North Yorkshire turf grower shortlisted for award
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Plastic netting which is in much of turf laid in the UK, and breaks down into polluting microplastic
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Stephen Fell of Lindum Turf with the company’s plastic-free wildflower turf
A North Yorkshire turf grower has been nominated for a top award at the world’s most prestigious gardening event.
Lindum Turf, which is based at Thorganby near York, has been shortlisted in the Sustainable Garden Product of the Year category at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, for its plastic-free wildflower turf.
The innovative product is the only wildflower turf currently on the market that is 100% sustainable and doesn’t utilise plastic mesh within the growing medium.
Some turf grown in the UK, including other wildflower turfs, contains single-use plastic mesh which gets buried in the ground when the turf is laid.
Over time, the mesh decays into harmful microplastics that pollute the soil and can leach off into nearby watercourses. The mesh can also have an extremely damaging impact on wildlife, with hedgehogs and other small animals becoming trapped in it and suffocating or starving to death.
Lindum Turf owner, Stephen Fell, said the company had invested heavily over several years in creating the plastic-free alternative.
He said: “Plastic in turf is a real issue and with single use plastics and sustainability making headlines every day, we decided we wanted to find an environmentally friendly solution.
“As a result, we’ve invested a significant amount in innovating a completely sustainable way of growing turf, one that doesn’t include putting single use plastics into the ground or is a threat to wildlife.
“To have this recognised by the Royal Horticultural Society is a huge honour. The RHS Chelsea Flower Show is the world’s premier gardening event, the one everyone in the industry talks about and wants to do well at, so to be nominated for an award there is extremely special.”
Earlier this year, Stephen launched a campaign calling on the turf industry at large to remove single use plastics from its products.
The campaign is being supported by leading garden designer Juliet Sargeant, who won a Gold Medal at the Chelsea Flower Show in 2016, and a Silver Gilt Medal for her popular Blue Peter Garden in 2022. Juliet said the gardening industry needed to ‘start by educating consumers so they could make better choices when it comes to purchasing environmentally friendly products’.
The RHS is also working to remove plastics from the Chelsea Flower Show. It has already banned plastic bags and floral foam across its shows, as well as plastic artificial turf, and is aiming for the complete removal of single use plastics by 2025.
Lindum Turf will discover if they have been successful at this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show, which takes place between Monday, May 22 and Saturday, May 27, at the Royal Hospital Chelsea in London.