Servest Turf Technical Services Department: Our Driven and Enthusiastic Team

One of the Servest values is that we value our people.. We enjoy providing opportunities and experiences to enable our staff to develop, learn new skills and grow professionally. At the Servest Turf Technical Services Department we have the pleasure of working with three particularly driven and enthusiastic individuals, and would like to share their stories with you. The Turf Technical Services Department ensures all of Servest’s specialised Turf equipment is properly maintained and in optimum working order.

Thabang Phiri started his Servest career in the car wash bay and is moving onwards and upwards in the company. Thabang showed such promise that he was recently taken under the wing of Ettorie Crivellari, who is one of Servest Turf’s highly specialised electricians.

The impact of music events on sports turfs

South Africans are known for their festive spirits and this extends to their appreciation of big music events. When international acts schedule a stop on our fair shores, concerts are usually booked out within hours of tickets being on sale. While we value a fully packed stadium, concerts do require extensive pre and post event turf maintenance.

When Irish rockers U2 played at Soccer City earlier this year, Servest Turf had to implement an intensive turf management plan to be able to hold the concert and have the turf back in top condition for a Soweto Derby match a week and a half later.

Post-event Rejuvenation

In South Africa, a good ball game is marked with the speed, impact, force and strength of roughly 15 big men. Whether it’s soccer, rugby or any other sport involving studded boots and hefty thighs; turf that gets trampled by sturdy athletes for 80 minutes tends to show signs of wear and tear.

After the stadium falls quiet and the smell of wors rolls and fried onions fades away, turf rejuvenation is the top priority for professional turf managers. The quality of the next game is dependent on the grass being consistent, healthy and green; thus as the match ends so the work begins to prepare for the next fixture.

Proper Mowing Techniques

The essential aim of any turf management operation is to create and maintain an excellent looking lawn. Healthy green grass is as suggestive of an institutions corporate identity as a slick logo or an impressive office building. As such there is no room for error when it comes to one of the most vital elements of lawn maintenance; the art of professional mowing.

While a shortly trimmed neat lawn is imperative for a handsome appearance and for sports suitability, mowing is in fact a destructive process. If you think about it, chopping grass disrupts its natural pattern of growth and disturbs its bid to grow wild and free.

Managing Frost Damage on Lawns and Turf

One of the prettiest sights on a cold winter’s morning is a lawn covered in an icy shimmer of frost. However, as lovely as this may look to a passersby, turf managers know just how dangerous this frozen moisture can really be.

Most people typically think of frost as something that is dangerous to plants, but they do not really extend this thought to lawns. In fact children tend to love the idea of skidding across frozen lawns at high speed (and perhaps free-spirited adults too, when no-one is looking); and on any sports surface athletes will simply ignore frost knowing that it will melt away, especially after a team of feet have stamped all over it.

Lawn Care Tips

A lush green lawn is often regarded as a status symbol, and is enough to make any owner proud. However keeping turf in tip-top condition requires a substantial amount of time and effort; and there are many tricks of the trade that are worth taking note of.

One of the most common problems with growing thick, even lawns is the occurrence of multiple bald patches. An effective way to remedy this is by aerating and seeding the entire area. However, this is a task that requires specific equipment and has to be done at the right time of year, so using a professional turf care company can save time, money and stress.

Weed Control on Golf Courses

The greens of golf courses are rather wonderful things to behold. Beautifully manicured, even-toned and sensuously curvy; one could say they bear many similarities to that of a cover model! But in much the same way that cover models spend loads of time consistently maintaining their looks; so too do golf greens need to be laboriously taken care of.

Obviously with 18 holes to manage, weeding by hand is not a viable option, and in popular turf management theory it is vitally important to do everything possible to prevent weeds taking hold in the first place.

So how does one achieve this?