The 'Butterfly Brothers' of Bourne to appear in BBC2's Gardeners' World tonight

The ‘Butterfly Brothers’ of Bourne will appear on Gardeners' World tonight (Friday) showing how their work helps butterflies and other wildlife.

Jim and Joel Ashton, 32, created Hazelwood Landscapes in 2006 and have earned national acclaim with their unique environmentally-friendly gardens.

Tonight, the pair, who grew up in Bourne, have a six minute segment in the popular BBC 2 programme, which will be broadcast at 9pm.

Jim, who is 30, said their segment of the programme was filmed last Monday and features a garden they have created in Bishop Stortford, Hertfordshire.

He said: “We started working there in late 2015 and have transformed a pleasant , normal garden with lawn, into a wildlife garden to encourage slow worms, lizards and bats. We have bats back in there after an absence of 20 years.”

Other gardens have a focus on wildflowers and have given the brothers a nickname as ‘the Butterfly Brothers’ for how the flowers help butterflies.

Jim said: “We travel nationally to Dorset, Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire. We go everywhere, including Scotland and Wales.”

The pair both attended Edenham Primary School and Bourne Grammar School and still live in Bourne.

They started gardening work as teenagers and created the business when Jim turned 18.

He said: “It’s gone from strength-to-strength. The country is changing, the world is changing. Back in 2006 it was so hard to persuade people but there has been a big change in attitudes. Everybody is going greener. It’s quite lovely.”

Despite such success, the pair say ‘we get by’.

Jim continued: “It’s not about making money. It’s about giving something back, helping nature and wildlife on a big scale. We are saving Britain’s wildlife one garden at a time. A big chunk of our work is creating ponds. We literally create nature reserves.”

Such works have seen the brothers win awards for their wildlife gardens.

They have also been recognised by famous naturalists including Sir David Attenborough, Chris Packham and Alan Titchmarsh, who have all given them interviews on their website.

The website can be found at www.hazelwoodlandscapes.com.