News

Dean Rural Services have kindly sent us some follow-up pictures of two sites where our Wildflower Turf was successfully installed.
A site in Winchester…
Background… There was already an existing wildflower meadow at the far end of the pond where an abundance of snake’s head fritillary and other species were already established.  David Plunton from Dean Rural Services decided to extend the meadow right down to the water’s edge, using our Wildflower Turf.

Additionally he wanted to carry the wildflower meadow theme along both banks, also using it to top off an island, which was to be created within the pond. This created a significant area of wildflower meadow which provided a haven for wildlife.
How it is looking in May… The image below shows the turf in late May and as you can see it has grown really well considering how cold April and May has been.

A bank of…

We are very proud to say that we regularly work closely with organisations such as Hampshire and Isle of Wight Trust and the RSPB to name a few.
Hampshire and Isle of Wight Trust have been involved with Overton’s Biodiversity Plan which has been very much a community event. For more information on the plan follow this link Overton Biodiversity plan.
A bit of a background
The Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro held in June 1992 led to over 150 countries signing the Convention on Biological Diversity. The main aim of the convention is to encourage commitment to sustaining and enhancing global biodiversity.  The UK Government published the UK Biodiversity Action Plan in 1995 setting out our national objectives as a response to the summit.

Butterflies and Moths
Most UK butterfly and moth species are declining, with 24 species of butterfly and 150 species of moth now listed as priority species on the UK Biodiversity Action Plan. Butterflies and moths are very sensitive to changes in their environment therefore make an excellent indicator on the overall state of a given habitat.
In 2003 Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council produced “Living Landscapes
– a Landscape and Biodiversity Strategy for the Borough…

Georgie Newbery from Common Farm Flowers approached us back in March for some Wildflower Turf she needed to grow on, for something a bit different! Georgie told us a little story of how Wildflower Turf was just what she needed! In fact Georgie said, ‘Our turf was BRILLIANT’!
The Wildflower Wedding Challenge
a story by Georgie Newbery…

It was early March when a bride-to-be called and asked if we’d be able to do flowers for her wedding on the 12th May.
Of course, said we, anticipating she’d ask for tulips, cow parsley, apple blossom perhaps – after all, these are all things we grow for cutting at Common Farm Flowers.
So she turned up with her intended and their gorgeous little girl and I’d made a Pinterest board to show them the sorts of flowers we’d have available at that time of year.  We are a flower farm, and we try to grow all the flowers we use in our floristry.  And she liked my suggestion of jam-jar posies filled with wild flowers, and little buckets with candles poking out from clouds of cow parsley – and then she said,
‘You’ll think I’m mad.’ I smiled, enigmatically and held my breath.  ‘But I’ve got…

With our wildlife habitats increasingly under threat, especially wildflower meadows, every garden should be treated as a potential nature reserve, rather than solely a designed space for the needs of humans.
If you garden for wildlife you will be adding an extra dimension not only to your garden, but to your skills as an enthusiastic gardener or garden designer! Perhaps what is not generally understood is that even a small garden can be designed and managed in a manner that wildlife will be able to become part of the fabric of the garden, rather than just visitors to the garden, thus making a huge difference to wildlife communities. A few basic principles can make such a huge difference.

For example… the most wildlife-friendly gardens are mostly plants with little ground showing at all! If you think about it logically, this is because it will provide cover/shelter for mammals, birds and insects from predators as well as the elements.
Additionally, the action you take to make your garden a local home for…

We have been watching with interest the bee hotel that is positioned within our courtyard on our outside office wall. It is a perfect setting; the courtyard is rather sheltered, quite quiet and has a lovely area of Wildflower Turf within the courtyard itself.

We have noticed that Red Mason Bees (Osmia rufa) which are found across the European continent, are utilising our bee hotel which is fantastic!
Red Mason Bees do not excavate their own nests and although they are solitary bees, they do prefer to nest together. Interestingly they are capable of flying at lower temperatures than Honey Bees.
They emerge from last year’s nest in early spring and they will search for a suitable new site. Their chosen habitat would generally be old mature hedgerows and along woodland edges where they would search for old bramble and hogweed stems with broken ends, or irregular cavities in stones and old walls.
The first thing that they do however after emerging, is…

Over past years we have had the privilege of being chosen by various
garden designers to supply our Wildflower Turf for their garden designs at some of the biggest and most popular flower and garden shows in the UK.
We have supplied many clients with our turf for Chelsea Flower Show, and other
prestigious flower shows.
Sarah’s garden for Daily Telegraph…
Sarah Price approached us on 9th May for some of our Wildflower Turf which she wanted to incorporate into her design for the Daily Telegraph Garden for this years Chelsea Flower show.
Her Daily Telegraph Garden picked up a gold award for Crocus.co.uk
Congratulations it looks wonderful!

On 12th March 2012 we were approached by Patrick Burrows who wanted to install a wildflower meadow on some derelict land that he owns.
He approached us because he wanted some advise with regard to the fertility of the existing soil. Patrick understood that wildflower meadows prefer low fertility soils, and he was concerned that due to the soil having quite a high fertility, the Wildflower Turf would struggle or perhaps even fail. Although derelict land is usually associated with nutrient poor soils from either re-development and
re-use, due to building rubbles, old industrial spoils and compacted sub-soils, in Patrick’s particular case, the soil was quite good quality.
Our advise was that it will establish without a problem. This is largely due to the fact that Patrick was not trying to establish a meadow from seed. If that were the case then soil fertility would be very relevant, because it is probably the single most important factor, influencing wildflower establishment.
However with our turf, the plants are already well established. We explained to Patrick that what he may find is that in its first year the grasses may dominate slightly, but providing that the maintenance is kept in check, (one annual cut in…

… the water companies have granted an exemption for newly laid turf.
As of 21st May 2012 landscapers will be able to water newly laid turf, and their clients will be able to continue this for up to 28 days.
This exemption has been granted by all the water companies who currently have a hose pipe ban in place.
The advantage with our Wildflower Turf is that it really only needs watering daily (if it does not rain) until the roots have established, which is usually within 2 weeks!

It is important not flood the turf when watering but ensure the substrate is damp.
This is great news for the turf & landscape industry. It’s important that we all follow the Code of Practice drawn up by the Turf Growers Association (www.turfgrass.co.uk) in order to minimise water wastage.

The  Hampshire and the Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust are the only conservation charity committed to improving conditions for all wildlife in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. They manage 48 nature reserves as part of a vision to create ‘Living Landscapes’ for the future.
One of the Wildlife Trusts aims is to educate lots of people about the importance of wildflower meadows.
With this in mind, Emma Pereira, Development Officer for the Hampshire Wildlife Trust, approached us with regard to hosting an open day for some of their Wildlife Investors, here at Ashe Warren Farm. It seemed quite appropriate for us to host the event for them, due to the fact that we were the first to produce a soil-less Wildflower Turf and as a result, we have accumulated a wealth of knowledge and expertise over the years. But aside from that, we were proud to help promote the importance of wildflower meadows.

Thankfully the rain held off, allowing everyone to enjoy the fresh air and lovely sounds of Lapwings, Skylarks and Kestrels which decided to all make themselves known…

Yesterday we featured a blog focusing on Castlemorton Primary School. The school embarked on creating a school show garden this year, for the Malvern Spring Gardening Show at the Three counties showground.
Scott Tranmer a teacher at the school who has been organising the show garden, has been in contact with us today, to tell us that they have received good news from the RHS judges. The school show garden achieved a highly commended and narrowly missed out on best in school show by 1 point!  However that is still a fantastic result especially considering that it was their first show.
Additionally the show garden was also judged by the CPRE (campaign to protect rural England) with Chris Beardshaw presenting the awards.  For this Castlemorton Primary School came a very commendable 3rd out of 14.
The show garden was judged on not only on its quality, but how they linked all of the work within their school curriculum.
Scott commented that, ‘Chris Beardshaw thought our garden was great, and that he also used Wildflower Turf Limited as the suppliers for his turf’!