John Deere Do Drainage
Edinburgh Landscaping's client list reads like a who's who of Scottish golf and football clubs, from Gleneagles, Loch Lomond and St Andrews to Rangers and Hibernian. The company has also been employed further afield in the UK and Europe, at venues including The Brabazon Ryder Cup Course at The Belfry and San Roque in Spain, as well as Southampton and Bournemouth FC.
Founded by Dave Sammels in 1979, Edinburgh Landscaping started off as a basic landscaping firm, but now specialises in golf course construction and drainage systems, plus some finishing contracts on football pitches. Dave is a partner with brother Eric Sammels and Dave's wife Elaine, who jointly ran the business while Dave spent six years as course manager at The Belfry, and they manage another six full-time staff.
The company was probably the first contractor in the UK to buy a full range of John Deere golf and groundscare equipment when it first became available in the late 1980s, which coincided with their first golf course project. As they were grasscutting as well as installing drainage systems at this time, they bought the country's first two 3365 fairway mowers, in addition to AMT600 utility vehicles and both 855 and 955 compact tractors. At one stage in the early 1990s, they had 28 different John Deere machines in their fleet.
The current kit list includes several large 6000 Series agricultural tractors, 10 and 20 Series compact tractors, three bunker rakes that are used for finishing greens and tees during reconstruction work, four Gator 6x4 diesel utility vehicles and a telescopic handler. All the groundscare machines are supplied by Sandy Armit of The Double A Trading Company in Cupar, Fife, who has dealt with the Sammels for 20 years with his previous and current dealerships.
Drainage work has been ongoing for the last five years or so at Gleneagles and Loch Lomond, and on the chipping greens, new practice green and driving range at The Carrick at Cameron House, also on the loch.
"At Loch Lomond we've completed work on the main pathways and reconstructed 17 tees," says Eric Sammels. "Water and drainage is a big issue there, because of the position of the course so close to the loch, and the prevailing weather conditions. They have a lot of their own equipment though, so if they get a suitable window, they can get on and do the work themselves.
"At Gleneagles we've recently been installing lateral drains on the Queens course, and additional drainage where required. We're also doing some remodelling of the 12th hole's green and surrounds, ready for the 2014 Ryder Cup.
"Because of rainfall patterns, particularly in this part of the world, we find we are always having to improve and upgrade as we go along - one year it will be as dry as a bone, the next will be wet so the drainage needs more attention. Basically golf courses can never have enough drainage. Golfers want to play all year round, so there's always pressure from committees to make the course as playable as possible throughout the year.
"Generally our work is split evenly between primary and secondary drainage," Eric explains. "Ideally the primary pipework system goes in at 5m laterals with 2m centres. If we come back the following year and the area is still wet, we can gravel band between these so that drainage overall is at 1m centres.
"More people are coming round to the fact that there's a difference between general drainage and sports surface drainage, particularly to get run-off water away, and gravel bands do this more quickly. Standing surface water creates soft ground, so get rid of that and you've got a drier course.
"Whatever drainage work we do, we always fit in around play - we've never shut a golf course yet," adds Eric. "None of the staff have ever been hit by a golf ball either, although the machines have a couple of times - we've even had a ball land in one of the big tractor cabs!
"The most important part of our work is that we have to be able to get round golf courses without leaving a mess, so all the tractors and other machines we run are now fitted with flotation tyres to avoid soil compaction. The other main improvements we've seen over the last 20 years of tractor design have been in operator comfort and increased horsepower.
"I'm still amazed at how long John Deere tractors last," Eric says. "The first agricultural tractor we ever bought, a 75hp B reg 2040S, is still going well. In fact all the original John Deere machines we bought are still running, we've never traded anything in - basically we keep using them until they stop, and nothing has yet.
