NaturesTurf™ has taken nearly a decade of trial and error, refinement over multiple iterations, and meticulous attention to detail to become a reality. It is so much more than native grasses in a sod like format. It is a highly diverse seed blend comprised of subregion-specific grasses and forbs, field-grown with scrupulous attention at our open-air nursery. The magic doesn’t stop at our nursery. NaturesTurf™ can be safely harvested and transported across North America to fulfill its ultimate purpose - Mindful Revegetation.
We often find ourselves in what can only be considered complete awe of nature’s ability to create such complexity and diversity with what looks to be nearly no effort. For our clients and customers, harnessing the power to instantly vegetate urban areas or restore and reclaim disturbed areas is something that provides confidence in both design concepts and project closures.
As with any natural product, even one with so much utility and versatility, there are some important considerations on where and where not to use NaturesTurf™.
Here is where NaturesTurf™ should absolutely be used:
Erosion Prone Areas: NaturesTurf™ works particularly well on slopes or gradients where water runoff is high, and seeding is difficult. Just like in some of the attached pictures, NaturesTurf™ excels along the edges of pathways or as natural transition between manmade and natural landscapes. NaturesTurf™ provides immediate vegetation and erosion control in one product and in many cases can eliminate the need for erosion control textiles, rolls and other mitigation techniques on challenging sites.
Urban Naturalization Projects: Without a doubt, NaturesTurf™ is vastly superior to seeding in urban environments. Since it is fully established when installed, it has resilience built in and will help in the battle against the establishment of noxious weeds.
Limited Timelines: When timelines are tight and results are required, NaturesTurf™ is the best choice. We demonstrated this with the Wilder Institutes’ (Calgary Zoo) new polar bear exhibit where 2 acres of NaturesTurf™ were required in short order to provide the polar bears a natural habitat.
Sensitive Locations: Sometimes locations are simply too sensitive for anything other than purposefully selected and established plant material. We have 4 standard blends including Grassland, Mixed Grassland, Riparian and Wetland to choose from. But we can also grow to order working side by side with ecologists or landscape architects to ensure we grow the best fit blend for your restoration project.
Plant Diversification: Wherever you might need to provide some diversification. It has been recently suggested that using NaturesTurf™ in smaller sections or blocks during a well-site reclamation project can greatly improve establishment of bunch grasses. This could be done with a 10-20% coverage strategy intermingled with other more widely used seed broadcast techniques.
Revegetation of Visitor Created Trails: We might hate to admit it, but we all have walked where we weren’t necessarily supposed to walk. These compacted trails are very difficult to vegetate from seed so NaturesTurf™ can provide an instant solution and deter future traffic during implementation.
Where we feel NaturesTurf™ should perhaps not be considered… at least not without some direct consultation:
Large Open Areas: Unless there are specific ecological reasons for a custom NaturesTurf™ blend, anything over about 2 acres should probably be seeded and accented with NaturesTurf™. At this level the costs can outweigh the benefits.
Where Nothing Grows: Harsh environments simply are not good for any plant life. If plants can’t grow, there then NaturesTurf™ can’t grow there either.
Not an Ecological Match: NaturesTurf™ standard blends are grown with our local ecoregions in mind. For projects outside of that, let’s talk! We can develop a custom blend with ecoregion or sub-ecoregion specific species.
We hope these general guidelines help to shed some light on the ideal and non-ideal usage for NaturesTurf™, but if you have more questions, don’t hesitate to reach out. We LOVE consulting at every stage of a naturalization project and our consultations are always free of charge. Visit our website for more information so we can help you get natural.
