Tag Archive for: Helps

Wildflower from DLF helps Celtic Manor

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Wildflower from DLF helps Celtic Manor: It’s been a great start to 2025 for the team at Celtic Manor who, following the introduction of numerous new sustainability initiatives, have received GEO certification on The Twenty Ten Course.

Part of the overall project saw the establishment of new wildflower areas to bring much-needed food and habitat for pollinators and other insects, along with high visual impact for players and staff alike – all achieved using mixtures from the DLF ColourBoost collection.

Wildflower from DLF helps Celtic Manor

Wildflower from DLF helps Celtic Manor

Overseeing the conservation projects across all three Championship courses is Environment and Ecology Stewardship Manager Gary Connell, who has been at the resort for over 25 years. Having worked in head greenkeeping roles on both sites, he is well placed to develop and diversify both the habitat and native wildlife in this new role. “We’ve always supported a broad range of insects, birds and other fauna here at Celtic Manor but, like most golf clubs, we recognise we can do more” Gary says. “Working closely with local wildlife groups we have added more bird and bat boxes, introduced bug hotels and even established our own resident honeybees! Introducing wildflowers promised to further support the success of these initiatives as well as bring visual interest to lesser managed areas of the site.”

With little prior wildflower experience, Gary consulted with DLF Regional Technical Manager Ian Barnett on the best and most suitable mixtures for the project. “Our resort and land provide almost limitless opportunities for wildflowers, but we wanted to focus our efforts on a few areas which could be sustainably implemented, maintained and monitored. Ian identified an area near the main entrance and recommended Floral Carpet from the ColourBoost range.”

Floral Carpet is one of nine ColourBoost mixtures, each designed to bring maximum visual impact by incorporating both wild flower and garden flowering species. For situations where final growing height is important Floral Carpet is ideal, using lower growing season annuals to provide rich blooms throughout the season.

“Our objectives were to bring high impact colour at the resort entrance, provide invaluable insect habitat and a source of pollen and nectar, and I’m pleased to say we achieved all three. We saw a wide array of flowers which attracted honeybees, butterflies and some different moth species. We then let the seed heads drop and supplemented this with some additional seeding with ColourBoost Carnival which should result in earlier flowering in the spring. We also did some ‘seed bombs’ in areas including an embankment in The Twenty Ten car park to boost presentation.”

While mother nature hasn’t necessarily been on side for all of the club’s projects, Gary is optimistic on the potential in the coming year. “We sowed some DLF ProFlora 3 & 6 on the Roman Road course which will complement the existing native grasses and flowers we have on the 15th fairway and behind the 14th green. The rain dampened its full potential during the summer however we were all pleasantly surprised to see this surviving into the winter, which bodes well for what we can expect come the spring.” He concludes, “This work will continue as we work towards GEO certification for the Roman Road and Montgomery courses, collectively known as The Championship courses, to our recent successes on The Twenty Ten.”

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GroundsFest Education Fund Helps Student Land Career

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GroundsFest Education Fund Helps Student Land Career: The GroundsFest Education Fund is already making a significant impact on the next generation of grounds management professionals, with several students already benefitting from its support.

The most recent success story is George Legg, a student studying Sports Turf NVQ Level 2 at Wiltshire College and an Apprentice at Stanley Park Sports Ground. Thanks to the Fund, George was able to finance essential qualifications that played a key role in him securing a full-time position at Stanley Park Sports Ground after completing his Level 2 qualification.

GroundsFest Education Fund Helps Student Land Career

GroundsFest Education Fund Helps Student Land Career

One of the key certifications George was able to pursue through the Education Fund was the PA1 qualification in the Principles of Safe Handling and Application of Pesticides, as well as the PA6 qualification for the Safe Use of Pesticides with Handheld Applicators. These qualifications are crucial for anyone working in grounds management, particularly when it comes to managing fertilisers and ensuring the safe application of pesticides—a vital aspect of maintaining sports turf and other landscapes.

“The Education Fund helped massively,” George explains. “Once I had those qualifications on my CV, it was a massive boost. It made me more qualified to do certain things and definitely made me more employable.”

He continues, “I needed some extra funding to be able to do these courses, and the PA6 is especially important for grounds management with fertilisers and calibrations. It linked in perfectly with everything I was studying. Having those extra qualifications was big for me and for Stanley Park, especially because they didn’t have to fund them themselves.”

The Education Fund not only enabled George to obtain these qualifications, but it also allowed him to gain valuable skills without burdening his employer, Stanley Park Sports Ground, with the costs. This, according to George, is crucial in a time when the grounds management industry is facing a shortage of qualified professionals. “The GroundsFest Education Fund is great for creating opportunities for people like me,” he says. “It’s crucial because we are seeing more and more people drop out of the industry. There’s already a lack of groundstaff, and without funding or support, it becomes much harder for people to progress.”

In January, George will begin his new role as a full-time Groundsperson at Stanley Park, where he will be responsible for day-to-day tasks such as line marking, mowing, calibration, and operating machinery safely. Looking ahead, George hopes to continue advancing in his career. “I’d like to eventually become a Grounds Manager,” he shares.

Christopher Bassett, Event Director of GroundsFest, expressed his excitement about George’s success and the broader impact of the Education Fund. “This is fantastic news,” he says. “We are currently working hard on entering the next phase of the Education Fund, which will see the profits from the event reaching an even wider range of people in the industry. Watch this space.”

The GroundsFest Education Fund is an integral part of the event’s mission to invest in the future of the grounds management industry. The Fund is helping to address the challenges facing the sector, from skills shortages to the declining number of young people entering the industry. Through initiatives like this, GroundsFest is playing a pivotal role in shaping the next generation of industry leaders.

For more information, please visit www.groundsfest.com

You can also follow GroundsFest on X, Facebook and Instagram @GroundsFest for much more news, reviews and insightful views.

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Green-tech helps The Point at Polzeath

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Green-tech helps The Point at Polzeath: The Point is a collection of self-catering holiday homes in the heart of picturesque Cornwall.  The family-run business includes The Point at Polzeath, where several timber-built cabins have been created which required green roofs to be installed to comply with planning regulations.

Wheelbarrow Landscapes provides professional landscaping and garden maintenance services throughout Cornwall. The company is renowned for excellence in landscaping and garden maintenance and was chosen to fulfill this challenging project.  A long-term customer of Green-tech, they turned to their sales advisor George Barton for advice and expertise in supplying green roof materials.

Green-tech helps The Point at Polzeath

Green-tech helps The Point at Polzeath

The primary challenge of this project was to source a solution that managed the weight limitations on the cabin roofs. Initially, the project envisioned using topsoil with wildflowers, but this was rendered unfeasible due to weight constraints.

After exploring available solutions, Wheelbarrow Landscapes opted for Green-tech’s proven roof garden solutions, which included Gt RoofDrain for drainage. This lightweight drainage layer enables the collection and storage of water whilst providing a continuous drainage layer across the roof structure. The core acts as a water reservoir for plant roots to access in dry periods.

Green-tree roof garden substrate was chosen for the planting scheme. It is a blend of lightweight aggregate and award-winning Green-tree topsoil, which is ideal for green roof construction projects, due to its weight, excellent water-holding capacity, optimum drainage properties and good levels of aeration.

Instead of wildflowers or a planting scheme Green Roof Sedum matting was suggested and chosen. This is a lightweight and drought-tolerant green roof vegetation option, ideal for green roofs, especially those with a shallow substrate layer, as in this case. A Sedum Matting roof is a low-maintenance option that provides biodiversity, insulation, improves air quality in urban landscapes, and increases habitat creation. The plants offer a variety of leaf types and flowers which creates a blend of beautiful colours and textures when planted together.

Finally, Edge Guard was supplied to retain the lightweight substrate, which was especially important in areas lacking upstands.

James Ricks, Director at Wheelbarrow Landscapes comments, “We use Green-tech for all of our soft landscaping sundries and they always supply all the products we require, as and when we need them. They are knowledgeable and a pleasure to deal with. Green-tech was able to supply all the products we required for us to install the green roofs and also supplied the Edge Guard powder coated in black to match the black timber cladding. Our client was delighted with the finished product and plans to use it throughout the site on the remaining cabin roofs once they are all built.”

The installation at The Point at Polzeath is testimony to the synergy between sustainable design and innovative environmental solutions. Green-tech’s products addressed challenges such as weight limitations and maintenance concerns and played an essential role in enhancing the aesthetic appeal and ecological sustainability of the project.

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Green-tech helps create first purpose-built biophilic primary

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Green-tech helps create first purpose-built biophilic primary: St Mary’s Catholic Voluntary Academy in Derby suffered a devastating fire in October 2020, demolishing the site. A new multi-million-pound school has now risen from the ashes to become the UK’s greenest school.

St Mary’s is the country’s first biophilic school and has been built as part of a pilot project for the Department for Education (DfE).

Green-tech helps create first purpose-built biophilic primary

Green-tech helps create first purpose-built biophilic primary

Biophilic design focuses on connecting those inside, with nature, to promote physical and mental health. The goal for St Mary’s is to be net zero carbon in operation where the amount of carbon emissions added is no more than the amount taken away, making it the UK’s greenest school.

Horizon Landscapes are Landscape and Grounds Maintenance Contractors based In Nottingham. They were awarded the tree planting and soft landscaping contract for this pilot project.

As part of the landscape strategy, 100 new trees were planted, many of which were semi-mature to help the school become quickly embedded in the Biophilic landscape. Additional landscape features include rain gardens, season bulb planting, green roof, and wildflower meadows to maximise biodiversity and local ecology.

For planting in the hard landscaped areas Green-tech supplied 128 TreeParker® units, 40 tonnes of Green-tree Geosoil and 40 tonnes of Green-tree Subsoil. The TreeParker® Cell System is an underground structural soil cell system that provides an ideal environment for trees to thrive beneath the pavement in urban environments. The system provides large volumes of non-compact high-quality soil and maximises the usable space beneath the ground, providing unlimited expansion for unimpeded root growth, while supporting traffic loads at the same time. It is ideal for new trees in areas such as pavements, car parks, and green roofs. In addition to this key function, TreeParker® aids stormwater management within the system, dealing with rainwater runoff at source – the ideal SuDS solution.

Green-tech supplied 85 tree anchor systems for the installation of trees into the soft landscaping scheme. Green-tech has a range of tree anchor systems designed to provide much-needed anchoring and stability for newly planted trees. In most cases, the tree anchor is secured over the root ball, providing greater contact with the surface area of the root ball and in turn improved root support for the newly planted tree.

Amanda Greaves, Executive Headteacher at St Mary’s, comments: “I am so delighted for the children, staff, parents, and wider community as we begin the next chapter in the new St Mary’s, the greenest school in the UK. It has been an absolute privilege to be part of this incredible pathway project. I think the best thing about the new building is being able to see all of the outside areas from all of the buildings and everything is integrated. We have 100 trees, the trim trail, and lots of benches and everything feels calm and relaxed. Everyone is just excited to be here.”

Richard Hale, Managing Director of Horizon Landscapes adds, “This was a stunning project to work on.  It was an honour to be involved in creating the first biophilic school and for the importance of the outside to be truly recognised as comparable with the inside of the building. The project has been a huge success and well-received. We have worked with Green-tech for many years and as ever they supplied what we needed, when we needed it. They are our go-to for all soft landscaping materials”.

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Green-tech helps EMR increase Biodiversity

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Green-tech helps EMR increase Biodiversity:  European Metal Recycling (EMR) is a global leader in metal recycling. They operate metal recycling sites across 60 locations throughout the UK where they process waste metal and want to increase biodiversity throughout these sites.

Working with Glendale, a grounds maintenance contractor providing landscape and green space management for private and public sectors, EMR launched its rewilding initiative at its state-of-the-art site in Oldbury.  They intend to tackle the impact of climate change and give local nature a much stronger chance of surviving and thriving for future generations. The aim is to roll out this scheme across all of their UK sites.

Green-tech helps EMR increase Biodiversity

Green-tech helps EMR increase Biodiversity

The EMR environmental project, which covers 3ha of land, will create a biodiversity increase at the Oldbury site of 95%, ensuring greater protection of the environment, and preservation and enhancement of key habitats.

The initiative included the sowing of approximately 1000m2 of John Chambers Heritage Dual purpose and John Chamber Impact Violet Heart mix 100%. The 5kg of seed comprised a mix of native and nectar-rich annuals and perennials. The area of previously rough ground was seeded in May 2023 using a mix devised by EMR Environmental Specialist Aaron Roberts. The Cornfield Annual species came through quickly to give an initial burst of colour, while the slower-growing perennials are all establishing, ready to spring forth from Spring 2024 (Year 2) onwards.

John Chambers Wildflower Seed has a 40-year history of supplying British native wildflower seed and mixes across the UK. A brand of Green-tech, John Chambers Wildflower Seed is one of the leading authorities on native wildflower seed, distributing a comprehensive range of products that protect, enhance, and improve the landscape environment.

In addition, a variety of 100 native saplings and trees and species-rich hedgerows were planted to improve the overall habitat and absorb 35 tonnes of carbon per annum into the new biomass growing on our site. A mixture of grass seeds and different varieties of flowers will be grown, as well as ongoing management of the woodland area to allow other species to flourish.

Deric Newman, Head of Development, Estate Services at Glendale comments, “We used John Chambers as they have a reputation for being the best in the market for wildflower and grass seed. Delivery was very efficient and on time with the annual species making an appearance quickly. Overall, I am very happy and can’t wait to see the perennials come through in the spring.”

Aaron Roberts adds, “It has been a pleasure working on this project creating positive environmental change at our EMR Group Oldbury site. With the new plants and habitat creation at Oldbury, we have increased biodiversity by over 95% and we are helping sequest 35 tonnes of CO2. Hopefully, our project inspires other companies to create positive environmental change at their sites and increase their biodiversity.”

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