St Helens beekeeper offers free wildflower seeds to schools and youth groups across Merseyside

A St Helens beekeeper is offering free wildflower seeds to schools and youth groups across Merseyside to help support nature and encourage an interest in it.

Dad-of-two Greg Hamilton, 37, from Rainford, has already given them to local primary schools as well as scouts and guide groups, and places like GreenAcres Memorial Park and Inglenook Farm nearby.

In his bid to see wildflowers flourish he has sent out around 50 wildflower seed packs across the borough, but now he’d love to see more schools and young people’s groups in Liverpool City Region taking up his offer.

Greg said:

“It will help to support the pollinators and wildlife wherever they’re planted,”

“The aim is to get children interested in nature from a young age and show how simple actions like planting wildflowers can make a real difference for bees and biodiversity.

“I want to use my business to give something back to the communities that support it – and this feels like a natural way to do that.”

The wildflower packs contain seeds to plant, information about why Greg is doing what he does, and activity ideas.

“There are tips on how to plant wildflower seeds, and how to do a nature survey – looking at what wildlife is there before and after the wildflowers are grown,” explains Greg. “And there’s information on how to make seed bombs.

“The idea is to educate kids, the next generation, about preserving and helping the environment they live in, and encouraging a healthy respect and knowledge of nature when they’re young to influence the decisions and choices they make when they’re adults.

“In fact, if anyone likes what I’m doing, they could pick up some seeds – or buy a jar of honey!”

It’s a subject Greg is passionate about.

Although his full time job is as a technologist for a glass company, Greg, who’s married to Katherine with children of three and three months, is founder and owner of Myst-Tree Honey which he runs in his spare time.

It was begun after Greg took up cider making to use of the apples that his late cat Myst would send cascading down onto his car as she climbed a tree outside his home – hence the name Myst-Tree.

“Myst loved a certain apple tree and she used to run up and down it, bouncing off branches and sending apples down onto the cars, denting them, so I decided I was at least going to do something with all these apples.

“My wife used to make apple crumble after apple crumble, but there’s only so many you can eat, so I decided to try and make cider.

“The cider at first was awful but I researched how to make it better, and then experimented making apple mead with honey, yeast and water (it’s called a cyser). I gave that to friends and even did a tasting at a wine shop in Eccleston,” he explains. “And people loved it.

“I looked into more production of cider and how I would create cyser – and realised that to make 200 litres of cyser, you needed about 50kg of honey. That’s when, when I found out it was going to cost me £2-300 for the honey, I thought I can buy a hive for that!”

Greg and Katherine learned about beekeeping and got their own hives – ‘it was lockdown and we had the time’ – at one point owning 70 hives, although that was reduced to a more manageable 25 before baby number two arrived.

And the beekeeping took over, with Greg producing a pure and unfiltered Myst-Tree Honey which he sells in local stores like Windy Arbor Farm Shop and Pick ‘n’ Mixers in Rainford, and around nine other outlets across Liverpool including Liverpool Cheese Company, although he is hoping to get it stocked in more.

“I love keeping bees. It recharges me; it calms and relaxes me, and we went from producing around 150 jars of honey in the first year to around 3,000 now.

“It was when we got the bees, who rely on nectar and honey from the flowers to produce honey, that I started noticing how few wildflowers there were around. Everywhere’s so manicured, the paths are sprayed to keep weeds down, so we’ve slowly got rid of natural habitats.

“I was out walking, and spending time in the garden, and I noticed how there are fewer bugs and things that go squeak in the night!

“I started trying to help by Rewilding Rainford and trying to teach my kids something about nature every day and, encouraging others to do the same, I now want to spread that out further afield.

“What’s that Kevin Costner film, Field of Dreams, where the famous line is ‘If we build it, they will come’?  Well, if we create the natural habitats, all the insects and wildlife like birds and mice will come back too.”

To get free wildflower seed packs visit Greg’s website.

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