Giving pollinators a helping hand!
Thanks to local volunteers, and supported by Wild Oxfordshire, a beautiful new ‘Pollinator Patch’ has been created at the entrance to Charlbury Bowls Club.
This patch has been planted with pollinator-friendly species including Rosemary, Echinops and Pulmonaria to provide a nectar-rich resource and safe-haven for insects.
The project was carried out thanks to support from both Charlbury Garden Society and the Trust for Oxfordshire’s Environment (TOE) with funding from Grundon Waste Management Ltd through the Landfill Communities Fund.
Wild pollinators in the UK include bumblebees and other bees, butterflies and moths, flies, and other insects such as beetles, wasps and thrips. These insects perform an essential role, as most plants (including crops that humans rely on for food) cannot set seed without being pollinated.
In the last fifty years, the abundance of flying insects has fallen by 50% or more, with one of the main causes of the decline in pollinators being the loss of flower-rich habitat. Providing new areas of pollinator-friendly planting, using species with long-lasting flowers that offer a year-long nectar resource, can help boost numbers of these important insects and perhaps reverse their population decline.
Does your garden have space for more pollinator-friendly plants? Perhaps you could help by letting one area of vegetation grow long during the spring and summer, or by providing places for nesting and shelter such as log piles or bug hotels. Changes, such as not using pesticides, can also make a big difference to your local insect population.
Katherine Holmes · Fri 24 Nov 2023, 11:38 · Link