Bus stops buzzing with colour and life thanks to Eden apprentice team

Eden Project apprentices have created a vibrant network of Buzz Stops in nearby communities to bring plant life and pollinators to bus stops.

The team has installed a series of vertical planters and large troughs at stops in St Blazey, Treverbyn and Roche and filled them with bee-friendly plants.

From year-round flowering wildflower planters to moon gardens for night pollinators, the Buzz Stops create hop-on, hop-off stops for a range of insects looking to get from A-to-B.

Juliet Rose, Eden’s Community Programmes Development Manager, said: “As landscapes become increasingly fragmented it becomes harder for pollinators to navigate their way to sources of pollen and nectar.

“Buzz Stops are a bit like transit cafes providing sustenance as insects move through our communities and help to link up dispersed populations. We hope they also put a smile on people’s faces by bringing some greenery and wildlife to their local bus stops.”

Students from Doubletrees School in St Blazey were also invited to help the team of apprentices create the Buzz Stop outside their school.

Eden Apprentice Matthew Toms said: “This was an amazing opportunity presented to us by the Eden Project Communities team and clearly shows their emphasis on Education and apprenticeship by entrusting us with this project. It perfectly suited my business administration apprenticeship, as I was able to put into practice everything I have learnt in the classroom to a public facing project.

“We focused on using as much repurposed material from within Eden to help create the Buzz Stops, mimicking the story of the Eden Project itself.”

The initiative is part of the Create a Buzz project, funded by the Garfield Weston Foundation, and follows 400 mini Buzz Stops created by local Cornwall community members in their gardens during the pandemic. Plants for this were supplied by People & Gardens – a community organisation that empowers people with learning disabilities or emotional impairments to develop core skills and support one another – along with the support of the National Wildflower Centre at Eden.  

More than 3,600 individual plants loved by pollinators have been grown from organic, pesticide-free seeds. These community Buzz Stops were distributed during the Covid-19 lockdowns via food banks to local households, schools, community gardens, care homes and migrant worker communities along with instructions on how to care for them.

It is hoped that, with the support of local councils, further Buzz Stops could be installed at bus stops around Cornwall and the UK to help tackle habitat loss and raise awareness of the importance of pollinators and how we can help them.