Landform Blog

Category Archives: Landform News

Olympic Rings at Kew Gardens

April 20, 2012   admin   No comments

With 100 days to go until the Olympic Games, the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew have unveiled a spectacular floral display to commemorate the event.  The five coloured rings can be seen on the ground in Kew Gardens and from above, in aeroplanes flying into Heathrow Airport.

Landform have been helping with the installation.  Mike and Ross have been popping to Kew quite a bit recently: marking out the circles, cutting away the turf and helping with the planting.  The installation spans 50 metres and comprises of hundreds and hundreds of Viola ‘Light Blue’, Viola ‘Clear Yellow’, Viola ‘Black Delight’, apple mint (Mentha suaveolens) and Viola ‘Red Blotch’ plants.

Setting out the Olympic Rings

Also as a part of the installation, we worked with Sureset to produce 10 resin coloured paths allowing people to walk through the circles.  Sureset’s resin bonded gravel usually comes in natural gravel colours,  but they can produce brightly coloured patterns, which can be ingeniously used for ground designs in school playgrounds.  Visit their site to see more about what they do.

The BBC have made a little film about the display – visit YouTube to see the film.  If you look closely at the beginning you can see Mike and Ross cutting the turf away!

To find out more about what Kew are doing to commemorate the London Olympic games – visit their web site.

The completed Rings with Sureset coloured resin paths

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New Roundabout Design for Surbiton

March 30, 2012   admin   No comments

We maintain a private residential estate in Surbiton and as a part of the ongoing maintenance work we carry out there, we are very pleased to be sponsoring a new planting scheme for the roundabout and entrance to the estate.

The brief was to create a modern, contemporary design to give year round interest, but the most important thing was to give a “wow-factor” that all the residents and any visitors could enjoy. The planting scheme incorporates drought tolerant plants, grasses and bulbs  for seasonal interest, including plants like lavender, with a central mature Gleditsia triacanthos ‘Sunburst’ tree and rockery.

The roundabout is only in its infancy, but we’ll show you more pictures as the year goes on to show how the planting has developed.

This type of job is “all in a day’s work” for the Landform Team, but the job involved a lot of meticulous planning and careful management of health & safety due to the nature of the site. Following all good health & safety practices, we carried out a method statement, risk assessments and the installation involved traffic management.  Health & safety is something we take seriously at Landform.

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London Marathon 2012 Special

March 29, 2012   admin   No comments

Four years in a row…! Mark and Matt have been training for the last few months ready for this year’s marathon.

We are raising money for the AICR (Association of International Cancer Research) again, who Mark & Matt ran for last year. If you’ve followed our marathon stories in the past you will know that raising money for cancer research is important to not just Mark & Matt, but the whole company. Many of us know people who have contracted cancer. If you would like to help us raise money for our chosen charity visit our justgiving.com page and sponsor Mark & Matt.  They’ve each made a rash promise to don a pink tutu if we reach our total. Remember – only IF we reach our total!

You would think they would take it all in their stride, but it’s not been easy this year! During the 2011 marathon, Matt was unlucky and ran onto one of the plastic water bottles that litter the marathon route.  It caused a fracture in his foot, but he still completed the marathon through determination. The fracture took a few months to heal, and whilst Matt doesn’t feel any pain whilst he runs, he does feel some pain afterwards.  Still that’s not stopped him from throwing himself into his training and participating in the “Bath Half” recently.

Mark on the other hand has been battling on with an Achilles problem, so his marathon training was delayed for a while as he was advised to rest it for a bit.  Mark’s hoping he can complete his fourth marathon in a row with some specially engineered running shoes to help alleviate the Achilles issue.

To sponsor Mark & Matt and find out more about the AICR charity – visit our www.justgiving.com/LandformTeamAICR page.

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Orchid Extravaganza at Kew Gardens

January 19, 2012   admin   No comments

Whilst we’re all freezing indoors and outdoors this week with temperature’s below zero, some of us have been having a tropical time in the Prince of Wales conservatory at Kew Gardens!

In preparation for the Tropical Extravaganza at Kew Gardens, Mike P and Ross have been helping the Kew Team to prepare the Orchid displays in the Prince of Wales Conservatory this week. They said that it’s been around 15 degrees in there!

Mike & Ross with their handywork at Kew Gardens

This year the theme is inspired by the “forces of nature” – Fire, Air, Water and Earth, and we will see a fantastic display of colour in the glass house.

Mike and Ross have been attaching Orchids and other tropical plants to steel archways that go over the meandering paths.

The festival promotes awareness about the habitats for Orchids and tropical plants, and the threats posed by deforestation and loss of habitat.

We’re really looking forward to seeing the display which runs from 4th February to 4th March. Check out Kew’s website for more information.

A resident Chinese Water Dragon inside the Prince of Wales Conservatory

 

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Royal Parks Half Marathon

October 10, 2011   admin   No comments

On Sunday 9th October 2011, 12,500 runners came from across the UK and 30 countries around the world to race through the streets of London in the hugely popular Royal Parks Foundation Half Marathon.  And our courageous Landform Running Team took part:

Matt, Mike L,Ross, Steve, Mark G & Mark W

We are proud to say that the majority of our team’s results came in the top 25% – in the first 3000 runners. In first came Steve with a time of 1hr 41mins.  Next up was Matt with 1hr 48mins, followed by: Mike L with 1hr 50mins; closely followed by Mark G with 1hr 51mins; then Mark W with 1hr 53mins; and finally Ross, our first time long distance runner, with a very respectable 2 hrs 15mins.

Our Team have been supporting the Greenfingers Charity, which creates gardens for children’s hospices all over the country. Next up for our Running Team – London Marathon 2012?

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Landform Outdoor Pursuits!

September 14, 2011   admin   No comments

Following Mark and Matt’s successful London Marathon run earlier this year, we have put together a crack team of runners and entered the Royal Parks Half Marathon which is on Sunday 9th October.  We are raising money for the Greenfingers charity this time, which creates gardens for children’s hospices around the country.  The run starts and finishes in Hyde park, taking in Kensington Gardens, Green Park and St James’s park  along a 13.1 mile route. As well as Mark and Matt, the team includes: Mark the Postie, Steve R, Ross and Mike L.  More on this soon.

Mike L running in the Alps

Mike L running in the Alps

 

Mike L has been busy running this year! A fan of endurance marathons, at the end of August, Mike participated in the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc which involved a 107 mile run through France, Italy and Switzerland no less!  He says it’s the hardest race he’s ever done with over 9700m total ascent through the Alps.  He accomplished the race in 2 days and 2 nights, finishing with an amazing time of 43 hours.  Well done Mike!

Our Landform Lads don’t just run either! Mick recently got back from Florida where is was representing Great Britain in the 2011 World Dragon Boat Championships.

2011 World Dragon Boat Championships, Tampa Florida

He raced with the GB Senior B team, better known as the Grand Dragons.  The Grand Dragons went through the heats, the semis and got into the finals, covering 4 distances in over 5 days.  The team won Silver in the 2000 metres, Bronze in the 1000 metres and Bronze again in the 200 metres. Mick says that the team did amazingly well and that winning a medal at the “Worlds” is something you dream about.  Well done, Mick!

Mick sporting his Bronze medal

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Landform Office Garden

June 10, 2011   admin   No comments

The planting fairies have been!

We’ve been busy planting the perennials for the new Landform Office Show Garden at HQ.  Mark & Catherine have designed a lovely scheme for staff and visitors to enjoy, which incorporates two stone water features and a timber Pavillion structure.


The planting involves multi-stem Amelanchiers trees and low blocks of Taxus.  The perennials & grasses include Woolly Thyme, Salvia caradonna (which the bees are loving!), Nepeta ‘Six Giant Hills’, Perovskia ‘Blue Spire’, Echinacea ‘Fatal Attraction’ and Panicum virgatum rehbraun, as well as Hakonacloa macra, Hellebores and ferns for the shady bits, among others.

A lovely space to enjoy over the summer, autumn and winter.  We’ll post more pictures as the garden develops.

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RHS Chelsea 2011 Medals Day

May 24, 2011   admin   No comments

With over a year of preparation and only a few weeks to construct these temporary gardens, the gardens are completed.  The Queen has visited and the results are in!

Mark Gregory and Her Majesty The Queen with Nigel Dunnett at the New Wild Garden

GOLD for the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne – Australia Garden

SILVER GILT for the Royal Bank of Canada – New Wild Garden

We are really pleased with our results and hope that all the show visitors will continue to enjoy the gardens throughout the week.

Here’s a glimpse of some of the celebrities we spotted yesterday!  Hope to have some pictures of Mark Gregory meeting the Queen later on…

Mark cleaning the pools before the Queens visit!

Nigel Dunnet, Royal Bank of Canada sponsors and Matthew Wilson

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