I plant up the 1st green roof tray

Last week, Phil brought the trays down for my green roof. My WildlifeKate Hub's green roof needs to be grown in trays, so they can be lifted up onto the hub for the show. After the show, I will plant directly onto the roof. I have decided to experiment and plant up the trays in different ways, so I can experiment and see what works. 


On the edge of one of the fields opposite my garden, soil is often dumped. It has meant that, over the years a rather interesting assortment of humps, soils and plants have built up.

There were loads of poppies there last year and this year, the area is covered in poppy seedlings, all self sown from last year's plants. I thought a poppy tray would be interesting so, with my young nephew's help, we took the wheel barrow across and dug up a selection of the poppy plants.

I have bought some material weed control to line the trays and I cut this to fit. We then filled the tray with the soil from the heap in which the poppies were growing. We then planted to poppies into the tray. Hopefully, these plants will take and provide a lovely bright display for June! 

That's one tray planted up.... eight to go!!

Phils' Blog: We travel to the WildlifeKate Headquarters!

Hello again 

Today me and Donna, my partner, made our first visit to Wildlifekate's patch. We took the trays I've made which Kate will be planting up and they will sit on top of the hub creating the  green roof whilst it's in the NEC arena.

Whilst we were at Kate's we were lucky to get an exclusive view into behind the scenes of what we see on Twitter and her website and believe me it's very impressive. Kate showed us how it all worked, showing us where all the nest boxes , hedgehog box ,clay cavern etc  are situated...no ground has been left uncovered .

We also got to meet her lovely children and her loveable pets, Kate's three Siamese cats and Bryn the dog. .

We discussed GWL over tea and cake and Kate even treated us to a tasty lunch . We had a fantastic day and cant wait to get cracking on the rest of the hub .

I have now sourced all the FSC rated timber for the hub and it will be delivered to me early next week , so  you will now start to see the hub come together.I will be taking loads of pics from start to finish which will be posted to my blog  for you all to see .

My green roof trays arrive!

An exciting day today as Phil has been making the trays for my green roof and he and his partner,Donna, drove all the way from Cumbria today to bring them to me.


My WildlifeKate hub is going to have a green roof, but that obviously needs to be planted before the show. In order to do this, I am having a series of trays that can be lifted up onto the roof once at the show. Phil has made these for me and delivered them today.


There are nine trays and they have a frame and then a wire mesh base. I will line each one with weed cover mesh and then plant them all up. I am entirely new to green roofs, so have decided to experiment with different planting in each tray. As I plant them up, I will be blogging about what I am doing and how they progress.


The weather was not looking good for Phil and Donna's trip down the M6 to Lichfield. High winds and swirling snow was not really ideal for a long journey with wooden trays strapped to the top of a van, but they arrived safely and were pleased to be welcomed to my home.. wood burner roaring , cuppa and homemade cake!!

Phil and Donna have not visited me before, so it was great to be able to show them around and point out where all my cameras were! Now when they watch my live streams, they will be able to picture everything in context!


Phil unloaded all the trays into my garage port... there were a few minor adjustments to be made... a quick trip to Wickes and before long, Phil was done.

Then we carried them all up onto the patio area where the hub will be set up after the show. It had stopped snowing, but was mighty cold out there! We laid them out in position so we could visualise how big the hub is going to be. It is so exciting actually seeing the start of this building that began as a dream sketch! It looks pretty big, but luckily, I have a large patio area and it is going to look truly spectacular there.

All the wood for the WildlifeKate Hub has been delivered to the main depot and Phil will be picking that up next week. Building will start in earnest then. He is an amazing carpenter and this building is really going to be something special! Come to the show and see for yourself. Commission him to make your bespoke building... get sketching your ideas now and you can show him them at the show! If you can sketch it.... he can make it! Have your own wildlife hub in your garden!


It is so exciting when, after all the planning, you start to see it actually happening.....

Catching up!

So much has been going on that I have struggled to get the time to blog about my progress.
Now we are in April, June seems much closer! Lots of organising has been going on in the background and we should see a lot of things coming together in the next month.

Firstly, I have started planning and planting for the show. I am growing some plants for the stand myself and working with G-Scapes for the remainder. G-Scapes will be having a stand at the show, so hopefully, the plants you see on my stand can be purchased from them! I went along and discussed my insect planting with Brydon (the nursery manager) and Dan Gee and I will return to the nursery in late May to choose the individual plants I want. There will be two planters; one will be ferns and hostas (as I have shaded areas with lots of these in my garden) and the other will be planted with insects in mind... lots of nectar rich species. I have planted a similar area in my garden and this season we will see how successful it all is in attracting bee, butterflies and other insects to the garden.

Things are moving on massively with my hub and we have just had all the wood delivered for that! I am very excited about Phil starting the major build and there will be lots of photos coming soon showing its progress. I am going to grow a green roof on this building, but need to be able to grow and then move that to the show. Phil is building me some trays that I cam going to plant it all up in. The trays will be transported to the show and lifted up onto the roof. He is making them for me this week and will be delivering them here, to the WIidlifeKate patch on Wednesday! I can then get cracking with seeding these up and nurturing them for the next few months to get them ready for the big week!

I have been talking to Vicky at  'Forest', who produce FSC rated garden products and I am delighted to announce that they will be supporting the WildlifeKate stand and you will be able to see some of their great products on my stand, including lovely fencing panels, planters and compost bin!

I have also seen the first proofs of my WildlifeKate banners, but I am going to keep those under wraps for the moment until we have fine tuned them!

Also, I am hoping to have a fantastic wildlife giveaway every day on my stand.... I will announce those prizes from some very generous companies a bit closer to the time.