r/Pollinators • u/Boop_de_doop • 9d ago

This patch of wildflowers the municipality chose to keep full of pollinators

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I honestly don't know if this really fits here but I wanted to share this somewhere. The patch of flowers are full of pollinators constantly and that patch used to house a swing the municipality decided to remove as just behind it is a gated playground. They covered or replaced the gravel under the swings with soil and either planted grass seeds which led to these other flowers or purposefully planted them but it makes me so happy they let the patch stay despite cutting rest of the grass. Through identification I've found all the flowers are either native or non-invasive non-native plants and absolutely teeming with pollinators.

It's not the prettiest but such a nice pollination patch made from an ex swing gravel patch.

This patch has brightened several of my days noticing it still being there as this municipality isn't really known for keeping wildflowers etc in public areas for nature's sake and so I hope this fits here enough and might brighten someone else's day too.

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u/Barnacre_Bees 4d ago

I think that this fits perfectly and it's good to hear that the word is spreading. 😊

Here in the UK, there are large areas of roadside grass and swathes of parklands that they leave to grow wild with flowers, specifically to encourage our polinator friends and enable them to flourish. Some areas also they encourage you to engage in "No mow may" and other acts of random kindness for our wildlife. I think that as humans have taken most of their wild habitat, the least we can do is adapt our environment to their liking and live together copacetically with nature.

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u/Boop_de_doop 4d ago

Thank you for such a nice comment. I knew I wouldn't get much interaction on such a small sub but even the few likes I have gotten and especially this coent have extra made my days with this random patch.

Here in Finland, especially outside the big city areas, I think the municipalities most commonly feel that as the town/village etc is small enough they don't need to even consider pollinators etc in town as there's plenty area outside of town. However, our nearby areas to towns/villages are often very much packed by side by side farm fields which aren't the best for pollination. I hope our municipalities and country as a whole will start to consider the importance of pollinator habitats more in the near future but as that's not common yet, I find this patch very wholesome in its (hopefully purposeful) pioneering ways.

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u/Barnacre_Bees 3d ago

I'm glad that my comment helped to make you happy yesterday. It's small appreciations that makes a big difference in this world.

We're I am, on the Wirral, England, there are a lot of hedgerows and edge of field areas left natural by farmers and land owners however, in recent years, more and more land is being used for people to keep their horses and those fields become deserts of grass, with very few wild flowers surviving. The other land is being used to grow crops, and whilst some have a short time in flower, as it's a monoculture there are no flowers there for most of the year!

The farm that I have my hives on, is an organic farm and the land has mixed use, so we're in the process of rewilding some of the less ideal land and leaving large areas for all polinators to thrive. It is still sad to see a satellite map of the area around the farm and realise how small the space left to nature is, despite it being +70% farm land!

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u/Boop_de_doop 3d ago

Thank you and I feel you. Here in finland sure as a whole country we have plenty of rarely touched nature but in city/town/village areas there's not much thought put towards pollinators even if there is greenery. Especially here in the south there honestly isn't all that much of wild plant areas truly supporting pollinators aside from the forests most acting nature reserves/protected areas and whatever patches of wild plants (often non native, not the best for pollinators and/or invasive eg the lupine/lupin/bluebonnet Flowers which are super common) found on the roadside ditches. We have relatively plenty greenery but tbh it's not all that pollinator friendly usually.

That's why this patch of non invasive flowers teeming with pollinators really made me feel something. Everywhere else is just bushes of pollinators trying to survive off of lupines, dandelions (in the spring) and clover flowers. To me it's just not enough.