Good things we are doing for the Bees and Environment

[nickthefox]

I get so upset and so worried about the state of the world and sometimes I'd like to hear the good things people do.
Just on another thread where people were saying they are fighting for the Bees and other wildlife by rewinding their gardens.

What else have you all done this year to try to combat Climate change?

I'll start.

We haven't done no mow may, but we have planted some fruit trees in the garden.

We got an allotment plot a couple of years ago now and since then one of our friends has got one and another has started a vegetable garden in their back garden!

The friend who is started a veg patch used to give us their rabbit waste (hay and the precious poo! Amazing fertiliser) will need to start their own compost heap now, so I contacted the local pet shops and they said that we can have as much rabbit and hamster poo as we like! Win!
Apparently loads of people come and collect their waste so now I know pet shop don't make half as much waste as I thought.

Noticed 2 veg patches in front gardens this year, and one person has chickens!

Lots of people are doing no mow May, including my parents (but that's being busy, so not by design but the results are the same)

What else?

Oh I've noticed 2 parents at the school have started cycling (they used to walk so no emissions change but its still a good thing)

I'm sure there is loads more.

Oh my parents took some bags of clothes to the charity shop instead of the usual dump because since covid started the tip requires you to book in a slot, so you can't just drop in anymore. This made me wonder has this Encouraged others to use charity shops rather than dumping good stuff for convenience? I hope so.

We have a patch of lawn behind the summerhouse that doesn’t get mowed. Fruit trees, lots of flowers.

Oh and a local charity have planted a few fruit trees too.

My contribution has been mainly nature related in my garden. We created a pond last year which already had beetles and nymphs and so many birds use it daily for drinking and bathing! We dug a few hibernaculums for amphibians, installed 2 new water butts, added a bird house and insect house to the back wall and have a wild flower bed.
We can all do a bit to help :)

I just posted this on another thread, but we were excited to see yesterday that we have a bee nest in the garden for the first time. We have always had a garden geared specifically for bees, birds, insects, etc., but this is the first time we've had bees nesting. We think it's a result of no mow may! We have very little lawn though so maybe it's just luck.

I feed the birds every day. I have planted loads of bee friendly plants and get hundreds of bees in the garden. I also want to invest in woodland-just looking atm.
Going on lots of holidays abroad though as I've just retired but no more car for work. You can help but can't sacrifice living.

Planted shit loads of lavender

I’ve just moved into a house with both the front garden and back laid to concrete. I’m busy ripping it (and giving the slabs away). I’m planting trees, flowers and planning a wild lawn. We’re a non car family and I’m next going to focus on solar/heat pump for the house but I’m very broke so it will have to wait.
I had a massive breakdown a few years ago and gardening really helps my mental health.

I rarely see bees in my garden except when the cherry blossom is in bloom, then there’s hundreds of them buzzing on it.

Did anyone see gardeners world last night with that amazing group planting in all the nooks and crannies. I’d love to do that. But plants are so expensive!!

@EvilPea I haven't but I will, they are expensive but you can grow perennials from seed or plant bulbs over the winter? Just a little bit of time then.

I'm so glad I started this thread literally feel my eco anxiety washing away knowing other people do what they can.

oh, our local community center has put a beautiful flower bed in the front of the building and planted loads of daffodils for spring.
it used to be just grass so it's a much loved improvement!

We don't drive, or holiday abroad (or even in the UK but that's a financial reason rather than an environmental one)

We do still buy some things new which breaks my heart but my DH has said that he would be buying everything new and not even consider charity shops or Facebook or vented and stuff like that, now he goes to the charity shops on his own and looks through Facebook every day looking for whatever we need.

It's hard to find some things second hand, like hand rails and shower rails and stuff like that. So I have to be content with doing what I can and knowing that I can only get so much second hand.

We've rescued 2 bees this year by giving them sugared water as they lay struggling on the floor. They both managed to fly off and dd swears that one of them flew up, came back to say thank you to dd, then flew off again
We have a bush (I don't know what it is) but bees and butterflies seem to love it. We tend to it and water it on hot days to make sure there's water captured in the leaves for any insects to drink. We don't know if that's useful or not but you never know.
We also have a couple of bird feeders in our tree.

We got solar panels and a solar heater for our hot water.

We try, with varied success, to grow as much of our own fruit and veg as we can. The veg can be very hit and miss but the fruit trees we planted a few years ago are coming on beautifully. We have chickens and lean heavily on their eggs for a source if protein and limit the amount of meat we consume. I despise food waste.

I would love to take up beekeeping, but I keep missing the intake for the course and I'm not sure it's something I want to go into without knowing what I'm doing properly. I might get some mason bees as I think solitary bees are more in need of help than honey bees, and look at honey bees again in the future when I have more time and money. For those who are interested you can have a look at mason bees here...
www.masonbees.co.uk/

I would love to get an electric car to maximise the benefits of our solar panels but there isn't much out there within our budget. I am keeping an eye out though.

I try to buy second hand as much as possible and only things I truly need rather than shopping just for fun. I try to use as few cosmetics as possible and have lots of make up free days to cut down on plastic waste and chemicals.

I've left my sage and rosemary bushes to flower for the bees, we've got lavender and Buddleia for the butterflies, cherry and apple trees, blackcurrant bushes and we've left patches of the lawn unmown and thrown lots of wildflower seeds in. We have a bird bath, lots of coconut shell suet feeders and a bug hotel. I created a half whisky barrel pond which has loads of wildlife visiting and we have an allotment with loads of different fruit and veg. Wasn't deliberate but our cabbages were used as caterpillar food for what seemed like every caterpillar in the area last year!

We've got quite a small garden so this is all tucked in here and there. I would love chickens and a bee hive at some point in the future too.

I've also seen wee drinking baths for bees which I'm tempted by but not sure if they are just a gimmick!

not really convinced about growing long grass, my neighbour is doing this and it just give me really awful hay fever and I cannot open my windows. I have planted some french lavender plants and they attract lots of bees so would recommend this plant.

Growing from seed can be a lot cheaper. You can also take the seeds from things like peppers, tomatoes, butternut squash etc and try to grow them. If it doesn't pan out you haven't lost any money. If you have an old bag of potatoes that have started to put out shoots you can plant them and will likely get something in return. Lots of this type of "scrap planting" on tiktok.

I had read on another thread a while ago about a women who started up a sort of seed/plant swap thing in her community. It might be an idea to see if there's anything like that nearby, or start one up? Lots of plants, like tomatoes and perpetual kale, propagate really easily. I'm sure some plants like lavender do too, but I haven't tried them yet.

I can second the mason bee thing, I’m in my 5th year. It’s absolutely brilliant and fascinating.

Its not giving you awful hay fever at all.

You might have awful hay fever but its nothing to do with whether your neighbour cuts their grass or not

I hate to be a preachy twat if your feeding birds at the moment. Please please please keep your feeders and water clean. There’s a new strain of bird flu arrived from poor sanitation in poultry farms in Asia. It’s particularly nasty as it kills the birds within 28 hours (their head swells up) but the virus survives for days after.
its spread in faeces, as well as beak secretions.

it’s decimating wild bird populations.

Love threads like these!

I do a bit of guerrilla gardening when nobody's looking!

I have lots of bee and butterfly friendly plants, foxgloves, phildelphus, roses, Verbena bonariensis, antirrhinum, dahlias, daisies and a few buttercups, lilies, lavender, poppies etc.

Small wildlife pond but only insects, sparrows and the cat drink from it, no frogs, newts etc.

Largish tree that pigeon been nesting in, two pairs of blackbirds that I put cut up apples out for, cherry tree with cherries on it still ripening that sparrows love, probably for the blackfly on it.

Proper lawn not artificial one, plenty of borders and broken pots and log pule for insects, birds to utilise. Sadly, no sign of any hedgehogs but I live in hope.

I keep bees so I am very insect conscious. We did no mow May.

Also I wish the language was different on this subject, people always talk about things being bee friendly, and thats fine, but the big stereotypical bee, or bumble bee is not the bee that is the most necesssary or advantageous to the climate, there are hundreds of varieties of bee, many of which look like wasps, and in fact its 'insect friendly' that we should be focusing on

I read something that bee keeping is actually doing more harm because its keeping the wrong sorts of bees, aka honey bees

I seem to have loads more bees this year than I ever have before, perhaps from natural rewilding (as not done much gardening since long covid March 2020😂) but I've noticed they particularly love the jasmine which was a 2.99 plant from a supermarket a couple of years ago and the lupins which were a cheap packet of seeds that come back every year in glorious abundance🌾🐝🌸

Im sure I’ve noticed a drop in bees compared with last year. I’ve been getting the train into work but it’s a lot more expensive than car