Hope Island Resort Information Centre

The Plant Management Company
Horticultural Report 18.2.10
To The Body Corporates
Hope Island Resort

Turf Areas: Throughout the last month we have experienced some of the more favourable growing conditions we have seen in some time. The turf has remained consistently green and lush although our turf teams' efforts have been continually hampered by the extraordinary amount of rainfall we have been receiving of late. It seems that just as we are getting back on track that the heavens open once again and our turf programme is put on hold. As you will have noticed, our turf teams have been unable to mow on several occasions during the last month due the wet conditions. We do not want to damage the turf if considered too wet and as a result our turf team will be re allocated to other duties such as giving our gardens teams a much needed hand. As soon as we can we will endeavour to return to our normal mowing schedule. As we have had favourable growing conditions we have lowered the heights at which our machines are cutting the grass from 35 - 30mm. This height will be monitored and adjusted according to the growing conditions.

 As mentioned above the turf has flourished and so have the broadleaf weeds. We are aware that this is a concern of the residents and this has not snuck under our radar. The chemical used to treat broadleaf weeds requires a window of 4 -8 hrs without rain and the turf surface must not be wet at the time of application to be effective.  As a result the current wet weather has consistently interrupted our broadleaf spraying programme. We will firstly need to cut the turf and following this will resume with broadleaf spraying after a 24 hour period. We also need to take in account the wind conditions at the time of treatment. You may have noticed our green keeper out spraying first thing in the morning; this is due to the fact that the morning winds are calmer. As the wind intensifies later in the day we may be forced to halt treatment until the following morning as not to have the chemical drift onto near buy gardens and potentially damage plants. We will continue the broadleaf treatment where possible considering the current weather conditions.

 Garden Areas: The last month has been a great for plants and turf alike. We have received plenty (some would say enough) of rain during the last month and the results can be measured by the lush growth present on many of the once struggling plants. While the weather has benefitted plants it has left our gardens teams scratching their heads wondering if the rain will ever ease enough to catch up on the weed spraying. Our teams have again had their normal routines interrupted due to the weather but will keep on playing catch up until they once again return to the normal garden schedule.

We have again commenced with our additional projects where possible around the resort. We have firstly returned to The Lakes to work on the rectification of trip hazards as previously started in December. The weather has hindered our progress in the last couple of weeks but we will continue as soon as possible.

We have completed a major clean up of the resort in the last week or so. This clean up was required due to the storms and the vast amount of flooding experienced. This was a big job that kept some of our teams busy for near on 2 weeks.

Rainfall: What a month it has been for rainfall!! We have had a total of 77.5mm for January and a whopping 416.5mm for February so far. We have experienced some very dry periods in the last 6 months or so and I guess this is nature's way balancing things out. We it rains it pours!! We hope that the residents have not received too much damage to property after the infamous flood.  At Tamborine Mountain/ upper Beechmont they received 400mm in a number of hours this in turn flooded the lower plains of Coomera. We have teams working in this area at Riverstone Crossing/ Maudsland where it was reported and witnessed that the once timid creek rose 10 metres above its normal levels. Large trees where left strewn throughout the area some as large 20 m in height. This led to the destruction witnessed further down the Coomera River at the resort. Definitely a day that won't be forgotten for many a year.

We hope that this report has given you some insight into what has been going on in the gardens throughout the resort during the last month.

Thank you for involving us in this process, if we can be of any further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact myself or Chris Fairleigh.

Regards,

Dale Godfrey

Area Supervisor - Gold Coast
The Plant Management Company