National Pollinator Week USA and Time to Stand and Stare.

pwlogo2012english

They are celebrating National Pollinator Week in the USA!

Do go to the Pollinator Partnership site for a huge amount of excellent info about pollination, the pollinators and how to help them. I know this is slanted at the USA but many of the plants and principles apply here.

NativeBeesNumberedPoster

You can download this wonderful bee poster which has info about some of the over 4400 USA native bee species.
I see some old friends here from my early bee watching days.

Their excellent regional PDFs give overviews of habitats, plant lists and the species of pollinators specific to each area. Reading through the advice to gardeners they remind us to “Tolerate a little mess”..
Unruly bits of garden are good for pollinators and to “provide safe access to clean water” It’s about caring, isn’t it? About them, not what the neighbours think of the garden or getting the next must-have hybrid flower that has neither scent nor nectar.
It’s about doing just a little bit to help.

Then, in big bold letters at the end of the PDF is this “NOTICE THE CHANGES THAT YOU HAVE HELPED TO CREATE”
Having done your research, raised your pollinator friendly plants, dug the pond and slogged away at the planting and digging, do take a moment to stop and look.

William Henry Davies’ lovely simple poem “Leisure” may now be considered a slightly jokey piece of writing but taking the time to just stand and stare at your garden, at all the strange and wonderful things that are going on there, is infinitely rewarding.


“What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.”

There are some sheep just down the lane from us, we watched them doing nothing the other day, they were just staring and chewing.
Today, I intend ..sheep-like.. to go and stare for a while at my now not-so-empty garden.

Yes, William “A poor life this is ” indeed,  if we make no time to stand and stare.

Bookmark the permalink.

Comments are closed.