Every one of us can support the natural world through acts as small as simply letting the grass grow, says Jane Memmott, the president of the British Ecological Society.
At the start of her presidency of the British Ecological Society in early 2020, Memmott of the University of Bristol has been talking about the importance of ecology to everyone’s lives. She makes it clear how every one of us can make a difference and how nature will return this favor many times over.
“Think about what you all had for breakfast,” said Memmott, explaining that apples, marmalade on toast, pumpkin seeds in your muesli and even your morning coffee all involved interactions with pollinators before they got to your table.
And it’s not just pollinators providing vital services free of charge. She noted that there is an army of critters removing crop pests, and without dung beetles we’d literally be in a terrible mess.
After breakfast and you’ve left your house, the trees you walk past provide services like shade, pollution control and water regulation, not to mention the pleasing beauty of them.
Having a garden, an allotment, a balcony or even just a pot plant on your doorstep is an opportunity to support nature by providing food for bees, hoverflies and butterflies.
She has a few simple pollinator-benefitting rules.
When choosing flowers, go for single flowers over double flowers. There’s nothing for pollinators to eat in plants bred to look like pom poms.
Pollinators need food February through November, so try have something flowering throughout the year, or make sure you neighbors do when you don’t. Working as a street can achieve more than one garden. It’s the start and end of the season when pollinators most struggle to find nectar.
Learn to love weeds. Dandelions are fantastic for early season pollinators. By leaving lawns to grow to ankle height, daisies, dandelions and clovers all get a chance to flower.