Grow Your Own Wildflowers

This talk will include a presentation and a Q+A session.

 

 

Paul Totterdell, Director Of Cotswold Seeds, and beekeeper at FarmED, grew up in the Cotswolds and worked on a mixed farm in Gloucestershire as a teenager. He worked part-time mixing seeds in the Cotswold Seeds warehouse during his A-levels and while completing his degree at Oxford Brookes University. After graduating in 2005, Paul joined Cotswold Seeds full-time, initially tasked with improving the IT infrastructure, eventually becoming lead technical advisor and ultimately taking over the day to day running of the business in 2015, becoming an Director in 2024 alongside Ian Wilkinson. Paul was involved for many years with the multi-million pound, EU-funded Healthy Hay and Legume Plus research programmes, focusing on the science behind the forgotten forage legume, Sainfoin. As well as being great for livestock and farmers, sainfoin is also an excellent forage for bees, but Paul has worked with many other fascinating flowering plants during his career which are commonly sown by farmers and which provide vital pollen and nectar for the dwindling insects in our landscape. Paul was also involved with the creation and ongoing evolution of FarmED, helping to devise and refine the vision for the centre and remains a crucial member of the team today, providing insight to farmers and looking after bees in our apiary.