‘Absolutely amazed’ - East Boldon Sunflowers proves to be a hit with people far and wide
An East Boldon sunflower trail has proven to be popular activity this summer.
East Boldon Sunflowers, based at Mundle Farm, has been a hit with members of the public both nationally and internationally since it was opened by owners Peter and Yvonne Alderslade earlier this summer.
It was the first time that the pair had grown sunflowers and only made the decision to do so after the wet winter ruined 95% of the farm’s crop fields.
The ruined crops, coupled with the expensive prices for seeds, led to the planting of sunflowers and wildflowers across five acres of land and the rest was history.
Following the success of the sunflower trail, Peter revealed to the Shields Gazette that as farming in Britain gets tougher each year, he expects more farmers to branch out with various activities for members of the public.
He said: “This was something that we’ve done ad hoc, we never planned for it but with the wet winter destroying around 95% of our crops, we had to come up with something to try and recover some of our losses.
“Seed was just expensive that we decided to plant sunflowers and wildflowers but initially we didn’t put them in to make a sunflower trail.
“I’ve got a few friends in other parts of the country who have done something similar with their farms, plus my daughter has been urging me to do it for years.
“One day she just put something on Facebook and since then, I’m just absolutely amazed at how it has gone.
“There has been people from places such as South Africa and New Zealand visit the farm just to see the sunflowers.
“We’ve even had a yoga instructor contact us for permission to host a yoga class in the middle of the sunflowers, we really didn’t expect this.
“With how difficult farming is at the moment, I can definitely see more farms across the country branching out to do more things like this.
“Given how bad crop yields have been for us this year, the sunflowers have helped us out tremendously in going someway to recovering the costs.”
With the sunflowers growing well across the farm, Peter’s daughter worked quickly to create signs and photo opportunities to place throughout the trail for visitors to enjoy.
As autumn approaches, Peter revealed that the lifespan of the sunflowers is coming to an end but reassured visitors that they are planning to make it even better next year.
He added: “This year is coming to an end as the sunflowers are now starting to go off but there will still be plenty for this coming weekend.
“Given that we never planned to do it this year, it is something that we are absolutely going to do again.
“Access is something that we are going to address next year as at the moment, we are only accessible by a small farm track.
“The whole idea will be to make it bigger and better but we will ensure to keep the cost down to keep it affordable for everyone.”
You can keep up to date with East Boldon Sunflowers by visiting: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61564198828901.