Wildflower Turf and Green Roofs

Wildflower Meadows as we all know, look absolutely stunning from the time they start to flower in May right through to cutting in September.  But aside from this obvious attraction, did you know that quite a few of the native wild flowers in that meadow can be either eaten, used for their healing properties or even as a cleaning agent?

Just imagaine the scene -  after toiling away in the fields or in the garden you can rub your aching muscles with oil from St Johns Wort after washing with soap made from Red Campions and wash your hair with Musk Mallow.

Musk Mallow

Bladder Campion

Feeling a little peckish after all that activity, you could gather from your wildlfower meadow a dinner of herbs – leaves of Bladder Campion, Oxeye daisy and Salad Burnet (tastes like Cucumber) served with tasty young Bladder Campion shoots lightly cooked with butter, accompanied with a glass of wine made from Field Scabious or a drink flavoured with Meadow Sweet.  Delicious!

Salad Burnet

Meadowsweet

After a little too much wine you could sooth your aching brow with a tincture of Betony and sooth the blisters on your hands from your hard graft with Self Heal.

Betony

Self-heal

Its such a pity that wildlfower meadows are not so easily found in the 21st Century.  Of course you can change that image by posessing your own wildlfower meadow – so why not have a stoll around our website and see just how easy it could be?  We are sure you will be pleasantly surprised.

A Beast is what the garden at Follers Manor was before Landscape Architect Ian Kitson turned into a Beauty that complements its elevated surroundings in the newly designated South Downs Country Park.  Featured in Channel 4′s programme Landscape Man, Follers Manor is located at the eastern end of the South Downs and was a project that offered the opportunity to demonstrate just how beautiful a wildflower meadow can look when integrated into an innovative moderen design.  Full of flair and elegence there are distinct echoes of Antoni Guadi’s Parc Guell with an English twist.

When we were first approached in May 2009, we only had a vague idea of how glorious the finished garden would be.  Ian’s design featuring a wildlife pond at the bottom of an intricate winding path naturally had to have a wildflower meadow, which created a seamless vista against a backdrop of the East Sussex countryside.  We are sure you will agree with us when we say we were thrilled when we saw the finished project.

Wildlife pond surrounded by wildflower meadow in the East Sussex Countryside

Wildflower meadows are a surefire way to guarantee plenty of wildlife around a wildlife pond.  Delicate and enchanting Dragonflies, Bees, Damselflies and Butterflies as observed at our own lakeside wildflower meadow (Bug Report coming soon) make this design as ecologically friendly as you could get in such a logistically difficult location as the South Downs National Park.

With pink Campions and Ragged Robin waving in the breeze with Tufted Vetch, Yellow Rattle and dazzling Oxeye Daisies, along with the vast array of wildlife that ventures by is a feast to be reckoned with.  We are absolutely certain that clients Ann and Geoff Shaw will thoroughly enjoy relaxing by the pond as they relish their dream landscape in the beautiful South Downs.

A place to relax and enjooy the wildlfowers and wildlife

Wildlife pond and wildlfower meadow seamlessly blend

On the TV front we have also supplied wildlfower roof turf to Grand Designs due to be broadcasted later this year.  “So watch this space” as they say, and lets see who else has decided that grand architecture is enhanced and enriched by wild flower meadows!

The meadow surrounds the new wildlife ‘dipping pond’ where the pupils will be encouraged to hunt for ‘mini-beasts’!  This project will be part of the curriculum starting this autumn.

We recently received an email with some very nice photos from a client showing great ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures.

“One year on the wild meadow turf is well established  with a much better result than I expected. When we layed the turf in February 2008 the heavy ground was pretty waterlogged and I had my doubts about the future for the turf. No problem . Very happy customer.” Matt.

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