Robotic mowing for Blenheim Palace
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 & Glasgow), botanic gardens, multi-national headquarters, stately homes, sports facilities, universities & schools and zoos & 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.
