Nature-minded greenkeeping at an award-winning English golf course is the focus for the new episode of Syngenta’s YouTube docuseries, The Green Report.
Find out:
- How Goring & Streatley Golf Club transformed 7.5 hectares of rough and scrubland into a nectar-rich, honey-producing haven for bees
- How stopping routine mowing on out-of-play areas cut fuel costs, reduced machinery wear, and freed up labor to elevate course conditioning
- How partnering with a local beekeeper has generated over £20,000 in honey sales to fund future biodiversity projects
Setting a new sustainability standard in Berkshire
Golf courses are sometimes perceived as ‘green deserts’ – but nothing could be further from the truth at an award-winning golf club 50 miles west of London, where a project to transform rough into nectar-rich wildflower meadows has won plaudits from bee and butterfly experts.
In a new episode of Syngenta Golf YouTube series, The Green Report, broadcast to mark International Thank a Greenkeeper Day on September 8 – nature-conscious greenkeepers Matt Aplin and Melissa Winkworth at Goring & Streatley Golf Club explain how they have created 7.5 hectares of habitat perfect for pollinating insects.
According to local beekeeper Rob Nickless of Meadow Honey Farm, the golf course, which sits on chalk downland in the Thames Valley, is his most productive cropping site, yielding hundreds of jars of honey and making the club more than £20,000 in revenue, all reinvested into further biodiversity projects.
“Most people expect golf courses to be green deserts,” said Nickless. “Far from it. There are fantastic amounts of flowering plants here and it is beautiful natural forage for the bees.”
Elsewhere, host Gary Firkins explores the environmental and operational milestones across the property. Delivered as part of Syngenta’s Operation Pollinator initiative, the work has helped address the decline in natural habitats and pollinator numbers across the region.
Simon Elsworth of Syngenta highlights the critical role pollinators play in food production and biodiversity, noting: “What Matt, Melissa and the team here have done here is a real exemplar. By taking some areas out of high maintenance and allowing them to regenerate into areas for biodiversity, it reduces the labour requirements and enables the team to spend more time on the in-play areas, creating brilliant playing experiences for customers.”
Like many greenkeepers around the world, the team at Goring & Streatley care passionately about the golf courses they manage and the environment they work in. Deputy Course Manager Melissa Winkworth, whose interest in ecology kick-started the biodiversity projects at the club, notes: “It’s great to see how far we’ve come and how people have bought into it. Now, we are always looking to see where we can add wildflowers.”
Lastly, Course Manager Matt Aplin confirms that further expansion projects are already underway, funded entirely by sales of on-site honey.
“We look at things completely differently now,” Matt explains. “We’re looking to create an orchard close to the beehives where we are going to plant around 150 apple, plum, pear and cherry trees which will be pollinated by the bees and harvest the fruit to use in the clubhouse.”
Watch the full episode: The new episode of The Green Report is live on YouTube now.
