Last chance for Scotland to Grow Wild

Registration for seed kits closes on 14 February

Scotland’s biggest-ever seed sowing campaign, Grow Wild, has thousands of free seed kits to give away to help people transform local spaces into beautiful, inspiring and colourful wild flower havens. With registration closing soon, there is still time to apply and make a visible difference to communities up and down the country.

Supported by the Big Lottery Fund and led by Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Grow Wild inspires communities, friends, neighbours and individuals across Scotland to come together to transform local spaces, by sowing, growing and enjoying native wild flowers. The seed kits are designed for people to share with those around them. Whether it’s their colleagues, sports club, friends, family or neighbours, the kits provide a chance to get together and enjoy the benefits of sowing native wild flowers. Anyone can apply for up to 20 kits.

There are 100,000 free seed kits available, which once sown will help to create over one million square metres of wild flowers by summer 2016. Anyone can register on behalf of their group by filling in Grow Wild’s simple form at: www.growwilduk.com/seed-kit

Registration closes at midnight on 14 February 2016 and the free seed kits will be sent out in late March, just in time for spring sowing. Each kit contains enough seeds to cover up to 10 square metres, and can be used to transform any space – from balconies to old boots, streets to shared spaces, boxes to buckets. The kits also contain a getting started guide, DIY bee house and site markers.

Last year, Grow Wild’s kits found their way to many different organisations and charities, including those that bring together families, young people, students, community wardens, homeless people, resident’s associations, wildlife groups, ex-service people, Girl guiding groups and many more. One of last year’s kit recipients said: “The free seed kits are a fantastic way of helping an area in so many ways; supporting the local wildlife and pollinator insects, improving the look of the area as well as educational benefits.” Another said: “We applied for free wild flower seed kits: we sowed seeds in planters, wall baskets in the alleyway, and in our own gardens. We also painted wild flower murals, with support from volunteer art students.”