Wildflower Turf Ltd expands with a new production site in Yorkshire.
In 2015 Wildflower Turf Ltd were finalists for the annual Farmers Weekly magazine awards. This national competition looks at all things farming and we entered the farm diversification category. The magazine has the biggest circulation of all the farming press and the resulting publicity from being shortlisted was widespread.
This generated interest from a number of farmers who asked about growing Wildflower Turf. One of those was a family farming business in Yorkshire, Tom and Joss Spilman, who farm in partnership with their parents near Helperby. Theirs is an already well diversified farming business that includes growing asparagus and strawberries amongst other things. With two sons in the business they were keen to look for ways of expanding further and we are now very pleased to say that this interest has become reality. The first Wildflower Turf was lifted by Joss at Lodge Farm, Helperby in July, having started setting up the production system at the start of this year.
In January Mike, our Farm Manager, went up to Yorkshire to set up the irrigation system on a block of free draining land that was otherwise set to grow carrots.
In April Trevor, our Turf Manager, travelled up and trained Joss and a new member of staff on how to grow the turf and the first production beds were underway.
Since then the site has been filled with the target production figure of 60,000m² made up of three types of Wildflower Turf.
We were all extremely pleased and proud when in July the first mature turf was lifted and supplied to a customer based in Yorkshire. It has been a huge effort on everyone at part Wildflower Turf Ltd.’s as well as hard graft and quick learning from the Spilman’s and their team.
In addition to the production site, we have run our first Accreditation Day in Helperby to cater for interest and training in understanding wildflowers and their maintenance. We held a second training day on the 1st September and plan more in the New Year. These days have been very well attended with an interesting and packed day developed and run by Toby and Helen who travelled up from Hampshire to host.
This additional production site will allow us to continue to meet the increasing demand for our biodiverse products. The general awareness and acceptance of wildflower spaces around the UK continues apace and to have a site in the north of England adds to the overall growth of our company.