News

Geoffrey Court, from The Circle Works in London wanted to create a Wildflower area to surround the memorial to a friend and co-worker.

We all thought what a lovely idea. We supplied about 30m² of Wildflower Turf to Geoffrey back in September 2011. Such a thoughtful thing to do, and it will always provide flowers year on year because they are perennials. Not only will it look attractive but it will also support a whole host of insects from bees to butterflies to beetles, which in turn will attract birds and mammals!
Geoffrey has been diligently taking a photograph of the turf every month, and every time he does, he thinks, “I should send the guys at Wildflower Turf the pictures.” “Well, here they are,” he commented.  They look fantastic and show how the turf has progressed over the seasons.

Wildflower Turf in January 2012                                            February 2012 March 2012                                                                                 April 2012 May 2012                                                                                      July 2012 August 2012                                                                                September 2012

A couple of years ago Helen Elks-smith winning entry for the Jacksons Fencing Show Garden competition, utilised our Wildflower Turf to great effect. In order to extend the flowering season Helen decided to add Aquilegia which is a beautiful plant and worked perfectly with the wildflowers due to the fact that they are clump-forming herbaceous perennials. Not only are they striking in form with their bonnet-shaped flowers, but quite colourful. The design brief stated that the design needed to suit an environmentally sensitive young couple who didn’t have time for gardening, yet loved being outside. Quite a typical design brief for a garden designer in the 21st century, especially in urban areas.
As the images below show by mid May (back in 2011), the meadow is happily filling the ‘borders’ framing, yet softening the edges of the hard landscaped areas.

Helen very kindly sent us some updated pictures of the garden. The Wildflower Turf has matured perfectly a year later and it is looking very healthy and has established admirably.

Have you seen us at Ecobuild yet? We are exhibiting at Ecobuild and you will be able to find us on Stand number: S1870

Our first day was a huge success because we picked up the Sustain Magazine Award for biodiversity. Not bad for the first day! MD James Hewetson-Brown is giving two seminars on Wildflower Turf at the Olympics 2012. If you missed the first seminar on Tuesday 5th March, why not come and find us on Thursday 7th March at 2.30pm. Our exhibition will include flowering samples of the NEW Wildflower Border Turf
which extends the flowering season and adds colour. In addition there is an interactive bee box and support from The Bumblebee Conservation Trust who have joined us on the stand. Additionally we will also have Case Studies and a NEW product catalogue available to take away. Finally Wildflower Turf Ltd will be promoting their publication, “The Grass Isn’t Always Greener”, a beautiful pictorial presentation of Wildflowers. This will be available for sale.

“One year’s seeding makes seven year’s weeding”. This is a farming adage that is very relevant when preparing to sow a wildflower meadow. The soil is full of weed seeds that will establish at the same time as the seed that is sown.

With our Wildflower Turf the correct seed ratio and sowing rate for a wildflower meadow to thrive has already been worked out, which negates the need for you to do any complicated workings out and trials in order to achieve a well-balanced wildflower meadow! The turf needs laying but once this is done the meadow is underway! No risk and guaranteed to work. Wildflower Turf Ltd has a wealth of experience and knowledge to help, both before and after installation.
Featured below was a project that offered the opportunity to demonstrate just how
beautiful a wildflower meadow can look when integrated into an innovative modern design. Full of flair and elegance, the design by landscape architect Ian Kitson, displayed distinct echoes of Antoni Guadi’s Parc Guell but with an English twist.

Although this project was undertaken a few years ago, it does demonstrate clearly how quickly the Wildflower Turf establishes and develops.
The first set…

Having the privilege to grow bespoke Wildflower Turf used for the Olympics opening ceremony and parts of the Athletes’ Village has certainly been talked about and makes us feel very proud to have had the opportunity to be so involved.

Our Wildflower Turf could be seen in the opening ceremony on the banks in the centre of the British landscape scene created by Danny Boyle.
Follow this link to read more about our involvement with the Olympics in this article by British Association of Landscape Industries.

Back in February 2009 we were approached by Paul Slawson of Evergreen Roof Gardens Ltd to quote for a wildflower roof for the Interpretation centre at Cardiff Castle. His client, Cardiff County Council wanted a green roof system which would replace the failing sedum green roof as well as being self-sustaining and robust.
The project involved a mix of sloped and flat roofs which equated to an area of 270m². Firstly an irrigation system was installed before 600 bags of substrate were lifted up onto the roof and placed around the perimeter. Loose substrate was used to back-fill the remaining area to the depth of the pre-filled substrate sacks, which was 100mm (the minimum depth we recommend for our green roof system). Finally the Wildflower Roof Turf was laid on top of the substrate.
By April 2009 the project was complete and continues to impress Paul’s clients, Cardiff County Council and the thousands of visitors to the castle!
Paul has very kindly sent us over some recent photos of the castle and the roof turf. They look fantastic, thanks Paul!

There are many reports and much talk about the decline in our UK moth populations.

Rothamsted Research scientists, have been working closely with colleagues at the Butterfly Conservation, and using data from Rothamsted’s BBSRC-funded national Insect Survey, have revealed something quite alarming.  The study has highlighted that two-thirds of common moth species have declined in the last 40 years. That is a huge proportion, in such a relatively short space of time. The research also indicated that these losses were much greater in the southern half of Britain than in the north.

Some once common garden species such as the V-moth, Garden Tiger and the Spinach have decreased by more than 90% from 1968-2007 and now face the real threat of extinction in the future. (Taken from: butterfly-conservation.org)

It would seem that the major factors causing these declines are as one would expect. Due to habitat loss and the deteriorating condition of the countryside, is it any wonder why we are loosing biodiversity through the loss of so many species.

Moths are key indicator species for assessing the health of the environment. These findings point strongly to a wider insect biodiversity crisis and mirror declines of butterflies and bees and carabid beetles. The…

Last year we blogged a lovely little project which highlighted how our Wildflower Turf can transform an area however small, into a wildflower meadow with ease.
We stumbled across this blog written by Shades of Green who carried out the project, and it is nice to be mentioned in such a positive manner! Thank you to Shades of Green and their customer.

We hope everyone had a great Christmas and here’s to a prosperous and amazing 2013!
Nearly there… In the northern hemisphere, winter 2013 officially ends on March 20th so those dark and gloomy winter days are drawing to a close, and we can look forward to Spring. That instantly lifts ones mood!
We will be able to start growing more Wildflower Turf, so Spring is a very busy time for us, but also very exciting because the flora and fauna around the farm starts to wake up from the winter. During the spring and into the early part of the summer birds will start to fill the air with their song again, which means – it’s the time of the dawn chorus, giving a lovely atmosphere to the farm.

Spring Flower Shows… There are a few flower shows which are taking place in Spring to make a note of and in April there will be the Harrogate Spring Flower Show and an RHS spectacular spring show at the start of the growing season in the Welsh capital. A bit later on in May will be the Malvern Spring Gardening…

So what are the advantages to having a green roof?
A green roof can be classified as the addition of vegetation and soil to any roof type. Installing a green roof can actually reduce several negative effects that buildings would have on local ecosystems whilst simultaneously reducing the buildings’ energy consumption.

Living, or green, roofs have been shown to increase sound insulation (Dunnett and Kingsbury 2004) and fire resistance (Köhler 2003). Because the vegetation dissipate solar radiation they can actually reduce the energy required for keeping the interior climates constant.

Hard surfaces can have a surprising impact on the wider environment. Predominantly, it is the role hard surfaces play in causing environmental problems that are the concern, with some of these problems being cumulative, therefore becoming more noticeable in the future. Flooding is the most significant of these problems. Potentially this can lead to flooding of homes, because hard landscaping can increase the amount of rainwater that runs off by as much as 50%.  Street drains can’t always cope with the extra demand during a storm and can lead to damage and high repair costs. Green roofs can help to counter the effects through slowing down the…