Benjamin Murphy Email & Phone Number

London Area, United Kingdom

Auckland, New Zealand

At Humphreys Landscaping, I specialise in the domestic turf market, overseeing approximately 150 turf surfaces across the Auckland district. My role presents exciting challenges as each property I work on comes with its own unique microclimate, resulting in diverse client needs and a wide range of turf grass diseases to deal with. During my two years at Humphreys, to ensure I adapted to each client, I invested in extensive learning, to understand how agrichemicals can be best utilised. I was privileged to work with a knowledgeable team who helped me take this knowledge and put it into real-life scenarios. The core aspects of my role include: Monitoring turf areas and applying the following treatments as needed: Fertiliser applications, herbicide/fungicide/insecticide/wetting agent treatments, irrigation monitoring and minor repairs.Diagnosing problems in the turf and deciding the correct chemicals to fix the issue.Managing maintenance timelines, planning upcoming visits to clients based on when they need to be seen again. I also liaised with the clients if there are any actions they need to take in the meantime between visits. Managing clients expectations to ensure what can be achieved within specific time frames is communicated clearly.

Auckland, New Zealand

Royal Auckland & Grange Golf Club is one of New Zealand’s few exclusively private golf clubs. During my time at the club, I was part of the team that undertook the impressive project that saw two 18-hole golf courses combined into one 27-hole golf course, which was constructed from a new Jack Nicklaus design. During this project, I worked alongside the Puddicombe Golf Design & Construction team and assisted with the turf grow-in on the course, ensuring the seamless integration of the new course. This experience enriched my understanding of golf course development and agronomy. The core aspects of my role included:Streamlining the grow-in of three different grass species, working with couch (Bermuda) fairways and approaches, creeping bent grass greens and tee boxes, plus an extensive amount of fine fescue rough.Grow-in whole fairways that were couch stolonized which posed a challenge, due to us only being able to do this through the summer months so had to move quickly. The greens surrounds were all turfed with couch so we spent many hours on turfing.Operating the hydro-seeder, which we used extensively through the grow-in phase. Large amounts of the rough were hydro-seeded and drill seeded with fine fescue.Introduced to spraying foliar fertilisers on tee boxes and fairways, these being mostly nitrogen & iron products. Working alongside Mark Hooker (Director of Agronomy) and Lance Shaw (Course Superintendent), gaining an understanding of the agronomy & horticulture side of a golf course.

Auckland, New Zealand

Eden Park is New Zealand’s national stadium, the home of both international and local football, rugby, cricket and some concerts. At Eden Park, I was first introduced to working with sports turf and quickly fell in love with the trade, as I worked alongside Blair Christiansen (Turf Manager) and his helpful team. Eden Park has two main surfaces and two different grass species, these being perennial ryegrass on the main field and couch on the outer oval. The core aspects of my role included:Preparing cricket pitches for domestic and international play. Learning how cricket pitches are produced and maintained to the highest standard.Introduced to NPK fertilisers and their importance for plant health.

Auckland, New Zealand

Qualified, Horticultural Science In Sports Turf, Level 3 And Level 4 Completion

Education record

Education record