News

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…

Wildflower Turf Limited shortlisted as finalist for the 2013 sustain’ magazine awards.

Wildflower Turf has been shortlisted in the Biodiversity category (Bio-diverse Wildflower Meadows) of the sustain’ Magazine Awards 2013, organised by sustain’ Magazine in association with Marshalls.

 

The sustain’ Magazine Awards celebrate standout achievements and successes in the field of Sustainability. The trophies will be presented at an awards ceremony on Tuesday 5 March at the Guoman Hotel overlooking the River Thames and Tower Bridge in London.

Steve Oxley, Editor of sustain’ Magazine said: “Now in their fifth year, the sustain’ Magazine awards 2013 has seen an extremely high-calibre of entrants demonstrating best practice in sustainability across the built environment spectrum. It is an amazing achievement for Wildflower Turf to be shortlisted in the face of such strong competition. We are thrilled to be able to host the awards ceremony that recognises the hard work and commitment of those companies and organisations achieving such high levels of excellence.”
 

Last year more than 300 people attended the event, which was hosted by one of most amusing award hosts in the country.

 

The sponsors of the awards are: Land Securities and Galliford Try Partnerships. If you want to…

Sustainable garden design has become a very popular trend within the garden design sector.

The environment provides us with many elements we perhaps take for granted. Natural resources which are both renewable and non-renewable. How about the air we breath? It also purifies water, and provides us with a biodiverse environment, all of which provide natural capital wealth. These aspects directly provide us with a healthy quality of life through tranquility, recreation, wildlife and clean water and air. A decrease in the capital wealth leads to poor environments thus poor health, more stress and even an increase in poverty.
The key to a sustainable design would be the elimination of negative environmental impacts. Economic growth doesn’t have to involve greater consumption of natural resources such as raw materials and land. With better technology and education there is potential to enable a higher output, using the same amount of resources. This would mean for example that energy is provided by renewable sources. On a simple level this could be as basic as making your own compost and collecting rainwater for use on the plants in your garden.
When you start to research the word sustainability, it becomes apparent that it can be really confusing, not only can it be ambiguous, but it can also feel incredibly…