News / pollinators
The project creating a buzz at your local
Bedminster drinkers might have noticed a new buzz in the garden of the Spotted Cow last year.
Wildflower borders, built and sown in spring 2024, were soon bursting with foliage and flowers, bringing fresh colour and scents to the pub garden that was formerly just benches and bare grass.
The pollinator-friendly flower beds – housing yarrow, oxeye daisy, wild marjoram, red campion, wild carrot, poppy, cornflower and more – were designed to show how easy it is to make “an actual difference” for the sake of the local environment and wildlife, said Alex Wise.
is needed now More than ever
Wise, who is a regional sales manager at Navas has launched the Create a Buzz at Your Local project, in partnership with the tonic brand and the Eden Project which hosts the National Wildflower Centre.
Before: the garden of the Spotted Cow just after a strip of lawn wall-side had been dug and turned into a bed for wildflowers
Navas provide the seeds and training on sowing and caring for the plants, as well as signs with a QR code which links to further information on the project.
As part of their mission to ‘inspire and demonstrate positive action for the planet,’ the brand gives a percentage of their revenue to the Eden Project and aims to help its customers bring nature back into urban settings. They hope to one day home-grow botanicals in the Project’s biomes.
Wise has now got a handful more bars and restaurants in Bristol’s proximity that are keen to return part of their gardens back to the wild, as well as some further afield.
Kask Wine and Kitchen by Kask, both on North Street, will be sowing seeds in their outdoor areas, while the Litton ’boutique hotel and destination pub’ near Wells and the Mitre Inn in Glastonbury are also on board.
After: the Spotted Cow’s garden is now alive with a mix of wildflowers, bringing new colours, scents, insects and wildlife to the space
“By giving across a part of your pub’s garden, not only does it create wildflower space for bees and insects, it also gives the customers something to look at and the interactive sign gives them an extra bit of story or experience while they’re out there,” said Wise.
The project is also supporting the National Wildflower Centre’s mission to remeadow as much of the UK as possible over the next five years.
Wise said he is aligned with the Centre’s goal to reconnect people with planet: “It’s something that throughout my whole adult life I have been trying to do,” he said.
““I love being outside and gardening, I think having that connection to the natural world is something so important and as a society, we’re becoming more and more disassociated from.
“I think that something in the local pub to interact with while you’re relaxing in the garden – a code that you can scan, have a little read and think: ‘Ah cool, I could actually do that!’ Even if it’s just one person that thinks, ‘I have some space in the back garden, or a pub or restaurant with some borders’ – they can order some seeds or speak to me or the Wildflower Centre.
“I’d love to have just one person inspired by it – because that one person might speak to someone else who has an acre of land that they want to turn into wildflowers.”
Alex worked with staff at the Spotted Cow to put the beds in, and is keen to offer support to any other pubs or restaurants that would like to rewild a corner of their garden, a flowerbed, some planters, pots or window boxes
Wise would like more pubs, bars and restaurants to sign up to the project, suggesting it’s a simple way to do something positive for the environment.
“I think we’re all in situations where we can do something but we’re all so busy and distracted,” he said. “And I think people do want to, they just don’t know how.
“This is a very quick, easy way of following a set of simple instructions. I’ve done it in my own garden for a few years and it’s so satisfying – seeing bees come into your garden which weren’t usually there. I’d like to inspire someone to make that change.”
To find out more and get involved with the project contact alex@navasdrinks.com
All images: Alex Wise/Navas
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