National Trust properties in south Somerset have trimmed energy costs, time and noise as well as hedges this year. The four properties in this area of Trust administration switched to battery power in 2011 for the significant hedge cutting and topiary work that has to be undertaken annually and the results are significant. It is the Trust’s Greener Garden Fund for more ecologically sound outdoor upkeep of its properties that aided the purchase of Pellenc Helion lithium-ion battery-powered trimmers supplied by machinery specialists Bigwood and Partners of Taunton.

Lytes Cary Manor at Charlton Mackrell near Somerton dates back to the 14th century and was the home of medieval herbalist Henry Lyte, notable for his plant directory Lytes Herbal. Restored from dereliction 100 years ago by Sir Walter Jenner, its much-visited garden is a combination of outdoor ‘rooms’, topiary features, statues and herbaceous borders.

Damien Mitchell, the gardener-in-charge there, has two and half miles of hedging all told, predominantly of yew, hornbeam, beech, lime and privet. Work to keep them trim begins in mid-May and finishes in late October, which is peak visiting time and before now, when petrol or electric trimmers were used, this presented Damien with a variety of health and safety issues as well as user and visitor discomfort. Noise levels and trailing wires were the main offenders.

This year for the first time he used a Pellenc Helion hedge cutter with back-pack battery unit which drastically cut noise, user fatigue, and detrimental effect on passing visitors. These plusses alone would tick boxes in the Trust’s Greener Garden checklist, but a further bonus at Lytes Cary Manor is that power for the batteries comes from an on-site solar panel.  Three to four hours of free charging is enough for a day’s operation, so Damien’s cutting work is about as energy efficient as you can get and with zero carbon emission.

Topiary on yew close to the Manor itself and the shaping of 12 Apostles, a feature common to many large estate gardens of the time, also in yew, is a skillful trimming task that has to be conducted twice yearly. These are 100-year old features that demand serious attention and work on them this year has been noticeably more efficient, safer and quieter, reports Damien, who has up to four permanent gardening staff working at the property and about 50 volunteers.

“The new Pellenc trimmer is a lot more user friendly and the environmental advantages are considerable,” he says. “We are a lot more comfortable doing the work when visitors are here because they are not inconvenienced at all.”

Damien’s counterpart at nearby Tintinhull Garden, Tanis Roberts, has just volunteer support for her work at this 17th century manor house. Created last century, the gardens there have over 25,000 visitors each year and feature secluded lawns, pools and colourful borders, plus an attractive kitchen garden, woodland walk and orchard. Focal point is the Eagle Court and adjacent Middle Garden, characterised by striking boxwood domes along a central path.

Every year Tanis has the job of cutting the sixteen 100 year old plus Box domes. Until last year this was done by hand shears, which was laborious and would take about a month to complete. Tanis, who has been in charge of gardening at Tintinhull for nearly 20 years, had previously tried petrol trimmers, but the vapour caused scarring of leaves and the noise was an annoyance to visitors. She had also tried electric trimmers, but says she didn’t get a clean cut because the reciprocal action of the cutters chewed the edges of the leaves badly and caused similar unsightly browning. Hence a return to hand cutting, but with a number of different individuals using hand shears uniformity was hard to achieve, and this is essential with the domes, which are a precious heritage.

The Pellenc battery-powered trimmers she now uses have made it so much easier to achieve a smooth cut line, according to Tanis.

“There is no scorch and the risk of error is far less,” she says. “Switching to this equipment has saved me three weeks work – easily.”

Tintinhull is effectively a ‘subsidiary’ of Montecute House, another of the Trust’s south Somerset properties. Tanis borrows the Pellenc trimmers from there on a weekly basis and has them from Monday to Wednesday. At present she doesn’t have a solar panel facility, but plug-in powering of the battery overnight is sufficient for a day’s trimming.

“The back pack makes using them during visiting hours so much easier”, she adds. “You can easily step aside if need be, and visitors far from being inconvenienced by what you are doing, show a lot of interest in such quiet trimming.”

Tanis has also used the new trimmers on a bay arch in the gardens, also previously cut by hand shears. Bay is very tough to cut and you get a lot of chewed edges. The Pellenc trimmer made lighter work of it and with better results, she reports.  Another job, tedious with hand shears, the trimming of lower box edging around beds in the kitchen garden, has now been completed for the first time using the back-pack trimmers with very pleasing results.

So keen on the Pellenc trimmers is Tanis that she hopes to have her own for the 2012 cutting season at Tintinhull.

Etesia UK is delighted to announce the appointment of Andrew Roberts as Northern Area Sales Manager for its range of Etesia and Pellenc Products. Andrew will be responsible for the North of England as well as The Midlands, Scotland and Wales.

Andrew joins Etesia UK with over 30 years experience in the grasscare sector and has an enviable and extensive knowledge of outdoor products and machinery having previously worked at Sisis Equipment (Macclesfield) Ltd.

Favoured by many of the UK’s top councils as well as landscapers and groundsmen, including National Trust gardens, both Etesia and Pellenc has gained a reputation for producing equipment that are highly reliable with low maintenance, making them the number one choice for many users.

Andrew’s responsibilities will include providing product advice, demonstrations and assistance to customers and dealers, as well as attending shows and exhibitions. He will also be responsible in the recruitment of new, approved dealers within his regions.

Les Malin, Etesia UK’s General Manager said: “We are extremely pleased with Andrew’s appointment as his extensive knowledge of the industry, our customer base and product range will enable him to build on our market position and ensure the highest levels of customer service are always achieved”.

Andrew can be contacted on 07792 894256 or aroberts@etesia.co.uk.

Green is the driving force at ambitious Blue Square club

The boss of Ecotricity, the green electricity company which this summer hit the headlines with the launch of a countrywide network of solar power re-charging points for electric cars, is extending his mission statement and business ethos to the world of football. He is one of the first if not the first businessman to own and run an electric car, so where to next? As the kick-off to the 2011-2012 season approached pitch mowing became part of all this with a new mower from Etesia being launched at this year’s IOG Saltex the focal point.

Dale Vince OBE took over as Chairman of Forest Green Rovers just nine months ago and is step by step transforming the Blue Square Premiership club into an entirely green and eco self-sufficient enterprise. The aim is to make it the first such club in British professional football. Water recycling from all sources – rainwater and the washing-up – is already very much a feature at the delightful Gloucestershire stadium, charmingly called the New Lawn. There is a five-year sustainability plan and the first building blocks are firmly in place. He’s called what’s starting to happen to car powering a revolution. There may well be a similar kick-start in the world of football.

The Club had moved just a few hundred yards from its previous abode on the edge of the country town of Nailsworth back in 2006. Not surprisingly this was called the Lawn. Rovers’ new home is a handsome stadium, certainly for this level of the football pyramid, but as groundsman Stewart Ward points out, the initial pitch did require subsequent improvement, notably a fresh drainage system installed by contractors Pugh-Lewis and which links into a water recycling set-up.

Stewart’s appointment last year was another move in the green direction for the Rovers, since he shares the Chairman’s thinking wholeheartedly. He explains that the philosophy at the club is a simple one – to be more sustainable, greener in its day to day running, and have a more organic approach to how they do things. It is Stewart’s first venture into football groundsmanship. He and Forest Green Rovers seem tailor-made for each other.

“The chairman is passionate about all of this and is very much a father-figure for putting it into action,” he says.

“Obviously this very much affects the way I keep the pitch in shape. What Dale has in mind for the club is very much how I have always felt and I am really enjoying putting it into practice bit by bit. There’s a lot more to do of course.”

Stewart had been a user of Etesia machines in his previous job looking after the grounds at Gloucester’s Hartbury College, best known for its equine, sports and landscape science courses, and had long been a fan of the French manufacturer’s attention to environmental aspects of product development. It has been working on battery and solar-powered ride-on mowers for sometime as a practical eco alternative to traditional fossil fuelled machines for sports and amenity surface cutting.

As part of the fine-tuning process prior to IOG Saltex launch Stewart used one of the company’s new Bahia Electric ride-ons on trial for pre-season cutting. The idea was to provide Etesia’s UK general manager Les Malin with real feedback on its performance. It was the breaking of new ground. Forest Green Rovers was the first football club in this country to use electric mowing for its pitch, and Stewart gave it a good report – not just because of his own eco leanings – but for its cutting and collecting credentials.

“It does the job really well and at a decent speed,” he said. “It’s so much quieter than a petrol machine with much less vibration too, and of course there is absolutely no worry about oil or fuel spillage.”

The New Lawn pitch was renewed at the end of May. Koro removal of the previous surface was followed by the addition of 150 tons of sand and re-seeding with Rigby Taylor’s R14 mix, incidentally the same as used at Stamford Bridge.

The Bahia machine on trial at the New Lawn was plug-in re-chargeable, but it could be that the club will eventually opt for solar powering the four 48v batteries. Full charging takes six hours via a 16amp 200v socket and charger. This, says Stewart, is about twice what you need for cutting and collecting a full size pitch, and the New Lawn is a big one, 100 x 70 yards.

The Bahia’s cutting width is 80cm and with the newly established summer sward Stewart showed off an impressive mown look, invitingly ready for the club’s first home pre-season friendly against Bristol City. He was confident that the New Lawn would be looking immaculate two weeks later for the first home league fixture against Stockport County when Sky Television cameras would be putting the mower’s finish to public gaze.

Stewart sees that all pitch cuttings are recycled, passing them to a local farmer. All clippings are 100 per cent non-toxic at the New Lawn because all pitch treatments are organic-based and he is regularly in touch with the Soil Association for advice on nutrient application. He says the grass box on Etesia’s new electric mower (240 litres) does an efficient collecting job for him. Both driving and cutting transmission are 100% electric, so there’s absolutely no addition to the eco footprint.

For a football club chairman and its groundsman to share an interest is rare enough. For them both to embrace the virtues of a piece of turf kit is a big first in football. All the nasties that combustive equipment put into the atmosphere – hydrocarbons, carbon dioxide, the lot – score nil at the New Lawn thanks to the Etesia Bahia and this gets a big cheer from the directors box and the groundsman’s hut. Supporters may for the moment be more interested in how the team is doing, but the green mood is definitely catching down at FGR.

Groundsmen wanting to see Etesia’s new Bahia ride-on electric mower and the optional solar power re-charging source for themselves can do so by visiting stand UO5 and demo plot UO4 at IOG Saltex.

For further information, please contact Etesia UK on 01295 680120 or visit www.etesia.com/uk

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Photo Captions:

1. Stewart Ward using the Etesia Bahia on the New Lawn pitch
2. A solar power re-charging source – an extra ‘green’ option
3. Forest Green Rovers will be playing on a really green pitch this season
4. The ground’s water recycling unit shows chairman Dale Vince really means green business at FGR

The upkeep of amenity turf within hundreds of housing estates up and down the country is a huge source of business for contractors. Reliability of mowing equipment is essential for this work. A contractor based at Battle in East Sussex, the FGS Group, chose the Etesia Pro 46 to handle the month-by-month cutting routine as part of its work for the Amicus Horizon housing association in the Hastings area.

FGS, which was set up 22 years ago, specialises in landscaping and grounds maintenance in the south east of England. Social housing like that provided by Sittingbourne-based Amicus is vital part of its service. It bought four of the rotary walk-behinds from another Sussex firm, South East Groundcare of Polegate, East Sussex. These are now in their second season of work trimming the amenity grass areas in over 30 estates and FGS has twelve operatives using them.

According to Jenny Waterfield, Contract Manager at FGS, the principal requirement for the grass cutting aspect of the Amicus estates work is that it has to be cut and collect. For so much of this type of amenity grass upkeep ‘cut and fly’ is often all that is wanted, but increasingly housing associations are asking for a neater, cleaner finish for residents’ amenities. Etesia’s pedestrian machine is designed specifically for speedy, efficient cut and collect operation.

“When we talked to Matt Clark at South East Groundcare about which mower would be best suited for this type of work we stressed the importance of ability to cope with cutting on quite steep slopes,” said Allen Welch, Contract Supervisor at FGS. “Much of the amenity area on the estates in Hastings is pretty undulating, so we needed a machine that could handle it. It also needed to be light enough for staff to lift on/off of commercial vehicles.”

“These Pro 46s are certainly light and easy to manoeuvre. We just bag up the cuttings and when each job is finished take for green waste. The grass areas are always left free of unsightly mowing debris, so the contract spec is fully met month after month.”

FGS has had the contract with Amicus – which also includes border maintenance and hedge trimming – for eleven years and when it comes up for tender again next January Jenny Waterfield is confident the contractor will be successful once more, thanks in no small part to the consistency of its mowing.

As well as the cut and collect virtues of the Pro 46, Jenny spoke of their business benefits.

“There is hardly any downtime,” she said. “The mowers are worked really hard over eight months of the year and just routine servicing is all we ever need. They were a sound investment and more than earn their keep.”

The single blade Etesia Pro 46 has a 5hp 160cc Honda petrol engine. Cutting width is 46cm, the detachable grass box with ‘full’ indicator has a capacity of 52 litres, and overall weight is just 37kg. Low vibration and noise levels meet all EU legislation and individual wheel height can be adjusted from 25mm to 88mm. There are six models in the range, with options including mulching facility. For more information or details of your nearest dealer visit www.etesia.com/uk or email sales@etesia.co.uk

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Photo Caption:

The Pro 46 is being used here by contract supervisor Allen Welch on the Thomas Brassey Estate in St Leonards.