with the building of sports pitches, outdoor gym equipment and a multi-use games area. One area which is developing especially well was sown around five years ago and is now a sea of Common Knapweed, with plentiful Ladies’ and Hedge Bedstraw, Quaking Grass, Bird’s-foot Trefoil and other meadow wildflowers.

During 2020, further significant work has been undertaken with the planting of over 400 trees and 26,000 shrubs and hedging plants. The charity People Need Nature has worked with the Duchy of Cornwall and local seed supplier, Heritage Seeds, to sow another wildflower meadow on the Great Field. Exceptionally wet conditions followed by unusually dry periods, led to compaction and waterlogging, resulting in a slow start for the meadow.  Improving the ground conditions to assist establishment of the trees, shrubs and hedging was identified as particularly important.

The services of specialists Terrain Aeration were called upon to relieve the compaction and panning on the top half of the field. They brought in their Terralift machines, which work on the principle of hammering a hollow probe one metre deep into the soil, using a JCB road breaker gun; the soil is compact at depth and requires the hammer to break through. At one metre depth, a hydraulic blast of compressed air is released at up to 20Bar (280psi). This fractures the soil, creating fissures. The process is repeated at two-metre intervals on a grid pattern with the fissures interlinking to create a system of aeration and drainage.  The Terralift is the only machine which uses such high pressure to enable the process to work. On the tail end of the blast, dried seaweed is injected and this sticks to the walls of the fissures, expanding and contracting with the moisture content in the soil. The probe holes are backfilled with aggregate to maintain the aeration process.

The new Great Field meadow sown with wildflower seed collected from existing meadows in Purbeck, should be flourishing within the next two years. The local sourcing helping to protect local populations of native wildflowers. As part of the usable green space area for the local community, the meadow will be cut in July, with the low-growing flowers, such as Red Clover and Bird’s-foot Trefoil, continuing to flower and provide nectar and pollen for insects.

IT'S OUR BIRTHDAY!
Celebrating 20 years as Terrain Aeration Services using
the Terralift machines.

It's always Terrain when it pours

Enable Leisure and Culture (ELC) is a registered charity, contracted by Wandsworth Council to manage and develop the council’s parks, commons and playgrounds. Working in conjunction with sub-contractors such as idverde. ELC takes responsibility for monitoring the grounds maintenance across a total of 200 sites. Enable also advises Wandsworth Council on its responsibilities with respect to legislation relating to biodiversity and best practice in the ecological maintenance of parks. Among the sites under their watchful eye are the sports pitches, of which there are 95 football pitches, 10 cricket squares, bowling greens and running tracks.

“A lot of the sites are on made up ground and experience major problems with drainage,” says Andrew Green, Enable’s Parks Officer, Sports Provisions. “We have carried out aeration down to 300mm but it’s not enough to get to the pans.”

Andrew called on the services of Terrain Aeration whom he has used for around 20 years to deal with waterlogging problems, most recently for Tooting Common, with its six senior football pitches which became waterlogged in the winter season; along with Garratt Park and Fishponds Playing Fields. Terrain Aeration’s Terralift was brought in to apply deep penetration aeration to relieve the problem. The machine uses a JCB road breaker hammer to drive a hollow probe one metre into the soil. This is needed, especially on made up ground, because it is usually so compact at depth it requires the hammer to get through. Once the probe reaches the optimum depth, compressed air is released up to a maximum of 20Bar (280psi). This blast fractures the compacted soil to allow drainage and deep aeration.

The probe is withdrawn and, in the case of the work for Wandsworth, the process repeated using one and a half metre spacings on a staggered grid pattern. This means each shot interconnects the fissures. On the tail end of the blast, dried seaweed is injected which sticks to the walls of the fractures and fissures. Over time, this expands and contracts with the moisture content in the soil to effectively keep the ground drained. At Wandsworth the 1½" probe holes created by the Terralift machine were backfilled with Lytag aggregate to provide a semi-permanent aeration/ventilation shaft, helping to keep the whole aeration process working. Put simply, Andy Green says: “We wouldn’t do it if it didn’t work. We find the Terrain Aeration process is a cost-effective solution, without the need to dig up pitches and lay drainage.

View this photo

Terrain Aeration visit Cambridge University Botanic Garden

Cambridge University Botanic Garden welcomes 300,000 visitors a year, making it the most visited university botanic garden in the UK. Situated in the centre of Cambridge, the Grade II listed Heritage Garden covers 40 acres and is home to a collection of over 8,000 plant species to facilitate teaching and research. Equally, since its foundation it has provided a beautiful and tranquil place for everyone to enjoy. The Garden boasts four show lawns and the combination of foot traffic, marquee trucks and ride-on mowers leads to compaction. The Garden has been using Terrain Aeration’s decompaction services since as far back as 2013 and chose the deep aeration treatment for the high-profile area of the Main Lawn in front of the majestic glasshouses.
“We know Terrain Aeration’s work from years ago when development had been done at the Station Road Entrance and the lawn at the back of Cory Lodge,” says Adrian Holmes, Landscape and Machinery Supervisor at the Garden. “The lawns had been re-built after the work but were found to be compacted and the soil was not good. We had a waterlogging issue for a couple of years. The Terrain Aeration treatment rectified the problem and we know from experience it’s a long-term solution.”
This year, the Garden’s Main Lawn area was cordoned off, the machine operation creating considerable interest amongst students and visitors, and Terrain Aeration’s Terralift set to work. The weather was very good and dry, and the ground was worked easily without the need to use the Terralift’s JCB hammer drill. The machine’s probe is driven down a metre deep and highly compressed air released up to a maximum of 20Bar (280psi) to fracture the soil, opening it up for aeration, drainage and to get oxygen to the roots of the plant. On the tail end of the air blast, dried seaweed is incorporated which sticks to the walls of the fractures and fissures created by the main air blast. As pressure drops, the seaweed is mixed in the hopper unit where it swirls around with the remaining air and is then released. The seaweed swells in wet weather and keeps the fissures open. On the Main Lawn the same process was repeated in two-metre spacings, so the underground fracturing is thoroughly linked. In some extreme cases this is demonstrated by water fountains appearing from previous probe holes. In this instance the ground was found to be not as compacted as expected and the 2,500sq metre area was completed in two days, not the original three as had been expected.
“The Terrain Aeration guys were very good, prompt and efficient and quite knowledgeable,” says Adrian, “they backfilled the probe holes with Lytag, lightweight aggregate and it was as if they had never been there. It was great to have everything back to normal so quickly.” The aeration treatment completed, the lawn area was immediately open for unrestricted access to the fountains, glasshouses and horticultural and National Plant Collections.