News

Dacorum goes wild for seed giveaway


We've given away more than 4,000 packets of wildflower seeds to households and schools to support local wildlife in Dacorum.

The packets of seeds are being sent out over the next week ready for schools and households to plant in their outdoor spaces throughout June.

The giveaway is a Dacorum Climate Action Network (CAN) initiative. Dacorum CAN is a free network that works to encourage and enable local individuals and organisations to "think global and act local" to help tackle the climate and ecological emergency. Find out more about joining Dacorum CAN.

In addition to the giveaway, Dacorum CAN also held a primary school competition to win a large insect hotel and planters. The lucky winner was Nash Mills Church of England Primary School and the 26 runner-up primary schools will be receiving 100 packets of wildflower seeds each.

The giveaway and competition was run to celebrate Biodiversity Day, which was held on 22 May 2022 - the theme this year was “Building a shared future for all life”. The UK has lost 97 per cent of its wildflower meadows in less than 100 years, which is why sowing wildflower seeds is so important.

Adding wildflowers into your outdoor space will provide more food for struggling pollinators such as bees and butterflies, as well as other insects, and in turn the birds and mammals that depend on them. The more wildflowers you plant, the greater your impact will be.

If you are one of the lucky households or schools who will be receiving free seeds, we would love to see photos or videos of you sowing the seeds in your outdoor space so that we can use these to help promote the giveaway next year. Please email them to  sustainability@dacorum.gov.uk.

We have developed a number of wildflower areas across the borough. To allow them to grow we have adjusted our cutting regimes in these designated areas. Learn more about these locations from our newly launched interactive map of wildflower areas.