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In November 2023, SSDM turned 20. After being initially established by Dr Richard Gibbs in 2003, the consultancy has grown from strength to strength with offices in Auckland and Christchurch. It has been a great journey so far and we are proud of what we have been able to achieve with our clients and we look forward to working with you all to deliver more great green spaces in the next 20 years.
With the unusually high rainfall we have had this year, following some recent soil testing, we have found that the pH has dropped quite rapidly in a number of sports fields, particularly in the North Island. High rainfall can strip the soil of cations such as Ca,K and Mg resulting in an increase of H ions in the soil which lowers the soil pH. Sandy soils are affected much faster than other soils which may have a higher CEC which can buffer and slow down this change. If you haven’t checked your pH recently, we’d suggest you do so you can get onto managing this with applications of lime or dolomite as required.
In June 2020, the USGA has published new guidelines for bunker sand sand selection describing nine characteristics of bunker sand including soil moisture release curve which may be more relevant with the increase of popularity of porous bunker liners. A link to the USGA article can be found here
