Conservation & Ecology


greenkeeping team are deputised by Vincent Jensen and consist of Lee Whitaker; Simon Robinson; Nick Pattison; Scott Gaylard; Gary Mowen; Dan Harris; David Melville (mechanic) and two gardeners, John Powell and Trevor Leigh and, on meeting the guys, you can see why the course is presented to the level which it has come to be associated with; “Wentworth of the North West” springs to mind! In terms of flora and fauna, the team at


Mere have many ongoing projects, one of which has been the creation of an orchard and


berry garden in an out-of-play area near to the spa. This proactive project has many uses, including being a source of food for wildlife, fruit for their chefs to use and, most importantly, a great source of nectar for their two bee colonies which were set up by the North West’s greenkeeping beekeeping celebrity, Mr Eddie Ainsworth, Course Manager of Avro Golf Course. Eddie is fast becoming a legend in this part of the country for his knowledge and passion regarding these declining invertebrates and has undertaken a


wonderful job in setting up the team’s hives. The team are in the process of incorporating


heather onto the course, with some success I might add. Heather is notoriously difficult to grow on a site where the conditions are not “just right” - the drainage has to be just right, as does the amount of sunlight, whereas the pH needs to be somewhere in between 3.5-4.5 for optimum performance from the plant; either side of these figures and the heather cannot access the vital minerals from the medium it is growing in. The heather the team


PC DECEMBER/JANUARY 2016 I 111


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