Sponsoring the LI’s 2022 Excellence in Horticulture and Planting Design award category, Boughton is one of the country’s leading landscaping products suppliers. Here the team tells us more about the developments that enable them to deliver Boughton’s portfolio of topsoils, green roof substrates, sands, turf dressing, tree soils, and Rootzones
This article is a sponsored post.
2022 – the year that was!
2022 has been a busy year for team Boughton. The opening of a new depot in Hinckley, South-West Leicestershire, has helped to improve Boughton’s services to its customers in Birmingham, Leicestershire, Warwickshire, and Derbyshire. A new production facility has also been added to the company’s main Kettering site. This new facility has increased scope for the production of a full range of natural and sustainable landscaping products.
Sustainable solutions
Sustainability and material provenance are two elements that hold great importance for Boughton. Advocates for ‘as-dug’ natural topsoil, Boughton soils benefit from a good body and great moisture retention qualities, as well as having a low pH, high organic content, and boast both existing and developing organism biomass, which is a huge plus for planting schemes. Typically sourced from pre-construction and construction sites from the counties surrounding its base in Northamptonshire, Boughton’s topsoils – all of which are completely natural, organic and peat free – are closely inspected and screened before use. Boughton never uses recycled soils because they cannot be relied on to be of a consistent quality.
Iconic redevelopment with Boughton at the very heart
It is this consistency and high quality of material that has seen Boughton’s soils find their home within some of the country’s most iconic redevelopment schemes this year, notably including the redevelopment of the Battersea Power Station.
Situated on a 39-acre site, the £9billion redevelopment of the Grade II* listed Battersea Power Station has been further enhanced by the introduction of several stunning garden and green roof spaces. One such space is the ‘Garden of the Elements’, located between the four highly recognisable chimneys. Featuring three unique garden spaces, the Garden of Elements – designed by Andy Sturgeon and brought to life by six-times BALI Grand Award winners Willerby Landscapes – is where Boughton’s IN1 Intensive and Lightweight green roof substrates and Rootzone came into their own.
Adding another London landmark to its portfolio, Boughton also proudly provided material to the development for the Fulham riverside. Working with the team at Riverside and, once again, RHS Chelsea Flower Show award-winning garden designer Andy Sturgeon, Boughton has helped to bring to life the scheme’s landscaped areas. Featuring a series of connected green promenades, filled with colourful, textural and scented plants, these spaces are designed to be enjoyed all year round, including an abundant herb garden offering the opportunity to nurture fresh produce.
To date, Boughton has supplied four of its leading products to the project: BLS2, Podium 2 Turf substrate, as well as subsoil and its Lightweight Intensive green roof substrate IN1, also used extensively at Battersea Power Station.
Building a new network
When not helping iconic garden spaces to come to life, Boughton has been busy supporting the Society of Garden Designers (SGD) at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show by providing its BLS Plus topsoil for use on the SGD’s trade stand following a request from 2022 RHS Chelsea judge, Manoj Malde. The relationship with the SGD has also developed with Boughton proudly being confirmed as one of the first Approved Associate Members of the Society of Garden Designers.
Educating to increase specifier confidence
The team have also been on the road, taking in events, award ceremonies and exhibitions, all with one aim – educating and inspiring customers both new and potential. Boughton is on a mission to educate specifiers on the importance of soil specification and how what they are using may not be quite as it originally seems.
The growth in popularity of soil substitutes over the years has tended to drown out the great appeal of natural soil, meaning that many in the industry aren’t as well informed as they could be about the advantages using a natural single-source topsoil can have on a project – and some may not even realise that what they have specified is a soil substitute.
Equally, in many cases, contractors and landscapers are specifying according to BS standards, assuming this is a mark of quality, rather than simply being the base standard that the industry must conform to.
Of course, Boughton accept there are scenarios when soil substitutes are required on a project, including for use on green roof applications, and it’s cutting through this noise and creating a better understanding of ‘what’ and ‘when’ that the company is dedicated to developing.
Find out more
To find out more about Boughton’s complete offering for the amenity, landscape and construction industries, please visit www.boughton.co.uk.
