According to recent trends reported by the Turfgrass Growers Association (TGA), there are huge concerns regarding the unpredictable and extreme weather conditions encountered across the UK over the past year.

The wildly varying weather, from droughts to floods, has led to a whole raft of challenges for turfgrass growers, including an increase in disease and pests, and an inability to cut turf.

And it does not look like the situation will improve. The Met Office is predicting an increase in warmer, wetter winters, as well as hotter, drier summers and a higher amount of extreme weather events. All of this adds more and more pressure onto turf growers in terms of both costs of production and loss of sales.

What does this mean?

This is likely to result in a necessary “industry-wide adjustment in turfgrass pricing”, according to Richard Owens, Chair of the TGA. (Read the full statement from the TGA.) Meaning the price of turf is highly likely to increase in order to combat the issues faced.

What does this mean for Sherborne Turf customers?

At Sherborne Turf we have been doing everything in our power to hold our turf prices at the current rate. We will continue to do so into 2024 and intend to keep our prices as low as possible for as long as possible.

We appreciate the cost-of-living crisis has affected everybody and wish to assure our customers, both new and returning, that we will do whatever we can to help.


What about the root cause: Climate Change?

As a business closely linked to the farming industry, Sherborne Turf has long recognised the significance of climate change, and how vitally important it is to act and make positive changes. Here are a few of the actions we have taken in our efforts to reduce the effects of climate change:

  • Our turf is grown according to sustainable farming practices and is just one aspect of QTAgri’s holistic approach to farming. You can read more about their regenerative farming principles and positive wildlife practices here.
  • Our turf is always plastic netting free. Grown over a longer period of time, our turf is more established and has a thicker root mat, meaning it is far more likely to establish successfully at any time of year – with no plastics left to degrade in the soil.
  • The vast majority of our products are 100% peat free – meaning they have not been responsible for the unnecessary release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The only exception being our Mushroom Compost – a recycled byproduct of the mushroom growing industry – which contains less than 0.2% peat.
  • We are part of the Circular Economy: our products are locally sourced, and the majority are recycled: in particular our soils and composts.
  • We have significantly reduced the amount of single use plastics used: we now sell smaller amounts of products in our reusable bags that you can fill yourself at our yard (and save a lot of money in the process – up to 50% cheaper than other retailers). Or bring your own container and save even more!
  • Both our refill and bulk bags are made from 30% recycled plastic that can then be reused many times (our bulk bags are designed for full load single use to ensure the integrity and safety of the bag). Both bags are fully recyclable at the end of their life.
  • We carefully select the products we sell. For example, we are huge fans of EGO battery powered gardening machinery. Not only are you reducing your CO2 emissions by using battery powered machines, but EGO have also partnered with the Eden Reforestation Projects – pledging to plant a tree for every tool they sell.

  • All of our posted products use fully recycled packaging. We have made a huge effort to source all of our packaging from pre-used sources, both reducing the environmental impact of producing new packaging, and reducing the amount sent to landfill.
  • We have used solar panels as part of our energy supply since we moved to our current premises in 2015.
  • We have begun to incorporate the use of electric vehicles in our fleet, and plan to continue adding electric vehicles to replace older vehicles as and when possible.

Of course, there is always more that we can do as a company, and we are continually aware of our huge responsibilities to both stop and reverse the effects of climate change. As such we are always on the lookout for sustainable changes to make a difference in whatever way we can.