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2007 Nursery Stock Grower of the Year

All four divisions that make up the Wyevale Group have blended profit with ethical practices to turn their growing areas into high-tech nerve centres of environmental technology.

The past year has seen the firm commission an energy-saving assessment that resulted in a 10-point action plan. This suggested savings of over £3,500 a year could be achieved by installing photo-cell controls, using hyper-sensitive lighting and improving housekeeping.

Across the divisions staff strove to prove that sound eco practices can be combined with good company performance. Wyevale Transplants for example, which grow hedge plants and woodland trees, won last year’s Pete Weston memorial award from Horticulture Week for a hard-hitting environmental strategy.

Wyevale Container Plants meanwhile is working hard towards minimising chemicals, and striving to use less peat in its compost. Wyevale Trees is reducing the use of herbicides, and Wyevale Hawkins, the container-grown tree specialists, recently updated its irrigation to reduce water usage.

To cap it all, Wyevale became partner nursery with the Horticultural Trades Association by implementing an environmental management standard, the ISO 14001, in horticulture to show high eco standards and improved efficiency.

Recent successes included completion of 20,000m2 of container beds kitted out with water recycling system including filtration and ozone treatment. And a fully integrated pest-and-disease management system has been put in place to cut use of chemicals. This translates to a drop in spending on chemicals by over £4,000 a year.

The firm insists all these steps have been taken without sacrificing quality or hiking up spending. And as its environmental impact goes down, Wyevale has proved its efficiency shoots up.