Lou’s Wild Garden is here to help wildlife by empowering people to create their own wildflower and nature-filled spaces in Exeter and beyond.

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My wild garden in urban Exeter is the heart and inspiration for my small artisanal wildflower nursery: an ordinary garden space transformed into a wild haven abundant in wildflowers blended with cottage garden-style plantings where bees, butterflies, ladybirds, hedgehogs and birds are just some of the wildlife finding food and shelter.

Wildflowers and insects have evolved together, benefitting each other and forming part of our vital web of life, and providing us with health benefits, stories and wonder along the way.

Other pollinator-friendly plants play a helpful role too by providing nectar, colour, and scent throughout the year but did you know that some wildflowers are the only plants that butterflies and moths will lay eggs on, and that provide the best quality pollen for endangered wild bees?

Wildflowers’ delicate beauty means they can blend with other plants or create a meadow effect when planted together. Wildflowers, other wildlife-friendly plants, and habitats can exist happily with other plants and features you love, in a pesticide-free garden space.

Since the 1930s, over 97% of wildflower meadows have been lost but excitingly, we can influence what happens in our own green spaces. Our gardens make up half a million hectares acres across the UK: the equivalent of 70,000 football pitches and a significant chunk of space compared to farmland.

Wildflowers are the ‘Commandos’ of the plant world: tough and adapted to our environment. Mostly slug-resistant and drought-tolerant, they need little fuss once planted and may reward you by producing seeds to collect and seedlings to re-plant or compost.

By creating wilder, wildflower-enhanced spaces in your garden today, you’re contributing to a more abundant, compassionate tomorrow.  

Explore my wildflower catalogue

As a former non-gardener, I have first-hand, practical experience of discovering how wildflowers and wildlife habitats can turn an ordinary garden into an abundant, nature-filled world bringing wonder and wellbeing to everyday life. Growing up in Exeter close to Mincinglake and Barley Valley parks and surrounding fields, I enjoyed seeing wild plants and nature at an early age. Curious to experience life in bigger cities, I later learned about our ecological crisis while yearning for nature and somewhere to call my own. Impulse-buying books on garden wildlife habits and wildflowers empowered me to make a tangible difference personally. I didn’t realise how rewarding this would be until I moved back to Exeter and my own home and garden where I now experience a wild world of wonder outside my door and through my windows. I’m excited to share this and help form a network of gardens making a positive difference for nature at a vital time.

Underpinning my wildlife gardening experience is an RHS Level 2 Diploma in the Principles and Practices of Horticulture (commendation), gained while volunteering at the National Trust, Avon Wildlife Trust’s Grow Wilder nursery, Devon Wildlife Trust’s Cricklepit Mill garden and working at InBloom Devon organic cut flower field. I went on to help run OrganicARTS’ community garden supervising vulnerable adult volunteers for two years and carry out wildlife-friendly garden maintenance in Exeter while working for Wildlife Trust membership fundraising: keeping updated with issues and campaigns for wildlife UK-wide. My love of working with people for positive causes developed over ten years doing communications for charities and the NHS. It’s a joy to be meeting like-minded souls through my wildflower sales and talks.