Terrain Aeration Services are deeply saddened by the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth 11. She showed us all how to cope with life, how to have fun and laugh, but also the power of calmness and dedication. She stood by her own rules and dedication to the people of the UK, a true lady. She will be missed as the most popular and well known person in the World.
Lynda and David Green
One problem facing housebuilders both before and after development is ground compaction. Open spaces designated for building may suffer years of neglect, constant foot traffic or use of wheeled machinery resulting in panning deep below the surface. Similarly, during the building process bulldozers, diggers, dumper trucks and concrete mixer lorries flatten the air out of the soil in areas that will eventually become gardens and shared grassed areas. Often the land itself may have had previous buildings, and the subsoil contains old bricks, rubble and landfill. All these factors contribute to waterlogging which normal aeration cannot relieve.
Terrain Aeration’s Housebuilder’s Division has developed the specialist machinery and a full service needed for deep penetration aeration to relieve the problem of heavy compaction and waterlogging. Designed to access tight areas, their Terralift tracked aerator can enter small gardens through a gateway or garage and provide unique one-metre-deep aeration. At this depth, compressed air is released via a probe to fracture the soil and create fissures, allowing drainage and letting oxygen reach deep into the soil. Such work has been carried out for many years by Terrain Aeration for the UK’s leading housebuilders including Taylor-Wimpey, Barratt and Persimmon. A typical recent contract saw them treating ten small gardens and a small open flower meadow for Barratt David Wilson Homes in East Anglia while a project for Taylor-Wimpey was treating an open space so the housing development could be signed off with the council as ‘decompacted’. In this instance, the full-size Terralift machines were used, driving the JCB road breaker probe into the ground. At one metre depth the compressed air, up to 20Bar/280psi, was released from the probe which, on the tail-end of the blast, injects dried seaweed. This sticks to the fissures created as the Terralift process is repeated at two-metre centre spacing on a staggered grid. The seaweed expands and contracts with the soil’s moisture content to allow drainage and aeration.
The Terrain Aeration process has been in operation for over thirty years, providing compaction relief for new-build gardens, sports grounds, golf courses, amenity areas and public spaces. The Terrain Aeration Tree Division provides the specialist treatment for Royal Parks and arboriculturalists throughout the UK.
David Churchyard has joined Terrain Aeration Services to head up the new Terrain Aeration Tree Division. The company has been treating trees for over thirty years and sees this as an opportunity to expand their specialist service. David brings an extensive wealth of knowledge regarding pests, diseases and fungal growths to trees as well as turf. He was employed as a head forester for twenty-one years on a 6000 acre estate where he was involved in working on and looking after all aspects of the estate’s extensive woodlands. This covered planting heritage oaks, caring for the veteran 900-year-old trees and drawing up management plans for current and future works. To increase his knowledge over the years, David has taken part in many lectures and courses on veteran trees in various locations, including Windsor Castle estate. He also took part in a film on AOD (Acute Oak Decline), the relatively new disease that began affecting many British oak trees since the last quarter of the 20th century. Climate changes are strongly affecting our trees and helping keep them alive is now a priority and one which David relishes in having a key role in.
Terrain Aeration’s Terralift machine is recognised by Tree Officers as a solution to deep aeration and relief of compaction panning around tree roots. The Terralift is the only machine which can aerate around the root zone and put oxygen back into the soil. It breaks up compaction and panning, providing relief from waterlogging and the danger of the waterborne disease Phytophthora. Terrain Aeration’s Tree Division can inspect and advise on suitable treatment without exposing entire areas of tree roots, which may cause undue stress to the trees. One metre deep penetration aeration treatment is used around trees and to treat compacted turf and grass areas. David has joined Terrain to head and expand the division and to get the critical message out there that “it’s the roots that are the root of the problem!” Many trees of all ages are struggling with compaction. This means that essential nutrients are not getting down to the life-giving area of the tree. The message is simple, take care of the bottom-the roots-and the top of the tree will look after itself.
When Pennyfarthing Homes called on Land Products (Wessex) Limited to help resolve an ongoing problem, MD Roger Attrill knew exactly who to bring in. It may look to be not much more than a dried-up pond, but this swale plays an important role in the Alexandra Meadows estate in Lymington. Swales should hold water briefly, then soak away, but this water was retained for weeks after rainfall since the site was completed two years ago as part of the Sustainable Drainage System (SUDS. This is effectively the housing estate’s holding pond to help stop downstream flooding following heavy rain and storm conditions. It was not draining as it should.
“Naturally occurring hard gravels underlying these swales have proved too slow to drain,” says Roger, “we took the opportunity to experiment with Terrain Aeration’s machinery which in a very short period improved permeability greatly.” Land Products provides a comprehensive soft landscaping and grounds maintenance service to Local Authorities, County Councils, the construction industry and commercial clients.
Having called on the services of Terrain Aeration they used their speciality of deep penetration aeration to relieve compaction. The principle works on the basis of penetrating the very hard subsoil with a probe and fracturing it with a blast of compressed air to a maximum of 20Bar (280psi). The process is repeated in spacings so the fissures created interlink and allow full drainage. In this instance, the effect could be seen immediately with a 50mm drop in the standing water in minutes. Within two days, the water had gone completely.
“I’m confident we can make the whole SUDS system work as planned with a bit more time.” Roger says. “I have worked with Terrain Aeration before when they treated compacted gardens for us and they did exactly what they said they would, very straightforward.” Increasingly, Terrain Aeration are called upon by housebuilders and landscapers to treat gardens where during construction heavy machinery has compacted the subsoil around new-build properties.
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The oldest enclosed Royal Park, Greenwich covers 74 hectares on top of a hill where visitors enjoy sweeping views across the River Thames to St Paul’s Catherdral and beyond. There has been a settlement on the site since Roman times, and Greenwich has always had a strong association with royalty. Historic tree areas date from 1660 when Charles II was king and eleven original trees from the period can be found in the park. In 2019, the park had over five million visitors and with its view and attractions – there’s even a Saxon burial mound – it is no wonder when the pandemic struck there was a massive increase in visitors in the first year of lockdown.
“It was like bank holiday every day,” says Adam Stoter, Greenwich Park’s Technical Officer. “Greenwich Park offered an open-air space when there were few places people could go. The trouble was, the added footfall compounded the growing problem of compaction in and around the tree areas.”
The Royal Parks’ flagship project ‘Greenwich Park Revealed’ had already begun to restore the 590-year-old park to protect and share its heritage. They aim to go above and beyond in tree care and management and it was a natural progression to bring in the specialist services of Terrain Aeration’s Tree Division. The company has been treating tree areas in Royal Parks for many years and, in the case of Greenwich this year, applied their technology across 15,000 square metres. Where there is heavy compaction it is essential to break up the soil at a depth greater than the tree roots, other than the main tap roots which go straight down, to allow excess water to drain away and help stop anaerobic conditions and rotting of the root system.
The Terrain Aeration Terralift machine sends a probe to a depth of one metre where compressed air is released to a maximum of 20Bar (280psi). This blast of air fractures the soil and creates fissures which interlink as the Terralift repeats the process on a grid system of two-metre spacings. As the probe withdraws at the end of the air blast, dried seaweed is injected which sticks to the fissure walls, expanding and contracting with moisture content in the soil to keep the area ’breathing’. In most cases, the area treated will be one-metre inside and one-metre outside the canopy drip line to reach beyond the growing roots, increasing the percentage of oxygen intake and allow maximum drainage. In all, Terrain Aeration treated around 15,000 square metres to help ensure the future of the historic tree areas where visitors will literally walk on air.
Received from the groundsman at Buckingham West End Bowls club after heavy rain in July:
Good evening Lynda
Just an update. We had a tremendous downpour one evening earlier this week (picture attached). The following morning the green was playable although a bit soft. Before you did your work, we would have had a large puddle for a few days so a big success
Regards
Ian
Over many years, major house building companies have called on Terrain Aeration to decompact back gardens and community areas of new-build developments. During building, the unavoidable combination of diggers, dumper trucks, bulldozers, concrete mixer lorries and parked vehicles take their toll on the soil, flattening the air out of it. Eventually, the areas that become the gardens and shared grass areas, which may already have a sub-soil layer of rubble, old bricks and general landfill waste, becomes overly compacted. The result is waterlogging and panning requiring very deep aeration to cure the problem.
Terrain Aeration has provided the solution to this for some of the UK's biggest builders including Barratt, Taylor-Wimpey and Persimmon. The Terrain business has grown in the sector to the extent they have formed their Housebuilder'' Division, with three new staff form the specialist team that will concentrate on the house builders' needs. Terrain Aeration's Managing Director, David Green, has built different types of machine to enable access to the gardens through single gates and garages. He says:
"Our Terralift machine has proven itself over the last 30 years in aerating and decompacting soils. It is the ideal way of getting oxygen back into the soil structure, non-invasive and no mess. This does not replace the: "no need for drains issue" but it is cost effective and works. Putting in new drains will still leave you with compaction panning in-between the drains, so using Terrain Aeration in the first place is a step in the right direction. Once a garden has been aerated using Terrain Aeration's machinery, nature will be able to help with the rejuvenation of the soil structure - so this treatment would not be required again."
Under normal circumstances, Terrain Aeration works nationwide and their teams are available, subject to ongoing Covid-19 restrictions, to carry out deep aeration relief for waterlogging and flooding for house builders, sports grounds, amenity areas, golf courses and public spaces. Enquiries from house builders are welcomed via email address: [email protected] and by calling Terrain Aeration 01449 673783 www.terrainaeration.co.uk
Situated near Wakefield, West Yorkshire, the Yorkshire Sculpture Park is an open-air gallery that showcases work by world-class British and international artists, including Yorkshire-born Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and Damien Hirst. The park has one of the largest open-air collection of Moore’s bronzes in Europe. Spread over 500-acres of 18th century designed landscape of Bretton Hall, YSP opened in 1977 and was the first UK sculpture park based on temporary open-air exhibitions that were organized in London parks from the 1940s to 1970 by the Arts Council and London County Council.
Today, the ‘gallery without walls’ has an ever-changing exhibition programme and preparing to reopen after lockdown presented an opportunity for remedial work to be done. Following a site visit by hydrology consultants inspecting a waterlogged area, they brought in Terrain Aeration with their deep aeration treatment system. The area in question was an important part of the Lower Park and a popular area for visitors and curators. It suffers from compaction due to footfall and the weight of sculptures, resulting in the build-up of standing water.
“It is unusual for the area to be cleared,” says Mark Chesman, Head of Estates and Parks at YSP, “but the sculptures in that area were removed for conservation work, and we seized the opportunity as part of a wider project. In all, it took two-and-a-half days and they treated 4,000 square metres of land.”
Terrain Aeration’s Terralift hammers a hollow probe one metre into the soil using a JCB road breaker gun. At depth, the ground is usually so compacted it needs the hammer to break through. Compressed air is then released to a maximum of 20Bar (280psi) to fracture and fissure the soil and the process is repeated in two-metre spacings, to ensure the fissures interlink. On the end of the air blast, dried seaweed is injected which sticks to the fissure walls, expanding and contracting with moisture content in the soil and keeping the area ‘breathing.’ The 1.5-inch probe holes created by the Terralift machine are backfilled with aggregate to provide a semi-permanent aeration/ventilation shaft, helping to keep the whole aeration process working. The park’s groundkeepers then overseeded the area to finish.
We tend to take trees for granted, in our parks, public spaces and estates but they are often subjected to stress as a result of several factors, such as nutrient shortage, surface compaction due to foot traffic, and waterlogging where water drains off hard surfaces. Yorkshire Sculpture Park features lime trees, beech and Atlas cedar amongst others and these were given Terrain Aeration treatment as well. Breaking up the soil around the roots, and beyond, means excess water will drain away from the roots to help stop anaerobic conditions and rotting of the root system. “We’re confident with what’s been done,” says Mark, “and will be looking at further areas to be treated, probably in the autumn.”
Terrain Aeration 01449 673783 www.terrainaeration.co.uk
Image: Sophie Ryder, Sitting, 2007. Courtesy the artist and Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
Photo © Jonty Wilde, courtesy Yorkshire Sculpture Park. View this photo
Image: Sophie Ryder, Sitting, 2007. Courtesy the artist and Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
Photo © Jonty Wilde, courtesy Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
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.
