Farm Tour

Our Location

Online Turf is situated in the village of Aughton, West Lancashire, just twelve miles north of Liverpool. Our busy office and turf yard are located together on the same farm, with both teams working in tandem to fulfil all of our orders whilst ensuring that each roll meets our high quality standards. With the farm situated near the M58, all of our turf is freshly harvested to order and quickly dispatched to customers all across the UK.

Our Turf Fields

We grow all of our turf from seed on specially chosen fields in the surrounding area. In total, we have around 600 acres of turf fields. Being near to the coast, the land in West Lancashire is nice and flat. The soil is a black, sandy loam which is packed full of nutrients. The Great British weather also helps by providing lots of rainfall, even throughout the summer (which isn’t appreciated by everyone!). This combination of the local climate and landscape in West Lancashire allows us to supply turf of the highest standard, which is why Lancashire is the perfect location for quality turf production.

Lots of preparation and planning is put into the sowing, maintaining and harvesting of our turf. Once a field is fully harvested, the next field will be mature enough to continue harvesting in the new location. It is important to sow the seed at the right time of year for effective germination to take place which is followed by a careful regime of mowing and fertilising to keep the turf in pristine condition. We even vacuum the grass clippings after mowing to keep the turf healthy and strong! After 14-18 months, the field is full of beautifully dense and lush turf that is ready for harvest.

The Turf Harvester

Andrew and Paul are our trained harvester operators. Each day they go out harvesting turf from our fields for all the orders that are due for delivery the following day. Harvesting to order each day ensures that all of our turf is lifted and delivered as fresh as possible. In spring 2015, the farm saw the arrival of a brand new Trebro Autostack Turf Harvester. This was imported over from the USA and allows us to meet demand with high quality harvested turf. As the harvester lifts the turf, it rolls and stacks the turf neatly onto pallets which we then collect and transport back to the yard on a tractor and trailer.

The Turf Yard

Once harvested, the turf is transported back to our yard in Aughton. Here the team has a list of orders which they carefully stack onto pallets and shrink wrap so that they arrive at their destination safely. A label is then stuck onto the pallets and our haulage company send in wagons to collect the pallets and the orders start making their way to our customers. The labels are scanned at various points as the order travels across the country, so we can keep an eye on where our orders are up to.

The Office

The office team are based on the farm in Aughton and are available on the phone and through our online support facility to help with any customer questions and queries you may have. They work closely with our haulage companies arranging for all our orders to be dispatched and delivered efficiently. We also have local landscapers popping in throughout the day to collect turf from the yard, with the general public also welcome to collect. We have a busy marketing team upstairs who are constantly working to improve our website, to make it user friendly for customers and provide all the information you need to get your new lawn off to the best start, including our handy how to video guides.

A Look Back

Online Turf hasn’t always looked like the photos above. Originally the farm started life as a traditional family farm, a part of the local farming community since 1933. It was in 1987 that directors and brothers Andrew and Ian Mercer decided to diversify into turf production. Although quite a brave decision at the time, Online Turf has since gone from strength to strength. Despite the growing business and expanding team, Ian and Andrew still maintain a hands-on interest in every part of the business and still uphold the values of a family business that first made it a success.