Why the green, green grass of home has become Brad’s turf
Brad Voullaire has manicured the grass for some of the world’s best golfers and has now turned his talents to supplying status symbol lawns in residential streets.
In April 2016, Voullaire set up his own business, Taranaki Turf Doctor, after noticing a gap in the New Plymouth market.
The 41-year-old was surprised how quickly his business had grown but said he thought his lawns sometimes brought out the competitive instinct in the city’s neighbourhoods.
‘‘I started with one there and then a neighbour came across the road and said ‘can you do the same for me?’ and then another bloke from down the road and now I’ve got two other places in the same street now. It’s only a tiny cul-desac.
‘‘I think people want things now rather than having to wait for the seed to establish and I think people are taking pride in their homes and want their investment to look good,’’ the former course superintendent at Golf Harbour said.
‘‘There’s no point in spending half a million building a house and then skimping on the landscaping.’’
Garry Malcolm, Real Estate Institute of New Zealand Taranaki spokesman, said a top quality lawn could really help a property reach its sale potential.
‘‘First impressions count and if you have a well-groomed and manicured lawn and garden it does add value,’’ Malcolm said.
Voullaire initially bought 5000 square metres of land just outside New Plymouth and has spent the last seven months cultivating the perfect blend of fine fescue ready to be laid.
He even had to turn down some of his rapidly expanding client base because the turf hadn’t reached his high standards.
‘‘It’s a high quality product and you have to wait until it’s ready.’’
However there’s been no decline in demand.
‘‘It’s excellent, it really is. This bloke is talking about 900 to 1000 square metres at a time.
‘‘He’s telling me I need to buy more land already.’’
To keep up with demand Voullaire has purchased another 7.5 hectares and plans to seed four hectares in spring.
‘‘I’ll try not to run out, which will mean acquiring more and more land as time goes on.’’
Voullaire said his passion for the garden started at a young age and he topped his senior horticulture class at Inglewood High School.
He then worked in tunnel houses for a while before taking up an apprenticeship at the Fitzroy Gold Club.
To further his skills Voullaire moved to Auckland where he moved up the ranks at Golf Harbour and oversaw the rebuild of half of the Huapai Course.
However an invitation to work as a volunteer greenkeeper at San Francisco’s Olympic Club for the United States Open in 2012 further ingrained Voullaire’s high standards. ‘‘When you get to that high end gold course level you have to be providing a really pristine product every day of the week.
‘‘It’s pretty mad, there’s a lot of mowing and a lot of hours just to groom the course up to the best it can look. That really opened my eyes to the amount of grooming and just what you could do to preserve the turf.’’
He said essentially the greens were walk mowed four times a day but every measure was taken not to damage the surface.
‘‘There were four guys with mats at the end of each mower run so they could turn their mowers around.’’