Preparing your garden for a very British winter

As the winter months set in and the weather gets colder it's good to make sure your garden is prepared to withstand the harsher conditions, here are a few tips to get you on your way. 

It is a good idea to do any garden repairs before the cold sets in and makes matters worse. Look out for any fence panels that need attention or walls. Applying a coat of all weather paint can be a good idea to give fence panels some added protection. If you have any loose patio or paving slabs, now is the time to get those repaired. Oil treatments can benefit benches and other wooden structures in the garden and if you have patio furniture, cover it up so that this doesn't get damaged during severe weather. The cost of covering it up will be a lot less than having to replace it in the spring. 

Both real and artificial lawns can benefit from the removal of any Autumn leaves that have fallen onto the surface. If leaves are left on the grass this can create ideal conditions for moss growth and may also affect drainage. For real grass lawns now is a good time to add an application of fertiliser and to pierce the lawn with a fork to aerate. Aeration enables air to get to the roots of your lawn and will also improve drainage for those heavy down pours. You should also make sure objects such as children's toys are removed from the lawn as this can cause problems when the snow comes. If you've got an artificial lawn, a weed/moss treatment should be applied. The leaves that you remove from your lawn can be used on your beds of perennials to protect them from the frost, it is also a good idea to protect soil beds further with a layer of mulch. 

Don't forget the wildlife in your garden in the Winter! Between October and January is the ideal time to clean out your pond and don't let it freeze over completely as a complete freeze will starve any fish of oxygen. A good tip for this is to put a ball on the surface of the water, the area around the ball will freeze but underneath the ball won't. Feeding the birds is a priority in the winter as they find it difficult to find food, they will also take shelter in your hedges so don't cut these back until winter has come to an end. The piles of leaves that you have removed from your lawn will also make good habitats for frogs. If you have any logs or dead wood, pile these up as there are certain critters who will make this their home. 

If we get a heavy snow fall during the winter then this is when damage will be caused to the garden. Although the snow acts as an insulator heavy snow can cause damage to leaves and branches. To prevent such damage shake excess snow off if possible and if there is heavy snow sitting on greenhouses or sheds remove as much as possible. This is especially important for greenhouses as heavy snow will prevent light from getting in. Although this is not a problem for artificial grass lawns if your real grass lawn is covered in snow avoid walking on it as this will leave unattractive marks on your lawn once the snow is gone. The same will happen if any objects have been left on the lawn prior to the snow fall, the grass underneath suffocates. 

Synthetic turf reaches new heights in France

Over the past couple of decades, sports teams and organisations have slowly warmed to the prospect of playing on artificial surfaces. As the ‘grass’ used to make such pitches has become more realistic and the surfaces smoother, some of the world’s most famous stadia and football clubs have decided to shun traditional pitches in favour of artificial ones with little difference.

A grand scale

Until a few years ago, only a handful of professional sports teams and sports centres had used artificial turf, but there has been a gradual shift in opinion. Many training grounds are using Desso synthetic turf to help players train throughout the winter when snow might harm their schedule, but one plot in a small French community has really taken it to their heart.

In Clamart, a 50,000 m² site at Stade de la Plaine uses Desso Sports artificial grass throughout. On the site, there are seven pitches – three for football, two for rugby and two for multisport. Installed in the area’s municipal sports park, they offer amateur sportspeople the chance to train all year round, regardless of how bad the weather might be.

Sport for all

The surfaces at Clamart are renowned across the local area. The public get to use all of them when they’re not being used by local sports clubs. The use of artificial grass can benefit any sports facility, especially if it needs all-weather surfaces to help them save on costs such as maintenance, which makes them handy for medium-sized football teams in particular.

Among the world-renowned sports clubs using synthetic surfaces for training or at their main stadium include MLS teams Colorado Rapids and Dallas FC, Portuguese champions FC Porto, Real Madrid, English Premier League clubs Tottenham Hotspur and Stoke City and PSV Eindhoven. All those teams are feeling the benefit.

Artificial Grass in the Spotlight

Our HT Luxury turf will literally be centre stage in the production of Aristocrats at Clwyd Theatr Cymru in the coming weeks. We have supplied the Theatre with just over 120m2 of our HT Luxury Artificial Grass to dress the stage for the production. The production's scenic artist has added some extra grasses and dandelions to the turf to create an overgrown effect. Artificial grass was the perfect solution for the production design as the stage needed to be set as a garden of an ancestral family home.

The show will run from Thursday 19 September to Saturday 12 October with performances at 7.45pm and Saturday matinees at 2.45pm. Ticket prices range from £11.50 to £15.50. Aristocrats was written by Brien Friel and is directed by Kate Wasserberg. More information can be found at http://www.clwyd-theatr-cymru.co.uk/en/whats_on/event/14071

'Making Waves' with Artificial Grass at Ness Gardens, Cheshire

Last week we were tasked with replacing the real turf on the RHS award winning 'Making Waves' garden at Ness Gardens with artificial grass. Ness Gardens wanted to have the work completed in time for their BBC Radio Four's Gardener's Question Time Summer Party which is taking place on Saturday September 7th and we were more than happy to help. 

BBC Radio Four's Gardener's Question Time Summer Garden Party will host two recordings of the popular show plus gardening demonstrations and advice from Ness expert gardeners. Gardeners in attendance on the day include Bob Flowerdew, Eric Robinson, Christine Walkden plus many more. Ness Gardens also want to use the waves as a showcase for alternatives to real grass and as part of their commitment to sustainable gardening. 

The 'Making Waves' garden was designed by Pip Probert who is based at Ness Gardens, the area was designed as a garden to be seen from all directions. 

Pip comments, "I wanted the main features to be 'green' rather than hard landscaping and hours of construction time. This garden was to allow people to firstly watch the construction process from start to finish, like a behind the scenes view of a show garden. Once finished the visitors could walk around the plot viewing different variations in plant combination, colour and texture. The bold colour schemes have a big impact in each area. Seen from every angle, the waves are prominent as the main focal features. The idea came from the 'brainstorming session' where the comment; 'we want the garden to make waves!' was mentioned and I thought that they really would! In the last 12 months the Waves have proven more popular than I had imagined, especially with the children. Artificial grass will allow for more wear and tear, and less maintenance making a massive difference to the garden."

The grass that we used on the waves was HT Luxury, with it's longer pile this worked really well as it had to be used alongside real turf. The decision to use artificial grass on the wave elements of the garden came down to two factors. The first was a maintenance issue, in order to keep real turf on the waves looking great regular maintenance and watering was required. The second point was that children are very drawn to the wave structures and enjoy to climb on them, therefore damaging the real turf, this was especially evident on the children's fun day when nearly 1000 children descended on the garden. The artificial grass has eliminated both of these issues, the turf is hard wearing so it can stand up to the heavy use and only minimal maintenance will be required through the year. Garden Designer Pip says "I am just really happy the waves look good again!" 

The garden can be seen at Ness Gardens, Neston Rd  Neston CH64 4AY. The gardens are open 10am - 5pm, 7 days a week between 1 February and 31 October. Further admission information can be found on their website http://www.nessgardens.org.uk/

Brightening up 'Back To School' with Artificial Grass

The end of the summer holidays are upon us and while the kids have been off we've been busy transforming their play areas with artificial grass just in time for their return to school. Hopefully when the children do go back there will still be some nice weather in store so that they can take full advantage of their brand new outdoor spaces. Here's just a taster of some of the school installations we have completed this summer:

Delamere Academy

We have previously done a number of artificial turf installations at Delamere and this latest project involved us covering over some tired, slippery decking to make the area useable and bright for the children.

Richmond Primary School, Sheerness

The area prior to our arrival was soil and this was prepared and laid with 60m2 of HT Majestic artificial turf alongside a 45m2 rubber pour pathway.

Our Ladies of Victories Primary School, London

Here we laid 300m2 of our HT Luxury product over our 25mm Safe Play Shock Pad. Prior to the install this area was a drab, hard concreted space and now it is a bright, safe place for the children to play at break time and the area will also be used as a pitch. 

Indulging in Artificial Grass this Summer?

The recent spell of hot weather has meant everybody has had a chance to enjoy their garden, which makes a change from our usual Summers! We have been extremely busy over the last few weeks and have noticed that our HT Indulgence artificial grass has proved very popular with our customers. HT Indulgence is a high quality, mid-range artificial grass with an attractive price.

Sitting in the garden in the sunshine was made even easier for our customers here as they no longer have to worry about mowing the lawn. Their new HT Indulgence lawn will look neat and tidy all year round, even when the sun isn't shining.

The dogs in this garden were extremely pleased when we had finished installing HT Indulgence. Their owner was equally as pleased as there were no more muddy paws running in and out of the house!

We also transformed a day nursery in Bolton recently, again with our HT Indulgence product and the children and teachers were all extremely pleased with the end result. 

Charity Grass Donation

We recently donated some of our artificial grass to Birmingham Children's Hospital who have managed to utilise it at numerous events over the summer, these included Midsummer Night of Stars, Big Bandage Summer Fundraiser BBQ and Sports Activity week. More details on their fundraising efforts can be found below.

We are always happy to help where we can and we are pleased that our small donation of grass has helped the hospital out with their fundraising efforts!

Midsummer Night of Stars
http://www.bch.nhs.uk/news/article/4091-hospital-stars-honoured-sparkling-annual-awards

Big Bandage Event
http://www.bch.org.uk/news.php?sid=69

Our latest school installation at Delamere C of E Academy, Cheshire

Last week we completed an installation at Delamere Academy in Cheshire. The total area was in excess of 400m2 and as you can see from the pictures below the new play surface is bound to be a hit with the children! The area underneath the tables and chairs was laid with our HT Indulgence turf while our HT Exclusive artificial grass was used in the larger play area section. The Exclusive lends itself well to larger areas such as this one as it is easy for the children to move around on but is also soft to the touch in case of any trips! The project took our team five days to complete and was finished just in time for the children to return to school after half term.

Pixies In The Garden!

Below are some images of a recent installation completed at Pixies Day Nursery in Southampton. We installed artificial grass at two nursery sites for Pixies, installing just over 600 square metres in total.

They had a range of grasses installed including HT Indulgence and HT Luxury. The owner of the nursery thanked us for an "outstanding job" on completion and hopefully the children at both nurseries will be able to enjoy their new outdoor areas when the sun finally comes out!

Footballers Lives at The Florrie

We recently donated a piece of artificial grass to The Florence Institute Trust Ltd, affectionately known in Liverpool as The Florrie. They currently have an exhibition running entitled Footballers Lives and have used our artificial grass to create a pitch area. The exhibition runs until 19 May 2013 and explores the local football team Florence Albion as well as the role that football has to play in the history of Liverpool. More information can be found here.

HT Sensation installation, Saughall, Chester

This week we have transformed a number of gardens, one of which was this lawn in Saughall, Chester. They had HT Sensation fitted, hopefully this sunny weather will stick around so the children in this family can enjoy their new lawn this weekend!

Another Satisfied Customer!

We have had some really positive feedback from one of our recent commercial artificial grass installations at Talacre Beach Caravan Park, artificial grass has transformed the landscaped area around the swimming pool building at the park.

"I just want to say a great big, massive, huge 'THANK YOU'.

The turf to the pool/club looks outstanding! Great job, no mess, you were all so polite, fun, professional and fast. 

Guests love it. We love it. Managing Director loves it. You can't ask for more than that!!" 

Jacqui Daniels, Talacre Beach Caravan Park

Talacre Beach is a holiday/leisure park on the beautiful North Wales Coast and we look forward to working with them again in the future.

Practice Makes Perfect

Hi Tech Turf have installed the latest, state of the art, nylon non sand infill artificial grass putting green for a budding young golfer in Stoke.

A young golfer with ambitions of becoming a professional has had the very best training aid installed in his back garden so he can practice his training drills from the comfort of his own home.

His father Mark had researched various companies on the internet and collected artificial grass sample material before choosing to use ourselves.

Mark explains "we had various companies come to assess the area but as soon as I met Hi-Tech Turf I had no hesitation in using them for the project. They had extensive knowledge of the golf industry, the most superior product and were well within my budget. From start to finish, from the planning to clean up they were highly professional and did an outstanding job.

My son can now work on his practice drills at home instead of having to travel to the golf course.

I have had no hesitation recommending the company, I have had lots of positive comments from my friends and have already got further orders for Hi-Tech Turf in the Stoke area."

Another satisfied customer!!