News

Sam Monaghan, 27, Production Manager at Wildflower Turf Ltd, has been named one of the winners of the 2023 Pro Landscaper 30 Under 30: The Next Generation Initiative. The award recognises the talents and achievements of young people in the landscaping industry.

Monaghan, 27, has been with Wildflower Turf Ltd for three years and has been instrumental in the company’s growth and success. He is responsible for the production team and producing all of the company’s products. He is also a passionate advocate for sustainability and biodiversity in landscaping.

“It’s a privilege to receive this award,” said Monaghan. “I’m very grateful to be recognised for the work I’ve been doing over the last few years. I’m also excited to be a part of the next generation of landscaping professionals who are working to create more sustainable and beautiful landscapes.”

James, MD of Wildflower Turf Ltd, said: “Sam is a valuable asset to our team and we’re delighted to see his hard work recognised with this prestigious award. Sam’s passion for his work is infectious and he’s always…

From untamed to unbelievable, a Hampshire-based couple have transformed their outdoor space.

Our story begins in the small village of Smannell, close to Andover in Hampshire.

The site of four farm cottages that were reconfigured in the 1960’s, residents Glynis and Dave moved into their current home 20 years ago. However, with the prospect of elderly family members joining them, the couple needed to add some additional space. With some design tweaks added into the mix the house has recently been further enhanced by a rear extension.

The renovation project in 2021 also provided a great opportunity for Glynis and Dave to rethink their grounds. With a prominent mound of earth left over from the building of a swimming pool, and with the extension in place but leaving a messy outlook behind, it was time for Glynis and Dave to take back their outdoor space and reclaim it as their own.

With very poor soil in evidence, an initial attempt to seed grass was a failure. However, Glynis was determined to revamp the area and, following some research, she decided that wildflowers would be the way forward. Having discovered that Wildflower Turf Ltd…

Residents of Pease Pottage get lost in nature as they enjoy their very own wildflower meadow maze.

The Woodgate community in West Sussex has recently welcomed the addition of a stunning wildflower meadow maze on their doorstep.

In Pease Pottage, the new residential development of Woodgate is only 30 minutes from Brighton. The innovative maze forms a focal point for those at Pease Pottage, with the new wildflower landscape situated in the central village green.

Unveiled in May, residents and the wider Pease Pottage community, including teachers and pupils of Woodgate Primary School, were invited to the Woodgate development to witness a ribbon cutting ceremony.

With a core emphasis on the importance of nature, the official opening of the wildflower maze also allowed those in attendance to take part in a seed ball making activity run by Buglife, receive planting advice from Hillier Garden Centre and talk to Thakeham staff about how they could create space for nature in their own gardens, with Thakeham giving out copies of their Gardening for Wildlife Guide produced with support from Surrey Wildlife Trust.

The maze itself features at least 50 different varieties of wildflower to attract pollinators. Planted out in the shape of the Thakeham fingerprint…

Our creators, the Hewetson-Browns, have been farming in Hampshire for two generations, bringing valuable knowledge to the development of our biodiverse rich range of seeds, soil and wildflower turf.

20 years on from being the original innovators of Wildflower Turf, we are proud to now operate three sites, adding Shropshire and Yorkshire to our Ashe Warren Farm headquarters and research laboratory.

As the leading experts in Wildflower spaces, our passion to educate and inspire sustainable action and biodiversity gain through innovation is as strong as ever.

Here are some key milestones from our 20 year journey…

The journey could have been very different when after much hard work and development, the first square metre of wildflower turf (created by hand) was discarded! One month later, when it flowered, James realised there was an opportunity to create wildflower turf that would flourish and so the development continued!

2004 was our first RHS Chelsea Flower Show appearance, featuring in this delightful display. Fast forward to 2023 and wildflower spaces are proudly a regular feature in many designs, as awareness and understanding of biodiversity and the importance of wildflower…

As we arrive at the mid point of August, we have another guest blog from Amanda Winstead.  Amanda is a writer from the Portland area with a background in communications and a passion for telling stories. If you want to follow her writing journey, or even just say hi you can find her on Twitter.

Online platforms have revolutionised the way organisations and individuals can advocate and raise awareness for a cause. For promoting sustainability and biodiversity in particular, educators can inform the public about how wildflowers play a crucial role in providing habitats and allowing the ecosystem to thrive. By harnessing the potential of crowdfunding, social media, blogs, and websites, individuals and organisations can act as “digital pollinators,” spreading the message of the importance of wildflower gardens and inspiring more people to take action and work towards environmental conservation.

Reaching a Wider Audience Online

Advocates of wildflower-supported biodiversity and sustainability aim to reach others and educate and inspire them to act. For example, you may understand the importance of planting native vs. non-native wildflowers, but others in your community may not. Luckily, online platforms have opened up the possibility to extend this information to larger audiences, allowing you to…

Welcome to the second instalment of our two-part blog focusing on our wildflower consultancy services, where we chat to Peter King, Associate Director of Facilities (CBRE) at Milton Park.

A recent wildflower consultancy project for us, Milton Park is a 250-acre science, business and technology park in Oxfordshire.

Our consultancy team recently conducted a site visit to assess and evaluate the Park’s wildflower areas. We provided a number of recommendations to improve the Park’s wildflower management strategy to ensure long-term success.

Following our consultation, we sat down with Peter King, Associate Director of Facilities (CBRE) at Milton Park. Peter has done a lot of work to develop the biodiversity at Milton Park and has had some fantastic results. Our visit aimed to gain further insight into how our input has helped to transform the way Milton Park’s wildflower spaces are managed.

“Peter, did you find the consultancy useful?”

“The Wildflower Turf consultancy visits have been invaluable and allowed us to discuss, on site, the specific issues and challenges we had. Using James’s in-depth knowledge in conjunction with our landscape maintenance provider (Nurture Landscapes) provided a detailed and pragmatic approach to the…

Last week our head of Research & Development; Helen Simmen, was lucky enough to attend a reception evening for the Save Our Wild Isles campaign, organised about by the charities WWF, RSPB and The National Trust.

Held in The College Garden in the middle of Westminster, the event aimed to bring together business leaders, members of Parliament and nature advocates to highlight the importance of taking immediate action to protect and restore nature in the UK. Centred around the David Attenborough BBC TV series Wild Isles, which aired earlier this year, the campaign has been put together by the three charities to inspire people to value UK nature and take action to protect it through a sense of collective agency. A major part of this has been the People’s Assembly for Nature and the People’s Plan for Nature which came about as a result.

At the reception were representatives of the three charities who presented information on the People’s Plan for Nature, including their hopes and ambitions for political, business and community driven action that will come about as a result. Helen spoke to a representative from WWF who explained how the project has been…

Milton Park benefits from our wildflower consultancy service

We pride ourselves on being the UK’s leading wildflower specialists. As a solutions-led business, our experienced consultancy team is well-versed in providing assistance to a wide variety of professionals, organisations and councils within the landscaping and built environment sector.

A recent recipient of our consultancy expertise has been Milton Park.

Milton Park is a dynamic and vibrant science, business and technology park in Oxfordshire, situated between Didcot and Abingdon. Spread across 250 acres, Milton Park is home to 250 companies and 9,000 people.

We are no strangers to the site itself, having supplied Milton Park with 1,520m2 of Meadowscape ProTM Landscape 34 in March 2021 and 60m2 of SuDs Wildflower Turf in July 2021.

At the request of Peter King, Associate Director of Facilities Manager at CBRE (Milton Park), working with landscape maintenance provider, Nurture Landscapes, Wildflower Turf Ltd was asked to examine a number of wildflower-led areas and provide expertise in order to:

Wildflower Turf are passionate about supporting biodiversity and positively impacting our environment and natural habitat. The UK is at the bottom of the G7 league table for how much biodiversity it has left and is placed in the lowest 12% of global countries and territories for biodiversity intactness.

As well as our range of biodiverse products, education and consultancy, another positive impact we have is by supporting national conservation projects, such as the UK Pollinator Monitoring Scheme and The Big Butterfly Count.

We are driven by our passion and this knowledge helps us understand the kinds of pollinators that each of our range of wildflower products are benefitting. Internally, these projects help develop our team’s knowledge, aiding them to identify both flowers and the pollinators.

We will share our research with our customers and Accredited Partners, enabling us to show in real terms how their Wildflower installations are benefitting biodiversity.

These efforts are also contributing to citizen science, using our time and expertise to inform research.

UK Pollinator Monitoring Scheme

The UKPoMS survey season is well under way. In 2023, it began on 1st April and will run until 23rd September.

The Pollinator Monitoring and…

The great glyphosate debate: an in-depth look into the science behind this controversial herbicide, including our stance on its use for wildflower spaces from the research & development team at Wildflower Turf. 

It’s no secret that glyphosate, also known as Roundup, has a bit of a chequered past and it has certainly had its fair share of newspaper column space over the last few years. So it might seem odd to you that we are still recommending its use in certain circumstances, but Helen from our research & development team is here to delve into the science behind it and explain why it’s still one of our recommended options for creating biodiverse wildflower spaces. 

Firstly, a little background information  

Glyphosate is an organophosphate herbicide, or weedkiller, that was developed by the agrochemical giant Monsanto (since bought out by Bayer) in the 1970s.1 It was originally marketed as an agricultural weed control method, and its impact on agriculture was so profound that it has been described “as important for reliable global food production as penicillin is for battling disease”. 2 It quickly became the most used herbicide…