To celebrate World Bee Day on Thursday May 20th, mead-makers Gosnells will be distributing thousands of packets of sunflower seeds to potential guerrilla gardeners. This will focus especially on their Peckham homeland, but will involve other communities interested in the re-greening of their presently depleted environments.
Says Tom Gosnell, Founder of London’s only mead producer:
“We are doing our bit to enrich biodiversity, something we started in April by making our new Mead Garden & Bar into a flowering jungle. It is a pretty unlikely sight in an industrial estate in Peckham SE15: And now, we’ll be giving out thousands of sunflower planting kits to the likes of community groups, churches, local gardens, shops and care homes.
“Gosnells are a supporting partner of Pollinating London Together a recently launched organisation started in the City of London, committed to bettering the lives of pollinators and humans through a greener environment. Started in the 12th Century, the Livery Companies of the City of London look after quality and training of their particular skills, and they have now come together to re-green London. They showed us what was possible.”
Alongside this, Gosnells wants to spread the word across the UK about the importance of planting for pollinators; so they’re running a competition – they’ll send you the sunflower seeds, and whoever grows the tallest sunflower will win the height of the flower in Gosnells cans!
“There are so many patches of bare earth in cities just waiting to be loved, and we hope that our packs will bring an irregular army of smiling sunflowers to urban Peckham and beyond. Sunflowers are a valuable food source for birds, bees and insects; they’re also really easy to grow, and they brighten up our urban environment.
“Though honey bees give us our livelihood at Gosnells, we are also lovers of every sort of pollinators – butterflies, beetles, bumblebees, whatever- and we hope that our sunflowers will create a natural food source for them, whilst connecting more people of all ages to nature.”
ENDS
Press release from R&R Teamwork on behalf of Gosnells Mead
For more info, contact Rupert Ponsonby rupert@randr.co.uk | 020 7384 1333