Wildflower Turf and Green Roofs

Here is a whizzy little application we have been trialing to enable our fellow bloggers to see how spectacular our wildflower meadow turf looks when fully grown. It is an interesting little project that I wanted to share with you all. We decided to use a spare bit of land just outside the office which was very chalky and bare and got a little bit creative using timelapse photography created by Stephen Hill.  In order to see this at its best, we recommend you click on the link below and then go to full screen.  Alternatively you can simply get a quick idea by viewing it from the picture below.

http://www.vimeo.com/wildflowerturf

Wild Flower Turf – From rolls to meadow in 9 Weeks from James Hewetson-Brown on Vimeo.

Notice how the Pink Campions displayed early, shortly followed by Oxeye Daisies and Bladder Campions. Its all about progression, balance and competition between the various grass and flower species. The turf looks quite alarmingly sparse when first laid but as you can see after a couple of weeks it really begins to grow and thicken up. After being quite pink for a couple of weeks, it now displays as an overall white cloud. We can’t wait to see what flowers next!

Watch this space for developments at the RHS Harrogate Show 2010 where we will be showcasing Wildflower Meadow Turf.  The show to be opened by Alan Titchmarsh – Designer Tom Stuart-Smith will be present.  We will be posting new photographs and details after the event.

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.

Windsor Great Park is taking its last delivery of the year with 400/m² leaving the farm tomorrow morning. Despite the weather it is still a good time of year to lay the turf as it will not need to be watered while it establishes. Once the turf’s roots are established a wild flower meadow is drought tolerant and very hardy. Establishing the turf before the spring will ensure it is flowering towards the end of April. The turf is fine in frosty conditions, both here on the farm or once it is laid on site. The main problem is lifting frozen turf as once frozen it is similar to lifting stiff cardboard – we can not roll it up! On most days it has thawed by the afternoon and is lifted then.

Natural History Museum Press Release 30 NOV -

PRESS RELEASE

Wild Flower Meadow at the Natural History Museum is Huge Success

The Natural History Museum extended the meadow habitat in their Wildlife Garden using an innovative soil-less Wild Flower Turf from Hampshire for the meadow area of the project. The Museum’s Wildlife Garden, first opened in 1995, and was created to illustrate a range of semi-natural habitats including woodland, heath land, hedgerow, freshwater pond, fen, chalk grassland, reed-bed and meadow to showcase the variety to be found in the English countryside.

This most recent meadow project was started in March 2009 using 75 sq meters of the beautiful soil less wild flower turf.  This has a compost based growing medium, laid over a membrane using a 50 % grass, 50% flower seeds of many varieties, to give a natural meadow area for visitors to the Museum to enjoy.

The brainchild of James Hewetson-Brown, this wildflower turf is grown on Ashe Warren Farm in Hampshire. The meadows are characterised by a wealth of colourful wild flowers, requiring little maintenance and have the additional use as grazing land during the winter for sheep. With the variety of wild flowers and grasses this provided an important habitat for many species of insects, bees, and butterflies.

Wild Flower turf has become the fastest growing medium in the UK for putting back the country life and habitat into our towns and cities, not only on land but on green roofs too. The Natural History Museum has plans on the drawing board for incorporating a “Wild Flower Roof” into their future plans.

Caroline Ware said “I was so pleased to have the turf in our Wildlife Garden, the ease of the laying and the speed with which the turf set down its roots was amazing. The turf complemented our existing meadows beautifully with oxeye daisies, wild carrot, common sorrel and crested dog’s-tail amongst the variety of wild flowers and grasses in bloom this first year, and which attracted a wonderful variety of bees, and other insects. The turf also provided extended grazing area for our sheep at the end of the summer.

James Hewetson-Brown, commented, “These are exciting times and it is very gratifying and satisfying to see the outcome of years of development turn into such a great business, bringing colour, birds and butterflies back into our gardens, parks, cities and countryside”.

For further information ring James or Heather on 01256 771222 or go to our website www.wildflowerturf.co.uk

The stable green roof has been coming on so quickly in the last few months so I thought I should climb up on the roof to take some pictures. It was teeming with insect life! I am absolutely delighted with how this has turned into a genuine wildflower meadow. We have had to water the roof because of the recent dry weather but only about once a week.

Green Roof in Summer09. Stables.

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.

[lg_folder folder="Garden Meadow"]

Well spotted if you noticed that this isn’t actually Wildflower Turf being watered. I had an order for Lawn Turf and set it up under the watering boom. Notice that the nozzles can be controlled independently – rows 5 and 7 are set not to deliver water as there is no turf underneath them!

…. this time in Scotland for R B Ross Steel Fabrictions Ltd in Dyce. I will see about getting a few more pictures later in the year as I think this will look stunning when the wild flowers come through in the spring.

580m² Green Roof laid on 26.2.09

June 09 update.

Green Roof in flower 02.06.09

Many thanks to Tony for sending in this update from R B Ross and a comment from his email …

” We are on the helicopter flight path from the North Sea rigs to Aberdeen airport so we have been informed that the R.B.Ross logo is still visible. When the North Sea Tigers see the logo they know its only 15 minutes until they have a pint in their hand at the Spiders Web Pub”

The roof has settled in and really taken over winter. The growing medium under the wildflower turf has proved a little bit over fertile and the grasses have gained the upper hand. In this scenario a bit of mid March mowing is needed to give the wild flowers equal growing rights!

Mowing the Stable Roof