Football Pitch Renovations Diary at Langwathby United we don’t have a big budget for pitch maintenance as we play in Westmorland division three, so we have to apply for grants through football foundation and through the Cumberland FA. So when there is work to do on the pitch it is down to us to try and find a cheap and efficient way to do the job, this might mean having to use a different way to try and do the same job. At the end of the season we start the renovations for the next season I’ll explain below what we do.
Step 1
After our last home game I cut the pitch down from 30mm to 15-20mm, then scarified the pitch to pull out dead grass once this is is completed. I used the brush attachment on the Westwood t80 ride on mower to pick up the grass from the surface so the surface is clean for the next step
Step 2
Step 2 we welcomed Pleasant View Sports Grounds to the toll bar pitch to verti drain the pitch, doing this reduces compaction on the pitch and helps with the drainage on the field. Also if you were going to spread sand this is where you would do this, so you can brush the sand into the holes created by verti drainer
Step 3
Step 3 saw us close to the finish line here at the Toll Bar Ground. We over seeded the pitch this was done by a local farmer with his tractor and drill, as I said at the beginning this was probably too big of machine to use on a pitch, but it was the only thing we could afford within our budget. We seeded in two directions to make sure it has the best chance to have full coverage for the winter months. After it was seeded I fenced of the pitch so nobody went on the seeds, and we can leave it a few weeks for the seeds to start germinating.
Step 4
Step 4 saw us finished on the pitch and move onto the final stage which is the goal mouths. I start by turning over the goal mouth with a pitch fork. I went a fork depth to turn over the compacted soil, once I had done this I broke up all the sods and raked the soil level. Then opened three bags of top soil mixed with some sports sand for drainage and raked it level. Final step was to lay the seed I didn’t have a drill for this job so I had to sow them by hand.
Once the seed was down, I used a light garden roller to roll the seeds. Then l watered the seeds and covered up the goal mouth with two germination sheets. These will be kept on for 7-10 days until the seed starts to come through.
Many thanks for reading my renovation blog
Ben Welsh
Langwathby United groundsman
