Blenheim Palace has joined a growing list of high profile
commercial locations adopting Husqvarna Automower to maintain areas of green
space.
Arguably one of Britain’s finest stately homes, a masterpiece of
English Baroque architecture and residence to the 12th Duke of Marlborough.
Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, is now home to a
British-built Husqvarna Automower. The robotic mower was installed
recently in its very grand location to tackle a newly reclaimed area of grass
that was previously very challenging to maintain using conventional means. The
Automower has freed up time, allowing the grounds staff to spend more time on
other more labour intensive areas of the vast gardens.
Husqvarna Automower was recommended to Blenheim Palace’s head
gardener, through another high profile Stately Home. Hatfield House in
Hertfordshire employs a fleet of Husqvarna Automower to maintain the formal
lawns around the house. The Blenheim Palace enquiry was handled via local
Husqvarna Dealer, Toad Hall Garden Machinery, Oxfordshire and supported by
Husqvarna UK.
Installed in early June, Husqvarna Automower is now maintaining
the sloping grass area leading down to the Palace’s 160 acre lake, dating back
to 1768, The little and often cutting principle feeds the micro-clippings back
into the soil as natural fertiliser and random mowing pattern will quickly
improve the lawn quality to match the very grand surroundings. The extremely
low noise levels also ensures that the machine can work away without disturbing
paying customers visiting the Palace.
In keeping with the British heritage of Blenheim Palace, Husqvarna
Automower is manufactured in the UK at the company’s County Durham
headquarters. Husqvarna’s robotic technology has developed constantly since the
brand pioneered the industry back in 1995. 2018 saw the launch of two machines
designed specifically for Commercial use. This year has seen the launch of its
first ever Commercial all-wheel drive robotic mower, capable of managing slopes
up to 70%.
Andrew Lees, UK Category Manager for Lawn products commented: “We
are seeing a real appetite for Automower from the commercial sector and
Blenheim Palace is another high profile example which has adopted robotic
mowing for green space management.”
Lees added: “We have a strong belief in our robotic range and high
profile commercial installations like Blenheim Palace and others only help
reinforce the product capabilities, quality and reliability of Husqvarna
Automower within the commercial sector.”
The company has an impressive list of commercial installations
across the UK, ranging from municipalities (Edinburgh, London and Glasgow),
botanic gardens, multi-national headquarters, stately homes, sports facilities,
universities and schools and zoos and animal parks.
The Husqvarna Automower 500 Series is a range of robotic mowers
specifically developed for the needs of commercial customers. The mowers allow
grassed areas to be maintained efficiently and to a consistently high standard
whilst enabling the redeployment of resources onto more labour intensive tasks.
The range produces no direct emissions and are near silent making
them ideal for night time operation or in noise sensitive areas. They are also
extremely cost effective to operate.
Three models are available with area capacity up to
5000m2 per machine. Multiple machines can be used in areas
greater than 5000m2. The new Husqvarna Automower 535 AWD allows slopes of
up to 70% to be maintained as well as rough terrain, the standard models have
slope performance of 45%.
The robotic mowers are designed to cut little and often recycling
the micro-clippings back into the soil improving grass quality whilst
maintaining a consistent grass length throughout the growing season.
Husqvarna Fleet Services which is a fleet management tool is
in-built on the Automower 500 Series. Performance, settings, locations and
machine health of an entire fleet of Husqvarna robotic mowers can be tracked
from anywhere using the software solution.
