News

One of the biggest problems facing bees today is the lack of places for them to hibernate over the winter months.  In this day and age of having really tidy gardens many of the spaces available to bees have been removed, such as old wood piles, bamboo canes and old woody flower stems.
Here at Ashe Warren Farm we have just installed a Bee Hotel right next to the wildflower meadow that you can see in our time-lapse video on the website.
This is the best way to ensure that solitary bees and of course other hibernating insects that are beneficial to pollination of flowers have somewhere to sleep the winter months away in safety.

21st – 27th March is Climate Week.  What better way to help combat untimely climate change and help protect our planet, that by transforming part of your landscape design or even your garden into a wildflower meadow.
It’s an easy, cost-effective  solution to a difficult problem, and is one that the vast majority of us can buy into.
Local councils are cutting back on maintenance of green areas, schools are transforming areas of playing fields into the biology study areas so children can study wildlife first hand, landscape architects and garden designers are constantly facing the challenges of environmentalists and government guidelines to increase bio-diversity, so creating a wildflower meadow should be high on the options to fulfill those obligations.
The results of creating wildflower meadows and roofs, speak for themselves as can be seen from a recent Entomology Report carried out in peak season here at Ashe Warren Farm.

Wildflowers are just beginning to emerge and bloom now that the warmer days are here but before they get going its always nice to see a bit of colour.   We under-planted crocus’s on the stable green roof a while back directly into the wildflower turf and yet again they have provided us with sharp stabs of yellow and  purple in amongst the green leaves of the wildflowers.  Its a lovely start to spring.

Last week, London’s ExCel Centre played host to the Ecobuild Exhibition featuring over 1,300 exhibitors at which sustainability was the key theme featuring all fields of design, construction and the built environment.
James visited the exhibition on Wednesday 2nd March to check up on the samples we were exhibiting which had been specifically ‘brought on’ for the show.  ” They looked great” reported James.
“There were quite a few Green Roof Stands plus a number of those featuring ‘living walls’ which is a new bio-diverse innovation.  Everything was pretty much dwarfed though by the large number of solar energy exhibits featuring PV (photo-voltaic) panels, in the north hall”.
All in all it was a pretty successful day, and well worth the visit.

Like everyone else, we started out the new year with “New Years Resolutions”.  Now two months in and we are well on the way to fulfilling them.
It was decided that we needed some new marketing initiatives.  We needed to step firmly into the second decade of the 21st  century in order to maximise our product base and interact more with our customers and competitors in the marketplace.  What better way to do this than by embracing social media as the perfect 21st century communications vehicle.
What’s more we’ve decided that our website is now a little dated and really doesn’t sell our products in the best way possible.   Therefore we have been working very hard over the past weeks so that early in March we will be ready to relaunch the Wildflower Turf website.
There you will find all sorts of helpful information plus photo’s and instructions.  You will also be able to follow us on Twitter and join us on the LinkedIn network.
So watch this space.  It’s an exciting time for us and we believe you are going to be pretty impressed too!

We are very well known for our wildflower meadow turf and we are justifiably proud of this beautiful product.  Did you know that we also grow a very high quality lawn turf?

When the sun beings to shine and the days become longer we become impatient for signs of Spring colour.  The wildflower meadow is still resting but that doesn’t mean you can’t introduce early colour here with a bit of foresight and planning.
Snowdrops were the obvious choice that we looked at last week, with their early flowers in February.  So what else could we plant that would bloom before May when the Buttercups come out in April/May?
Crocuses and Winter Aconite’s, produce a range of bright colours in March/April while the meadow is short and their flowers can be seen. PLant the bulbs in autumn in groups within the meadow for a Spring show.  Or why not also try planting plugs of Anemones,
Sweet Violets, Early Dog Violets and Common Dog Violets. These delicate plants are best located near the edges of your meadow near trees and hedges so they can enjoy the partial shade they thrive in.
Of course if you fancy grand drifts of spring colour,  you can under-plant bulbs during the autumn with Daffodils and Narcissus thereby echoing William Wordsworth’s poem, Daffodils

This is the time of the year when the first of our native bulbs begins to bloom.  Can you guess what it is?  Why it is none other than the Crocus (Galanthus nivalis) meaning “milk flower”.  Always the first, whether there is snow on the ground or a winter’s frost, those spikes of grey-green leaves and pure white and lime green flowers herald the beginning of Spring.
Interesting fact: Did you know that Galanthus are best transplanted “in the green”?  This means that, unlike other bulbs, they are happiest being transplanted when they have leaves and flowers.  All you need to do is group them into clumps of around a dozen plants and spread these clumps around in the area where you want to see them year after year. Over time they will multiply and spread into becoming one giant drift of flowers. So why not get started now!  You could have snowdrops in your meadow this spring and next spring they will be even better.
Snowdrops are not just exclusive to woodland although they look pretty amazing in such a setting, they also spread wherever their seeds fall, looking fabulous by the side of a stream, or in sunny stretches…

After the stunning success of our time-lapse video of our landscape turf we thought that it would be a great idea to carry out a similar project on our stable roof.  The idea is, that over time you will be able to see the bulbs emerging through the turf in the early spring , the appearance of bees that will emerge for nectar as the weather warms up and then some of our more exotic flies and of course butterflies and day flying moths.
We’re really looking forward to seeing the results but we’re going to have to be patient ……tap ..tap … tap.  Are they ready yet?????
In the meantime, just to give everyone a taster,  here are some photos taken last year of the crocus bulbs that are on the roof.  Should be even better this year!!!

Landscaping dilemma?  New build?  New garden layout? What on earth can be done with that steep bank at the back of the plot?  Or maybe it’s a raised area but the added expense of a retaining wall cannot be justified and the clients preference is for a softer approach.  You certainly don’t want to be mowing a piece of grass on a  45° slope, neither do you want a border – just too much work, besides which every time there is heavy rainfall down comes half the topsoil onto the lawn below.
Well we  have an idea that we believe you will really like.  Why not cover that difficult area with wildflowers?  It doesn’t really matter whether the slope is long and deep or whether it is just a little slope, the effect can be stunning and so simple to achieve.
Have a look at a couple of projects that we have been involved with and make up your own mind.
The final couple of photos are a small project for North Waltham village, Hampshire.  Ponds always hold a place in our heart as the centrepiece of the quintessential village.  The village pond in North Waltham is no exception and the addition…