For our tenth anniversary, Festival host Toby Buckland and Meadow in My Garden’s Paul Jupp have teamed up to launch ‘The Pocket Meadow Project’, an initiative that raises awareness of the habitat loss faced bees and other insect pollinators and gives gardeners the tools to do something about it!

Everyone is invited to get involved by growing the free wildlife friendly seeds offered by Paul, and learning how to create much-needed pollinator-friendly forage and nesting habitats.

Although the scheme launches at Powderham Castle the aim is to stay connected via National insect monitoring schemes and repeat this community-based model and create a domino effect across the country.

Toby says…
‘I speak to so many gardeners who, in the face of our changing climate and landscape, feel powerless to make a difference. And that’s where the Pocket Meadow Project come in. Although the individual meadows might be small, together they create a network of much-needed feed stations for our threatened bees – where we can monitor, learn and share our experiences.’

Paul is bringing his award-winning flower meadow seed products to the Festival and running demo’s on making seed-bombs and sowing mini-meadows.

Free packs of seed are available on a first come first served basis, with enough to sow a cluster of pots or a meter square, flowery mead in the soil. Watch this space for more details…