Soil tests improve lawn tennis court performance
28 August 2007
Brenden Lennon is helping Adelaide's lawn tennis court owners cut their summer water usage from 11,000 to 5,500 litres a week.
That means only watering once a week instead of two, or putting on half an inch rather than an inch of water.
As a golf course green keeper who started Lennon's Grass Courts 16 years ago, Brenden has always been concerned about improving water efficiency, but with restrictions now in force in metropolitan Adelaide, there's increased motivation to help people improve the performance of their lawn courts while drastically reducing water usage. Brenden's company manages more than 100 private lawn tennis courts in Adelaide and the Barossa Valley.
The key to better performance is to improve soil structure to make it easier for water to penetrate. Brenden says when water is able to move freely through the soil, roots grow longer to access the moisture. This produces a lawn that needs less water because it uses it more efficiently, makes it stronger and more durable as the root system is deeper, and tends to reduce other problems such as pests and weeds.
"Once the roots are down to about 15mm, we should be able to get down to one water a week, rather than two. That's our goal," he says.
Brenden goes to Australian Perry Agricultural Laboratory (APAL) for his soil testing. The testing method used is the only one of its kind in Australia and is called the Albrecht system; it examines and determines the levels of all essential and trace elements in the soil and, importantly, what the ratios of one to the other is, or the soil balance.
Soil testing is part of managing courts properly
"We show our clients an APAL report which contains a coloured pie chart that sets out the desired soil nutrient levels and also a pie chart of the actual results so you can compare them," Brenden says. "It's an easy, visual tool to show people what the results are and what we need to do to balance the soil."
Brenden says people are accepting soil testing as part of managing their lawn courts properly and because they acknowledge they have a responsibility to use water more efficiently.
And for Lennon's Grass Courts, soil testing is becoming standard practice to manage courts that aren't performing well.
"We've had problem courts that our basic maintenance schedule didn't improve. What we're doing now is having a soil test done first and basing our maintenance regime on that," says Brenden.
Soil tests can be applied to a wide range of lawn and garden issues such as improving water efficiency, eliminating water logging, boosting growth, and reducing browning.
A client of Brenden's at Aldgate in the Adelaide Hills is pleased he agreed to a soil test. His lawn tennis court was saturated eight months of the year and could not be played on until December. After an APAL test and implementation of the recommendations, soil drainage has improved significantly.
The court can now be walked on in the middle of winter, without risk of feet sinking in, and is ready for play by September or October.