If you look carefully you can identify a series of noticeable trends within garden design which seem to get recycled and re-invented over time. In fact the majority if not all of what we would class as modern trends within garden design are borrowed ideas from the past.

Some ideas and concepts seem to lie dormant or just tick along in the background relatively unnoticed.  However sometimes when the time is right, and the idea and concept(s) have been marketed in the right way, these ‘ideas’ can be seen as innovative, and take the world by storm. It is in this manner that they become known as a modernistic trend or movement.

Over the last 60 years or so there has been a noticeable trend for sustainable, organic, and more specifically wildlife gardening.  This trend for wildlife gardening is increasingly popular particularly in the western world.
As a complete contrast to the neat well organised garden spaces of a more traditional garden style, the preference for allowing nature to run its course is becoming widely accepted and in many cases welcomed by many garden designers. Additionally it has certainly become an integral part of many garden design courses.

Where did it all start?
Wildlife gardening as a trend and a conscious practise can be traced back to the late part of the 1980s. It was popularised by designer Chris Baines. Chris Baines is an established environmentalist, naturalist and gardener. In 1980 he was one of a group of local environmentalists who co-founded Urban Wildlife Group the first of a series of such urban conservation organisations to appear in the UK that year. Baines built the first wildlife garden at Chelsea Flower Show in 1985, which was innovative in as much as it had never been seen at Chelsea before. In the same year his television programme Bluetits and Bumblebees, and his book ‘How to Make a Wildlife Garden,’ inspired many people to begin gardening with wildlife in mind.

Dan Pearson has also popularised wildlife gardening. His focus when designing, is to allow nature to take its course, encouraging an ecosystem to develop. His designs are therefore low maintenance. This factor in itself appeals to a wide audience, because some garden owners either do not have time to maintain a garden or perhaps are not really interested in doing so. What is apparent is that most of us want our gardens to be a functional extension of the house, a place to relax and somewhere where we can feel close to nature.

The idea of a naturalist planting scheme was further popularised by the wonderful designs of Dutch garden designer Piet Oudolf.  This trend became known as the ‘New Perennial’ or ‘New Wave Planting’ movement.  His naturalised planting schemes were characterised by the use of ornamental grasses with perennials, and he is especially fond of the umbel forming plants (clusters of flowers which form an umbrella shape), such as Wild Carrot (Daucus carota).

He is very aware that the soft floating properties of the grasses will soften a planting scheme and the perennials will add colour and extra texture. Additionally he was the precursor for using flowers specifically for their seed heads, because they create wonderful form and structure throughout the winter months, as well as providing food for birds.

In this respect wildlife gardening presents a potential niche for garden designers and landscapers. There is a growing demand to incorporate the philosophy of being sympathetic to wildlife and the environment, which arguably should be seen as good practise within garden design in general.

The clash of the spring flowers
It has been suggested that the rise in winter temperatures may also affect the fate of our beloved native Bluebell. The British Bluebell (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) is an iconic spring flower.  For many of us seeing a woodland displaying a carpet of bluebells is a sure indicator that summer is finally here.

If the UK experiences consecutively warmer winters, other plant species will grow earlier therefore be competing with the bluebells by swamping them for light.

For example plants such as Garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) and Cow parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris) have evolved to be rather temperature sensitive. They have a simple tactic whereby they delay their leaf formation until the following spring. The warmer winters have enabled these species to begin leaf growth much earlier than normal, therefore bluebells and snowdrops will be competing with these plants for both light and nutrients. This means that the structure of our woodland flora that we are so familiar with, could very well start to change.

These associated spring flowers are truly confused. We have not yet experienced consecutive hard frosts this winter, and the few frosts we have had have not dropped below -3°C.

How will Wildflower Turf be affected?
Thankfully the wildflowers in our mix are fully hardy and will generally take anything that the British climate has to throw at them. Our Wildflower Turf continued to grow quite vigorously during October and November 2011, settling down for December. This month (January 2012) the Wildflower Turf is looking very green and lush. We may see the emergence of some of the species of perennials starting to flower a little earlier than would normally be expected, should we continue to get mild temperatures.

Salad Burnet looking very healthy - this photograph was taken in late November 2011!

The Campion was photographed at the same time as the Burnet

It was a really simple process… first we installed a couple of wooden posts inside the container, to provide additional structural strength and support. Secondly a waterproof membrane was placed on top of the container.
Drainage was a consideration because you do not want pools of water to sit on the roof. The container already had a slight pitch which was sufficient. Providing good drainage will also help to keep the grasses in check, because they favour wetter conditions, whereas the wildflowers prefer drier conditions.

The Wildflower Roof Turf was easy to install, here is how we did it…

Directly on top of the waterproof membrane we installed substrate sacks. These are easy to manage and contain an inert, ph modified, low nutrient compost based growing medium, perfect for the Wildflower Turf to bed into.
Once the sacks have been installed it is at this point, that in most instances screeding is carried out, which involves applying a thin layer of loose substrate over the top of the sacks.
The advantage of screeding: it fills the gaps between the sacks, leveling the substrate layer whilst creating a neater, smoother surface for the turf to be laid onto. However we decided for this project, screeding was not necessary. Because we did not apply screeding we overlapped the substrate sacks by about 100mm.

Substrate sacks neatly overlapped

Next we needed to get the turf onto the roof…to make it easier we used a JCB to hold the pallet of turf to the right height to allow the rolls of turf to be taken off one by one. This saved time and energy and was also safer, because the rolls did not need to be carried up the ladder to the roof.

By having the pallet of turf lifted to the correct height it made it easier and safer

The turf is at the right height to be taken off one roll at a time

The next step is to lay the turf in neat rows, making sure that you do not overlap the edges, but rather butt the edges up tightly, like the illustration below demonstrates.

Correct way to lay the Wildflower Turf

Incorrect way to lay Wildflower Turf

Because we wanted to overhang the turf slightly around the edge of the container, we started laying the turf from the outside and worked inwards. We also laid the turf in sections, to avoid walking on it constantly. Although the Turf is very robust it is advisable to try to keep the foot traffic to a minimum.

The rolls are quite manageable for one person, however do take care when lifting; they weigh around 18kg!

As you can see, the turf just rolls out like a carpet

Once the turf has been unrolled, it can be nudged into place, taking care to leave no gaps

Sometimes it will be necessary to trim the turf, which can be easily done by using a sharp knife.

Trimming the turf

The completed green roof… this one simple change has made the container not only more aesthetically pleasing, but also a suitable habitat for wildlife passing through. It will help make a welcome retreat for species migrating from one habitat to another by providing both food and shelter.

Completed green roof

If you have any questions about how to establish a green roof give us a call, we would be happy to discuss your project with you.

Here are just a few examples of some of our client’s projects, which have all added biodiversity to their sites from just installing our Wildflower Turf. These projects also illustrate the diverse application of our Wildflower Turf…

First two images top left: Treesaurus have shown innovation in their design of this bike store for a garden in London. This project illustrates that by installing just a few square metres of Wildflower Roof Turf you can have both an aesthetically pleasing and functional storage facility. Once summer arrives the roof will be in full bloom and buzzing with bees and pollinating insects!

Top right image: This garden highlights how you can easily encourage foot traffic by mowing a path through the wildflower meadow. The meadow blends into the surrounding landscape providing a wildlife corridor to and from the adjacent habitats.

Bottom two images on left: Helen Thomas a garden designer, decided to install our Wildflower Turf in her own garden, and fellow garden designer Lisa Cox visited her to see how she got on. Helen had an existing wild area in her garden,  and decided to introduce a pond.  Rather than seeding the areas around the pond in order to link them to the existing wild flower meadow, she decided to use our turf instead. These images are just 7 months after installation, and both Helen and Lisa were very impressed with the results.

Bottom right image: Carolyn Harden exhibited at the Tatton Park show, and has incorporated a wildflower meadow with the clever use of logs which provides a very natural and sustainable screening or fencing solution for any garden.

If you would like us to consider featuring your project on one of our blogs, or even include it as a case study on our website, than please get in touch: wildflower@wildflowerturf.co.uk, we would be happy to hear from you.

Thank you to everyone who have supplied us with these images.

Wildflower Roof Turf on display at the International Construction Bureau, Poole Dorset

As you can see from the photos it provides ideas and scenarios for green roof projects, illustrating the use of gravel for edging, drainage, as well as additional features such as railings.

Gravel edging and railing

As you can see from these pictures the turf is looking very green and healthy showing its resilience during the winter months…

close-up of the roof display

Photos provided by Mick Smith the Regional Technical Sales Manager.

Santa thought our Wildflower roof made an excellent landing pad here at Ashe Warren Farm!!

From the team at Wildflower Turf Limited

Chris Dodds Garden Design & Construction were asked to transform an area made up of mainly worn out lawn at Seaview Primary School.

The worn out lawn - plenty of room for improvement!

The area as it was, looked very bare and stark, so there was not much incentive for the children to enjoy this outdoor space, as the picture above illustrates.

Firstly it was necessary to clear away the dead shrubs and grass. Secondly some additional paving next to a walk-in play sand pit was installed, along with some bark pathways.

Last but not least… The last part of the project was to lay 52m² of Wildflower Turf. Chris commented, “despite only being laid in July 2011, the new turf quickly established and has provided colour and interest right up to Christmas.”

The area has been instantly transformed into a wildflower meadow

The Wildflower Turf - looking healthy ready to cope with the winter months

Thanks to Chris for the photos, we are really pleased the meadow has brightened up the site.

During the spring and summer months, the turf will take on a whole new look and be very colourful, with tall flowering perennials and soft swaying grasses, which will provide plenty of inspiration for everyone! It will also provide a perfect setting for use as an outdoor classroom, for the children to learn about butterflies, bees, invertebrates, mammals, birds… in general biodiversity! What wildlife will they discover…

Close-up of Wildflower Turf

Seed… Although the initial cost is lower, the time between seeding and being able to enjoy a wildflower meadow is not only long,  but additionally because seeding is less reliable, the risk of failure is considerably high. Added to this the fact that in order to achieve a meadow by seed, a great deal of work is required….the decision is quite an easy one. Turf over seed any day!

Please ring 01256 771222 and we will be happy to discuss your project with you.

Wildflower Turf - an instant meadow without any hard work!

We can also supply a cost analysis showing a breakdown of all the costs of establishing a wildflower meadow comparing seed against turf.

Here is a reminder of what the bug looked like…

Thanks to David Plunton from Dean Rural Services we now believe that it is a shield bug! David thinks that it is a Gorse Shieldbug (Piezodorus literatus) to be precise. David is investigating further to confirm his theory.

It would seem that this is actually the shield bug nymph and not the adult shield bug, which incidentally looks quite different.

Did you know…Although shield bugs resemble beetles, they differ because they have sucking mouthparts instead of mandibles.

How may species are there? In Britain there are 4 different families of Shieldbug;
Acanthosomatidae,
Cydnidae,
Scutelleridae, and
Pentatomidae.
This means that the number of species that can be found in the UK is about 45…worldwide however, there may be over 5000 species!

Unlike butterflies and moths which undergo ‘complete’ metamorphosis, shield bugs hatch from the egg as small simple forms of the adult.
In order to accommodate a larger body size, they have to molt their outer exoskeleton.  With each molt they take on some of the adult characteristics, before they actually become fully formed adults. They undergo four molts before they become adults.

All in all, these are rather fascinating little bugs!

The soil excavated for the basement and swimming pond, was recycled by being relocated to form an earth berm behind the house on the north face, which is a great idea, and adopts a permaculture way of thinking.

Gillian said, “the turf looks fantastic.  It is lovely to look up through the roof-light and see daisies in the foreground, and the tops of beech trees behind.”

The meadow copes well on a mound helping to stabilize the soil

Gillian enthused, “it instantly transformed the area around the house from a building site covered in orange mud and dust, to a glorious wildflower meadow.”

The meadow sits perfectly with the surrounding landscape and decking area

Gillian made an interesting comment on how the character of the meadow turf varies depending on its aspect.  At the side of the annexe it is shadier, and a different population of wild flowers can be found, compared to the open area to the south.  This is a natural characteristic of a wildflower meadow.
The wildflowers which are more adapted to cope well with some shade will perform really well because they are more shade tolerant.
These contrasting areas of meadow provide different habitats which also add diversity to the site. This reflects the mix that we have chosen; allowing for a variety of soil types and environmental conditions.

The meadow enhances the setting of these mature trees

Another natural characteristic of the meadow Gillian noticed was a changing pallete of colour. Gillian has enjoyed seeing the pink campion and ragged robin early on, followed by ox-eye daisies later on in the season, which has attracted a host of moths and butterflies.

Thanks to Gillian for providing us with these amazing photos.