Work is underway with the National Trust to identify and locate each and every plant and vegetable in more than eighty National Trust gardens.

This immense three year survey will encapsulate details of the wide range of plants growing in National Trust gardens in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Tim Pybus, Managing Director of Ormston Technology explains:

“Our company is branching out and providing technology and support to the gardeners and volunteers who are carrying out the survey.  A photo will be taken of each plant, a GPS grid reference will be recorded using Magellan’s handheld data collector device with GPS receiver and MobileMapper CX so that each plant can then be identified by experts.

Information from all of the survey work carried out in the gardens will be entered into a central database. This will enable experts to identify which plants, trees or heritage vegetables need to be propagated in order to replenish existing collections and make plants available elsewhere.

The propagation of plants will enable the National Trust to replenish existing collections, prepare its gardens for the challenges of climate change and make plants available to other properties.

Many of the National Trust’s working kitchen gardens will be taking part in the survey. This will provide a much clearer picture of the rare and threatened heritage varieties of vegetables found in these gardens and which of them need to be preserved and propagated for wider use.”

Mike Calnan, Head of Parks and Gardens at the National Trust, explains how the latest GPS technology enables this survey to be achieved:

“This is the biggest and most comprehensive plant survey ever undertaken in the UK.  At the moment we have records for around five per cent of plants in our gardens but by implementing GPS technology this survey will take that figure to beyond 75 per cent in the next three years. Ormston Technology offered us the best product and service. With so many staff and volunteers involved and the amount of properties around the UK to be surveyed - ease of use and value for the money were fundamental to the project. The Magellan MobileMapper CX is a rugged GPS handheld device which is made to a high standard, it is weatherproof and provides sub metre accurate ordnance survey coordinate positions.”

Franklyn Tancock, who is coordinating the project at the National Trust explains how the GPS receivers are equipped with DigiTerra Explorer 5, a mobile Global Information System (GIS) and data capture software:

“DigiTerra Explorer was selected because it is an easy to understand, straightforward application. Details of captured information are easily processed providing ease of identification and display on the map.

We will be able to map out the thousands of rare species of plant in the care of the National Trust which have been bred by passionate plant collectors or gathered by plant hunters on expeditions during the last 400 years or so. We might even ‘discover’ plants that we didn’t know we had.”

To discover how Ormston Technology can help map your business, call 01482 677655 or email info@ormtec.co.uk

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