Wildflower Lewes and the High Street pollinator project

Emma Chaplin
, 20 April 2023
Wildflower Lewes and the High Street pollinator project
Wildflower Lewes volunteers in Waitrose carpark

We speak to Lesley Healey of Wildflower Lewes

Tell us about Wildflower Lewes

Wildflower Lewes is a community group, established in 2016, by a handful of people committed to introducing our local wildflowers to more people in Lewes. We currently have around 270 people on our list, many of whom help out with our various activities like growing, planting, and surveying chalkland wildflowers, and explaining to others why it is important. There are no membership fees, and signing up doesn’t commit you to anything except receiving our monthly newsletter and occasional extra notices. We aim to:

  • Bring more wildflowers into Lewes
  • Encourage all pollinators: bees, butterflies, moths and other insects
  • Make a home for wildlife that lives amongst taller plants
  • Provide food for birds, bats and other animals
  • Give local people the opportunity to connect with nature on their doorstep

What’s the High Street pollinator project?

We want to encourage people living and working in the centre of Lewes to have planters, troughs, window boxes, even hanging baskets planted with wildflowers. Some properties on the High Street have gardens at the back that could grow wildflowers - they don’t need to be visible to us (though it’s lovely to see them!) as long as flying insects can see them. If we get enough patches of wildflowers, insects including pollinators can move right across Lewes using these 'stepping stones’ to feed, meet each other and mate, and find homes. To make this a reality, we need the help of as many people living or working on the High Street as possible. We have been gifted with some starter troughs for the first people that offer their help, and we are now growing wildflowers at our new Tree and Wildflower Nursery, so we can supply suitable wildflower plants that will come back year after year. 

Cowslip © Audrey Jarvis
Cowslip © Audrey Jarvis

Why is this sort of thing so important?

All life depends on plants. They are at the bottom of every food chain, yet their own survival often depends on the insects that feed on them. More than half of what we eat depends on pollinators, most of which eat flower nectar or pollen or other parts of plants. Most pollination is done by flying insects like bees, butterflies, moths, flies and beetles and we’ve lost 60% of them in the last 20 years. In the last 50 years, we’ve lost more than 95% of our wildflower meadows, which once fed those insects. It is easy to understand that we must do what we can to support insect life, including pollinators. As towns have grown, bricks and concrete have broken up the corridors of flowery grasses that insects use to get around, meet each other, and reproduce. Most insects only fly a limited distance before stopping to eat. That means they can't fly across an urban centre to meet other populations. 

Wildflower Lewes volunteers
Wildflower Lewes volunteers

What can people in towns and cities, with only window boxes or balconies, or tiny outdoor spaces, do to help pollinators?

If you provide it, they will come! Planting wildflowers, or garden species that are close to their wild origin, really helps insects to find food and get around. It’s like having food trucks along a travel network. The closer flower plants are to UK native species, the more insects you’ll help, as insects have evolved to feed on naturally growing wildflowers. Many pollinators are fine living on garden plants like salvias and nepetas, but some of our most threatened species, some butterflies for example, are totally reliant on just one or two flower species to feed their caterpillars.

Without those flowers, the species becomes extinct. If we each put a bit of effort into saving our tiny animals, we’ll have a more diverse, more successful world.

Where can people find out more about what you do?

Email me [email protected] or visit our Facebook page: wildflowerlewes

Wildflower Lewes covers the town of Lewes. If you don’t live in Lewes, we can put you in touch with a local organisation.

Leave a comment
Time Δ Debug Message - Perch Runway 3.2
1782913192.66350 [906] SELECT p.pagePath, pr.routePattern, pr.routeRegExp, p.pageTemplate, pr.routeOrder, s.settingValue AS siteOffline FROM swt_pages_staging p LEFT JOIN swt_page_routes pr ON p.pageID=pr.pageID LEFT JOIN swt_settings s ON s.settingID='siteOffline' UNION SELECT NULL AS pagePath, pr2.routePattern, pr2.routeRegExp, pr2.templatePath AS pageTemplate, pr2.routeOrder, NULL AS siteOffline FROM swt_page_routes pr2 WHERE templateID!=0 ORDER BY routeOrder ASC, pagePath ASC
1782913192.69310.0296Matched route: news/[slug:s]
1782913192.69320.0001Server address: 216.73.217.103
1782913192.69330Using master page: /templates/pages/blog/post.php
1782913192.69330Page arguments: 
Array
(
    [0] => /news/wildflower-lewes-and-the-high-street-pollinator-project
    [s] => wildflower-lewes-and-the-high-street-pollinator-project
    [1] => wildflower-lewes-and-the-high-street-pollinator-project
)
1782913192.69360.0004 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782913192.69460.001 [86] SELECT DISTINCT settingID, settingValue FROM swt_settings WHERE userID=0
1782913192.69720.0026 [1] SELECT locationID FROM swt_shop_tax_locations WHERE locationIsHome=1 LIMIT 1
1782913192.69780.0006INSERT INTO swt_shop_cart(memberID,locationID,currencyID,cartPricing,cartProperties) VALUES(NULL,'1',47,'standard','[]')
1782913192.7160.0182 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_cart WHERE cartID=22484801
1782913192.71680.0008 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_cart WHERE cartID=22484801
1782913192.71820.0014 [nil] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_sales WHERE saleFrom<='2026-07-01 13:39:00' AND saleTo>'2026-07-01 13:39:00' AND saleActive=1 AND saleDeleted IS NULL ORDER BY saleOrder ASC
1782913192.71990.0017 [1] SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS DISTINCT tbl.* FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, main.*, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_blog_index idx JOIN swt_blog_posts main ON idx.itemID=main.postID AND idx.itemKey='postID' JOIN swt_blog_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey='postID' AND idx2.indexKey='_id' WHERE 1=1 AND ((idx.indexKey='postSlug' AND idx.indexValue='wildflower-lewes-and-the-high-street-pollinator-project')) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey=idx2.itemKey GROUP BY idx.itemID, idx2.indexValue, postID ) as tbl WHERE (postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-01 13:39:00' ) GROUP BY itemID, sortval ORDER BY sortval ASC LIMIT 0, 10
1782913192.72410.0042 [1] SELECT FOUND_ROWS() AS `count`
1782913192.72460.0005 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_posts WHERE postID=3051 AND postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-01 13:39:00'
1782913192.72560.001 [13] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_sections ORDER BY sectionTitle ASC
1782913192.72650.0009 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blogs ORDER BY blogTitle ASC
1782913192.72740.0009 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=195 LIMIT 1
1782913192.7280.0006 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=51 LIMIT 1
1782913192.72860.0006Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1782913192.72890.0002 [162] SELECT catID, catPath FROM swt_categories
1782913192.72980.0009 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_posts WHERE postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-01 13:39:00' AND postSlug='wildflower-lewes-and-the-high-street-pollinator-project'
1782913192.75460.0248Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1782913192.75530.0007 [250] SELECT country, countryID FROM swt_shop_countries WHERE countryActive=1 ORDER BY country ASC
1782913192.75670.0014Using template: /templates/pages/attributes/seo.html
1782913192.75680.0002 [1] SELECT regionID, regionTemplate, regionPage, regionRev AS rev FROM swt_content_regions WHERE regionKey='Banner image' AND (regionPage='/news/post' OR regionPage='*')
1782913192.75770.0009 [nil] SELECT * FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, c.regionID, idx.pageID, c.itemJSON, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_content_index idx JOIN swt_content_items c ON idx.itemID=c.itemID AND idx.itemRev=c.itemRev AND idx.regionID=c.regionID JOIN swt_content_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemRev=idx2.itemRev AND idx2.indexKey='_order' WHERE ((idx.regionID=104 AND idx.itemRev=0)) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemRev=idx2.itemRev ) as tbl GROUP BY itemID, pageID, itemJSON, sortval, regionID ORDER BY sortval ASC
1782913192.7590.0013 [82] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageDepth >=0 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1782913192.76310.0041 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782913192.76380.0006 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1782913192.76750.0037Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template.html
1782913192.76750.0001 [6] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782913192.76840.0008 [4] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782913192.76890.0006 [29] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782913192.77150.0026 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782913192.77250.001 [7] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782913192.77330.0007 [9] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782913192.77540.0021 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' OR pageSortPath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782913192.77630.0009 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageHidden=0 AND pageNew=0 AND pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition
1782913192.77940.0031 [1] Using template: /templates/navigation/breadcrumbs.html
1782913192.77980.0004Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1782913192.78010.0003 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_authors WHERE authorID='20' LIMIT 1
1782913192.78080.0007Using template: /templates/blog/author.html
1782913192.78120.0004 [1] SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS DISTINCT tbl.* FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, main.*, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_blog_index idx JOIN swt_blog_posts main ON idx.itemID=main.postID AND idx.itemKey='postID' JOIN swt_blog_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey='postID' AND idx2.indexKey='_id' WHERE 1=1 AND ((idx.indexKey='postSlug' AND idx.indexValue='wildflower-lewes-and-the-high-street-pollinator-project')) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey=idx2.itemKey GROUP BY idx.itemID, idx2.indexValue, postID ) as tbl WHERE (postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-01 13:39:00' ) GROUP BY itemID, sortval ORDER BY sortval ASC LIMIT 0, 1
1782913192.78320.0021 [1] SELECT FOUND_ROWS() AS `count`
1782913192.78360.0004 [1] Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1782913192.78670.0031Using template: /templates/blog/comment_form.html
1782913192.78770.001 [nil] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_comments WHERE 1=1 AND postID=3051 AND commentStatus='LIVE' ORDER BY FIELD(webmentionType, 'like', 'repost', 'comment', NULL) ASC, commentDateTime ASC
1782913192.84660.0589 [0] Using template: /templates/blog/comment.html
1782913192.84670.0002Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1782913192.8470.0003 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_authors WHERE authorID='20' LIMIT 1
1782913192.84790.0009 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/what-we-do' OR pageSortPath='/what-we-do' LIMIT 1
1782913192.84860.0007 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-002' LIMIT 1
1782913192.84920.0006 [7] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-002%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1782913192.8520.0028 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782913192.85250.0005 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1782913192.8550.0025 [6] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1782913192.85590.0009 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/make-a-difference' OR pageSortPath='/make-a-difference' LIMIT 1
1782913192.85650.0006 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-005' LIMIT 1
1782913192.8570.0005 [38] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-005%' ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1782913192.85950.0026 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782913192.860.0005 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1782913192.86190.0019 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1782913192.86440.0026 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/visit' OR pageSortPath='/visit' LIMIT 1
1782913192.8650.0005 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-004' LIMIT 1
1782913192.86530.0004 [30] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-004%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1782913192.86770.0023 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782913192.86810.0004 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1782913192.870.0019 [29] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1782913192.87220.0022 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/make-a-difference' OR pageSortPath='/make-a-difference' LIMIT 1
1782913192.87290.0007 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-005' LIMIT 1
1782913192.87320.0004 [11] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-005%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1782913192.87520.0019 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782913192.87560.0004 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1782913192.87740.0018 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1782913192.87830.0009Request time: 0.2187
1782913192.87830Process time: 0.2184
1782913192.87830Memory: 1.6523