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2021 National Landscape Awards announced and tickets on sale!
White City Living Phase 1 won an award in the ‘Hard Landscaping Construction (Non-Domestic) Over 500K’ category. This project by Elite Landscapes is a large open space in West London, across the road from the famous Television Studios and adjacent to Westfields Shepherds Bush.
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No other awards for designers and contractors demand the level of professional excellence expected by the National Landscape Awards judging panel. Every construction and design project entered was visited personally by a judge throughout July and August and scrutinised individually. If that's not enough, the judges jointly deliberated each decision at a three-day long meeting to ensure consensus that the winners really do represent the very best in landscape construction and design.
The team at Landscape House, the board of directors and the judging panel wish to congratulate every BALI member who has won a 2021 National Landscape Award and extends its thanks to every member that entered this year.
Principals, Specials and the coveted Grand Award winner will be announced at this year’s ceremony, which will be returning to JW Marriott Grosvenor House, Park Lane, London on Friday 3rd December. This marks the return of the National Landscape Awards’ live ceremony so demand for tickets will be high, ensure you visit baliawards.co.uk today to confirm your place at the largest landscape Awards in Europe.
Ticket prices
Individual Place – £195 Table of 10 – £1,750.00 Table of 12 – £2,100.00
Limited sponsorship opportunities remain available, for further details contact Diane McCulloch via telephone at +44(0)24 7518 5614 or via email at diane.mcculloch@bali.org.uk.
For general enquiries contact Emily Feeney via telephone at +44(0)24 7518 5613 or via email at emily.feeney@bali.org.uk.
Dennis & SISIS and Bowls England have announced a new five-year partnership which is aimed at improving playing surfaces, increasing participation and helping to safeguard the future of the sport.
Passionate about helping everyone get the most out of the sport, Bowls England recently unveiled a new strategy, ‘Fit For The Future’, which has been designed with the ultimate goal of getting more people playing and enjoying bowls.
However, to entice more people into the sport, there must be a focus on the playing conditions and this is where Dennis and SISIS come in according to Bowls England’s Chief Executive Jon Cockcroft.
“What is absolutely critical for us is that the bowling greens up and down the country are in superb condition for people to play on,” he says. “Over recent years there has been more strain on our clubs, and the challenges of maintaining greens are becoming greater.
Consequently, this partnership with Dennis and SISIS will allow us to support our clubs, and our amazing volunteers, who work tirelessly to look after the greens.
“The partnership will add value to our members and ultimately improving the quality of the surfaces is going to make the playing experience better which will help
grow our game and get more people playing bowls.”
Also committed to educating greenkeepers and raising the standards of bowling greens, Dennis and SISIS have long supported the sport of bowls. For over 20 years, they have been organising and hosting educational maintenance seminars throughout the country which are designed to ultimately help club greenkeepers and volunteers maintain their bowling greens.
The pandemic inevitably put a temporary halt to the seminars and as a result the two British manufacturers launched an innovative Virtual Bowling Green Maintenance Seminar Portal. The free online portal was an instant success bringing seminars to a much wider audience and also allowing members to benefit from a wealth of knowledge.
Roger Moore, Sales and Marketing Manager for Dennis and SISIS revealed his delight at the new partnership. “The sport of bowls has played an important part in the history of Dennis and SISIS,” he says. “We want to be associated with Bowls England particularly at such an exciting time as they launch their five-year strategy.”
“The plan is to continue next year with the live seminars and provide access to Bowls England members to the online seminar portal, which has monthly updates from experts, funding opportunities, and access to other partners. Whether you are an experienced greenkeeper or new to the industry the portal is an invaluable resource.
“The partnership will allow both parties to explore and develop other initiatives going forward and we hope we can play a part helping Bowls England’s achieve their goals It also allows us to give something back towards the future growth and sustainability of the bowls market.”
The partnership comes ahead of an exciting year for both Dennis and SISIS and Bowls England; 2022 marks the centenary year for the Dennis brand and it is also the year of the of the Commonwealth Games, in which the greens at Victoria Park in Leamington (also the home of Bowls England) will host the bowls tournament.
“There is a wonderful synergy to this partnership,” continued Jon. “Firstly – heritage; the heritage of our sport and the heritage of the Dennis and SISIS brands. Secondly, both have an appetite for quality. Thirdly, bowls as a sport and the Dennis and SISIS brands are quintessentially British; and last but certainly not least, both Bowls England and Dennis and SISIS have a desire to give back to communities. It is a perfect partnership.”
Nematrident® range available in Ireland
Bionema Ltd, a leading biopesticide technology company, has signed a distribution agreement with TurfCare to sell its unique patented NemaTrident® range of products on an exclusive basis in the turf, leisure and amenity sector in Ireland.
NemaTrident® is a Tri-Component patented, environmentally friendly solution used to control more than 50 different insect species including chafer grubs and leatherjackets. These pests eat grass roots and can cause devastating damage to golf courses, sports turf and ornamental lawns. According to a research report conducted by independent agricultural and environmental consultancy ADAS the economic cost of damage by chafer grubs at UK golf courses alone is estimated to be £85million a year, from lost income and damage repair, and lost income by 40% of UK racecourses affected by pest damage could amount to £605,000 per course.
Bionema’s NemaTrident® Tri-Component patented solution incorporates a range of highly virulent insectparasitic nematodes within the Heterorhabditis and Steinernema genera, a biocompatible wetting agent (Nemaspreader®) and expert advice. These nematodes attack and destroy the larvae of the insect pests - preventing future pests from developing. They are safe, non-toxic to users and consumers, decompose rapidly and can be targeted at specific pests to avoid harming beneficial insects. These sustainable products provide 70-95% success rates in combating pests. TurfCare is a leading distributor of fertilizers, seed, irrigation and other amenity sector specialist products within Ireland and the company is constantly on the lookout for innovative products within the sport and amenity sectors. Bionema has partnered with TurfCare because it believes it has the best product knowledge and insight into the Irish turf and amenity sector and is well-positioned to include the NemaTrident® range of biological products.
Commenting on the partnership, Dr Minshad Ansari, Bionema founder and CEO, says: “In a market with significant potential, there is a clear opportunity for TurfCare to continue helping greenkeepers, grounds managers, racecourse managers and landscapers in the control of chafer grubs and leatherjackets, when chemicals are banned across Europe.”
Pat Galavan, CEO at Turf Care adds: “Our role is to combine all the potential solutions for our customers throughout Ireland. Our staff have all been briefed on the most effective way to use the Nematrident® range of nematodes to help control chafer grubs and leatherjackets as part of an Integrated Pest Management programme.”
DLF seeds invest in new mixing and distribution facility
DLF Seeds is to invest £3.5M in new state-of-theart mixing and distribution facilities at its main seed processing site at Inkberrow in Worcestershire.
This comes on the back of a £3M investment at its Scottish site at Broxburn, near Edinburgh in 2015, which automated and revolutionised the handling of forage grass and clover mixtures into the agricultural market.
“This investment will transform our current production facilities and bring much needed additional capacity and efficiency to cope with the future market demands in the amenity, consumer, environmental stewardship, cover crop and wildflower markets,” says Tim Kerridge, Managing Director for DLF Seeds.
“We have already seen increased demand for our products, especially for environmental stewardship, cover crops and wildflowers, in response to the UK government’s focus on habitat creation and carbon capture. In the amenity and consumer sector we have also experienced sustained growth and continue to see opportunities in these markets, as the economy recovers from Covid and embraces the sustainability agenda.”
The investment encompasses a new fully automated mixing plant for amenity and consumer products, whilst freeing up existing mixing capacity to triple the throughput of environmental stewardship, cover crops and wildflowers.
“This is a very exciting time for our industry where we must invest to ensure our customers can continue to receive the highest levels of service and the quickest delivery times for their orders,” Mr Kerridge continues. “Covid and Brexit have presented many challenges over the past two years, but this investment will ensure we are well placed to serve our customers in the decades to come.”
Work, which has already started, is expected to be completed by spring 2023.
Sue Biggs CBE will retire as Director General of The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) in June 2022. Over the past 11 years she has modernised and grown the RHS, and leaves a much stronger charity, with record membership numbers, that is more inclusive and broader based, as well as being more financially robust.
During her time leading the RHS has been pivotal in creating and executing the Strategic Investment Programme across the gardens, most notably the opening of RHS Garden Bridgewater in Salford and the nationally significant new Home of Gardening Science at RHS Garden Wisley.
Keith Weed, President of the RHS, says: “We on the Society’s Council thank Sue for all her hard work, dedication and achievements during her time at the RHS. The last 18 months has seen Sue lead the organisation at a difficult time during the pandemic where the organisation has continued to progress despite the many challenges.”
“I’m extremely proud of everything we have achieved over the last decade, and without Council, the Leadership Team and the incredible teams, volunteers and people across the RHS, as well as our generous supporters, it simply would not have been possible to make such deep rooted changes," says Sue. "To leave this wonderful charity after the creation of the amazing RHS Garden Bridgewater in Salford and after bringing our science work to the fore with Wisley Hilltop– The Home of Gardening, makes me very happy to know that future generations will benefit from both for decades to come.”
Sue has raised awareness and helped improve standards in the horticulture industry, chairing the Ornamental Horticulture Roundtable since its inception and working with government. In March 2017 she was recognised with a CBE for her services to horticulture and the environment.
The recruitment process for a new Director General for the RHS will now begin.
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Meadfleet win Biodiversity award
Bee on Willow herb on Meadfleet open space in Leeds
Open space management company, Meadfleet, has been awarded first place in the Pollinator category at the Construction Industry Research and Information Association's (CIRIA) BIG Biodiversity Challenge Awards. Their Bee Friendly campaign beat stiff competition to take the top spot, recognising the company’s efforts to create additional habitats across the open spaces in its management for bees and other vital pollinators.
The judge’s commented: “An inspirational project from a management company of open spaces. They have included a very community and nature focused management strategy and are to be commended. The long term impact of this project and scale is really interesting. The potential that has been identified through the land holdings is noteworthy and the judges were impressed to see that the knowledge had been embedded within the business which is very admirable.”
The Big Biodiversity Challenge invites organisations to “do one thing” which adds a “biodiversity enhancement” to construction sites, developments or existing buildings (with the caveat that it goes beyond normal business practice or pre-existing planning and construction conditions).
Bee Friendly, launched by Meadfleet in 2019, is a perfect example of how wildlife and humans can peacefully and harmoniously co-exist. Designed to create new habitats for bees and other pollinating insects, Meadfleet have committed to planting: • 23,000m2 of meadow to try and replace some of what has been lost in the UK (97% of all wildflower meadows since the 1930s) • 1500m of new hedgerow including native shrub and tree species to provide nectar in spring, berries in autumn and natural habitats for birds and mammals • 50,000 new bulbs in a mix of species which also provide nectar throughout spring
Not only are Meadfleet making open spaces more supportive of pollinating insects, they are also engaging residents with giveaways of insect hotels and bee friendly seeds, along with educational literature to inspire customers to do their bit to help pollinators.
Paul Cassidy, Ecology and Conservation Manager at Meadfleet says: “We are delighted that our efforts to benefit wildlife in the management of open spaces continue to be recognised. It’s fantastic that the judges acknowledged our efforts to make long-term, far-reaching improvements to open space areas that will benefit pollinators. Whilst it might be seen as going above and beyond our remit as an open space management company, we believe Meadfleet have an important role to play in ensuring open spaces offer enriched environments for our customers that allow wildlife to thrive.”
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