News

Last Thursday was a momentous day for us as it marked the first of our “Open Evenings” for gardening groups and societies.  This is a session where James Hewetson-Brown, (Managing Partner) heads up a tour of the 10 hectare site used to grow wildflower turf.
The tour begins at the farm office with refreshments and introductions and moves on to the turf beds next to the driveway where we presently have young stock which is irrigated daily from our own underground water supply.  It then continues round the farm taking in the mature stock ready for this years flower shows and on to the lake where the wildflower meadow is now in its 8th year.
There is an opportunity to see the trial green wall and the courtyard meadow as well as giving the participants an excellent overview of the production process and the workshops where substrate is stored and bagged for green roofs and the turf is palleted ready for dispatch.
Importantly, throughout the session there will be ample opportunities for the participants to ask James as many questions as pop into their heads, such as the species selected for each product and the time it takes to grow from seed…

With such a lot of our wildflower turf going to local councils to be laid in public areas, we have begun to notice a common problem emerging.  It happened in Cardiff and it has happened in the village of  North Waltham.  Can you guess what it is?
With more emphasis on biodiversity, reducing global warming and creating areas for bees in public areas, local councils have begun choosing our wildflower turf as a way to address these issues and therefore tick some relevant boxes.
Wildflower Turf is great for bees and butterflies, flowers all summer long and doesn’t need cutting until the autumn, so as well as ticking lots of boxes related to biodiversity it also ticks a few boxes connecting with the cost of maintenance.  And here lies the common error.
It is quite disappointing when the money has been spent on such a beautiful product only to find that  the turf has been mown to make it all nice and short and smart.  Sadly this means that with the present regime it isn’t going to flower and become the wildflower meadow that was planned.  However, all is not lost.  If the mowing ceases, then the wildflowers will have a chance…

Last time we talked about how thrilled we were to have Mason Bees here in the courtyard at Ashe Warren.  We were especially pleased to see that they were very attracted to the Bee Hotel that we told you we had installed earlier in the year.  Today they are busy creating small nectar filled cells in the bamboo and card tubes in the Bee Hotel.
Photographic evidence always helps so here you go, a series of photo’s showing Red Mason Bees engineering the holes to suite their purpose.  You  can even see the ones that they have completed, where they have laid their eggs – up to 10 per tube –  with a little food and sealed them in with mud.

All this lovely weather, sun and warmth, is encouraging wildflower meadows to bloom already.  In just one week  the Orchard in the hamlet of Deane near Basingstoke, has burst into bloom.  There were loads of Red Campions (Silene dioica) swaying in the early morning breeze when I stopped today and took a few photos for you all.  It was such a transformation from last week when only a few of the flowers were beginning to open.
Not to be outdone, our own Courtyard meadow – the very same that is featured in our video – has also started to bloom.  Red and White Campions (Silene latifolia) are flowering already.  Funny thing we noticed too, as soon as the sun goes off the White Campions they close up.  I wonder why that is.

We were really pleased when we discovered we had Red Mason Bees (Osmia rufa) nesting in the wall of  our office, which is an old converted farm building.  These bees are smaller than honey bees and are solitary, the female laying her eggs in a hole or crevice which she will re-model using mud to her own design and satisfaction.  Contrary to popular belief they don’t actually cause much damage to walls and masonry as they use existing holes, so don’t be alarmed if you see them emerging your wall. You can see Mason Bees  any time between March and July with the males emerging first.
Red Mason Bees have a wide variety of food sources but what pleases us most is that several of those species can be found in our wildflower and wildflower roof turf.  Species such as Vipers Bugloss, Wild Thyme. Wild Marjoram, Meadow Cranesbill and White Stonecrop to name a few.  So using our turf will help provide food for these tiny insects.

The number of honeybees in the UK has halved in the last 25 years, and three-quarters of butterfly species and two-thirds of moths have seen population declines since the 1970s.  How can we halt the decline in our nectar loving insects?
BBC News reported this week in an article entitled “Co-operative ‘bee road’ plans to boost insect habitats”, that there are plans for a network of ‘bee roads’ to be planted through-out Britain.  These ‘bee roads’ would be a way of creating corridors of wildflowers which would provide new habitat for bees, butterflies and various other pollinating insects as well as many others.
The scheme is starting in the county of Yorkshire with  sponsorship from the Co-operative to the tune of £60,000.
We think this is a great idea, especially as our wildflower turf in full of native wildflowers and grass species guaranteed to encourage native insects.  Just have a look at the photo’s below to see just a few of the varieties we’ve seen on our wildflowers.
I wonder how long it will bee before other counties join in??

The RHS show season has begun again with the first chance to see our wildflower meadow turf in application.  The RHS Cardiff Flower Show held in Bute Park last weekend was blessed with warm sunny weather – just perfect for strolling around the show gardens and arenas.  This year Cardiff Council had two stands, one by their Ranger Serviceof which was entitled On the Verge was showcasing the importance of road verges as havens for biodiversity . The Ranger Service won a Silver Flora Award for their show garden – Congratulations to Nicola Hutchinson who deisgned the garden.  It is a truimph.  There are two photos of the verge on the RHS website and we are really proud to say that our wildflower turf looks amazing.
 
 

There was much preparation for our stand at the Landscape Show being held at Olympia National Hall this week.  James and Mark Hewetson-Brown were both be attending this prestigious event and James was giving a seminar on Thursday in room 2 between 09:30 – 10:15  entitled “Wildflower Turf as an alternative to seeding”
Visitors get to see our turf as well at the exhibition.  James has taken along some samples so it is obvious see how lovely it is.  There are lots of posters of case studies as well so visitors can see how glorious the turf looks when in flower.
Wednesday was a really busy day we are told and we expect today (Thursday) to be the same.  Why not go along this afternoon and visit our stand.  If you can’t, we’ll update everyone as to how the show went next week.

Today as promised, we uploaded the video of our green wall trial as it was being constructed at our Farm in Ashe Warren, Overton. This is a really new innovation for us and the trial is in its infancy and very much a work in progress, but we are quietly excited about it .
It’s a simple construction that we believe could provide an eco-friendly solution for urban gardens and roof terraces, affording the opportunity to enjoy native flowers and wildlife as well as helping the environment.
As promised we will update you with photos as the trial progresses.

As architects of urban developments are forced to address a growing requirement for more environmentally friendly solutions, the innovation of green walls is fast catching up with green roofs as a way to reduce the carbon footprint and visual impact of new urban buildings.
As a result we have decided to trial our own wildflower turf wall.  The trial is really in its early days but so far appears to be going well.  We hope to release a time-lapse video in the next few days so watch this space.  We’ll also keep you updated of progress as the trial moves forward.