News

Preparation for the show…
Castlemorton Primary School embarked on creating a school show garden this year, for the Malvern Spring Gardening Show at the Three counties showground. As part of this project the children chose to create a wildflower meadow for the basis of the design. Scott Tranmer a teacher at the school who has been organising the show garden, approached us in February 2012 for the supply of some Wildflower Turf.
We have supplied many clients with our Wildflower Turf for Chelsea, and other prestigious flower shows over the years, so we were happy to help Scott where we could.
We have always advised previous clients to take the turf early, so that they can bring it on in a poly tunnel. This allows careful management of the turf ensuring that the client has complete control over the turf.  This also ensures that the anticipated results are achieved, in order to meet the desired brief.  Some clients also add plug plants to the turf, for that extra show of colour and diversity.
Additionally it is also a good idea to create some form of tray or carrier for the turf to grow in.  This allows the turf to be transported flat to…

When you hear talk about environmental responsibilities, biodiversity and conservation, farmers tend to receive a lot of criticism on these particularly important issues. But is it justifiable, or are farmers getting unwarranted criticism because they are the easy targets?

Understandably farmers reject the accusations that they seem to attract, that  modern agricultural methods are the cause of the decline in biodiversity. The main question that seems to get thrown at them is, are they doing enough to encourage biodiversity or should they being doing more? Most farmers believe that they are doing what they can and take their environmental responsibilities quite seriously.
Most people are aware of the schemes for set-aside. The industry led Campaign for the Farmed Environment has a clear objective. To retain and exceed the environmental benefits provided by set-aside. The Campaign is supported by organisations from across the industry, a wide partnership that recognises the importance of managing the farmed environment voluntarily.
They are emphasising that by 2012 this voluntary approach needs to work, otherwise regulation will be put in place. This is of course will effectively result in more…

Friends of the Earth are promoting their new campaign to save the bee, with the aim to create awareness, in the hope that the powers that ‘bee’ will be inspired to take action before it is too late.
We were approached by Emily Boswell from Wild Flower Garden Design, who has been working with Friends of the Earth on the campaign, with regard to donating some of our Wildflower Turf, which we were more than happy to do as supporters of the cause.
Emily sent us this lovely email. ‘Just wanted to say a massive thank you for the extra flowering turf you sent along, it all got used on the garden and looked fantastic. There was a huge amount of people enquiring about it. It’s now been adopted by the wildlife Trust so is continuing its tour of London’!
The campaign so far…
Friends of the Earth campaigners deliver to No. 10 their petition for an inquiry into the Big Six.

Friends of the Earth created a wildflower meadow adjacent to the National Theatre in London, to highlight the need for more bee-friendly habitats.
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Dean Rural Services were approached by a client in Winchester to create a wildlife pond. This was to be no ordinary pond… but one where the roots of the vegetation, in particular lilies, which are rather prolific and threaten to take over the whole pond, are to somehow be contained. Submerged planters seemed to be the perfect solution.
A natural island which was in keeping with the proportion of the pond was also recommended. This proved to be quite a challenge, as the area of the island covered many different levels of ground. Keeping the soil in place on the islands proved to be an additional challenge, but Dean Rural Services devised a method illustrated in the pictures below to counteract this issue.

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The bees have made a home here at Ashe Warren Farm!
The small colony of common British  ‘Buff-tailed Bumblebee’ (Bombus terrestris ssp. audax) that were at Ecobuild with us at our stand last week, have set up residence here outside of our office, where they have access to a substantial patch of our Wildflower Turf.
They were the main attraction on our stand along with our Wildflower Turf. After they did such a good job of attracting people to the stand for us we have decided to let them stay here on the farm, and leave them in peace so that they can go about their daily routine collecting nectar.

They are also free to leave if they so desire, but obviously are happy here, as they have stayed where they are!

James has been making sure that they are supplied with plenty of pollen just to get them going while they wait for…

The two seminars James delivered over the three days at the Ecobuild Show proved a great success!
James presented his seminar over two separate days and they were both very well received. The seminar concentrated on how wildflower meadows can provide practical solutions to increasing the overall biodiversity of a given area, in both a rural and urban environment.
As you can see from the images below there was a great turn out, with a lot of interest and positive leads generated.

James managed to capture one of the bees here at our stand enjoying the pollen on our Wildflower Turf!

The bees may finally be getting past their aversion to the camera!

James and Claire are really enjoying the Ecobuild show… they are finding that they have been very busy, with plenty of interest being shown in our Wildflower Turf products!!
Here are a few photos from the show…

As you can see the bee box is centre stage although the bees are still being camera-shy! Our Wildflower Turf looks fantastic and is certainly getting a lot of attention!

We are exhibiting at Ecobuild Tuesday 20th – Thursday 22nd March 2012 and you can find us in the Biodiversity pavilion on stand S2250.
We have something a bit different…
We have some bees joining us at the stand for the duration of the show. James has looked after them well. They arrived from Swindon at the weekend and James spent the weekend diligently feeding them with pollen, making sure that their accommodation was five-star! They are very happy bees especially because they now have access to some of our Wildflower Turf, which will supply them with plenty of pollen throughout their stay at the Ecobuild show. They are a bit camera-shy at the moment, but we will post a few pictures over the next few days of the show!
With a shared passion for promoting the importance of wildflower meadows, we have been working with The Grasslands Trust and we are proud to be promoting some of their ideas at the show.

The Grassland Trust are expressing how vital it is that people are aware of the reality,…

Belinda Macdonald from Shades of Green Garden Design was commissioned by two clients who have a passion for wildlife, to create a garden that included a wildflower meadow surrounding a mini-woodland of birch and rowan trees.
The soil on the site was a free-draining, fertile loam. Due to the fact that the site had been allowed to grow wild for a number of years, there was also a well established seed-weed bank.  This meant that creating a successful wildflower meadow from seed would be more than just a challenge, and would probably have ended up giving disappointing results. Not the sort of odds a landscape designer would be happy to accept!
Seeding requires a great deal of patience and careful weeding for the first few years to avoid them dominating the whole area. Additionally on fertile soil, grasses tend to dominate.  With this in mind Belinda decided to use our Wildflower Turf so that she could be confident that her clients would get a guaranteed meadow.
Although the Wildflower Turf naturally acts as a weed blanket, Belinda’s experience and expertise meant that she understood the importance of clearing the ground as much as possible before laying…