'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/