L
eaf collection has come a long way in a relatively short time. I well remember, back in the late seventies, the many hours spent raking leaves into piles and chucking them into a trailer with leaf boards - for the youngsters among you, they were little more than two bits of rubber, occasionally plastic or wood, and often an old cardboard box, that extended the size of your hands to allow you to pick up as much as possible in one go! Combined with the raking it was back breaking, and time consuming, work requiring many man hours over a period of about six weeks every autumn. No such things as blowers, sweepers or vacs back then, perhaps with the exception of the Billy Goat, which was just beginning to munch its way on to the market
Leaf collection is one of those tasks that just has to be done, whether on grass or artificial, the club car park or the steps leading to the toilet, they just have to be cleared away. And all the while the grass refuses to stop growing, winter renovations are still to be done and there’s a million and one other things on your ‘to do’ list.
So, it is not surprising that manufacturers set about the task of mechanising this work. Now there’s a myriad of machines available to Groundsmen and Greenkeepers to blow, suck, sweep and vacuum Mother Nature’s end of season fall. With the assistance of James Mead, Head
Groundsman at Rugby School, Pitchcare organised a demonstration day where turfcare professionals could come along and see, at first hand, a host of machinery, in a working environment. Fourteen companies were in attendance and the late October weather was kind to us. James had deliberately left his leaf cleaning for three weeks prior to the event so that there was plenty of work for the machines to undertake. Sadly, having had the promise of attendance from well over one hundred Groundsmen and Greenkeepers, the turn out on the day was disappointing with just over forty groundstaff coming through the gates! This is always a gamble for organisers and it is sad that verbal and written commitments are not honoured, especially when the manufacturers go to so much trouble to attend. Nonetheless, those that did attend found the day worthwhile and will have gone away with a far better understanding of the products availabe to them. New Holland, Massey Ferguson and Reco supplied tractors for the day to power the PTO driven machines and are thanks are extended to them also. On the following pages some of those who attended give their views on the products and the value of the day in general.
WHEN AUTUMN LEAVES START TO FALL ...
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