The seed bank at our wildflower nursery at Gosling Sike stores rare and threatened seeds from local sites around the county. We wanted wanted to make this important facility more eye-catching.

Adam McGinley, Gosling Sike Site Manager explains how we went about this:  

"We want the seed bank to capture people’s imagination, so we asked our volunteer community to suggest ideas for designs for a mural to make it stand out. We were delighted that Florence Thornton agreed to paint the resulting mural, which includes wildflowers and pollinators suggested by our volunteers. The wonderful mural includes melancholy thistle, ragged robin, oxeye daisy, meadow grasses, seed heads, meadow brown butterfly and red tailed bumblebee, all of which are present at Gosling Sike. We’re absolutely delighted with the result and visitors’ feedback so far has been amazing!”

Artist Florence Thornton said: “Painting this mural was an absolute delight. The team at Gosling Sike, Gemma, Adam and Maddy made me feel welcome and have been the best to work with on this project. I pride myself in highlighting beautiful creatures and plants that need a voice, need to be protected. We live in a stunning but delicate world and bringing attention to its inhabitants is my purpose. And of course, a huge thank you to Cumbria Wildlife Trust for all your work!”

The seed bank at Gosling Sike was set up in 2023 and was funded by Cumbria Waste Management Environment Trust (CWMET). We're collecting seeds and growing plants for local sites as part of this funding.

We're also collecting seeds for Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank Partnership, which provides guidance and training. Our volunteers help with seed collection, processing, storage and data. The seeds are used to grow plants for our conservation projects - rarer species are kept for longer-term conservation. Visitors can visit the seed bank when staff are on site.

We're encouraging more creative art connections with our local community. This includes:

• Upcoming and local artists using our base at Gosling Sike as an exhibition space
• Regular workshops provided by Julia Garner and other artists
• Carlisle Contemporary Arts holding an exhibition in September as part of the Eden Valley Arts Trail
• Photographs by our photography competition finalists will be displayed at Gosling Sike
• Later in the year, Tullie House will bring ‘Tullie on Tour’ for a day to Gosling Sike