Creating A Pollinating Friendly Environment: We are running 3 morning sessions starting tomorrow 21st September at 10:00am in the Kilcoole Community Centre. We still have places so you can just pop along in the morning if you are interested.
We will then hold a further 3 evening sessions starting on the 12th October at 6:30pm in the Kilcoole Community Centre. Again we do have places if you are interested please ring us at 01-2557528 or you can just pop along on the day.
CREATING A POLLINATING FRIENDLY ENVIRONMENT WORKSHOP
TASTER MORNINGS WITH SUZIE CAHN
The Greystones Family Resource Centre will be hosting along with the KWETB taster mornings on how to create a pollinating friendly environment. This is in line with the National Biodiversity Data Centre action for an All Ireland Pollinator Pan for 2015 – 2020.
We have three mornings arranged and they will be facilitated by our gardener Suzie Cahn from Carrig Drula farm, Suzie would have also appeared on RTE’s Super Gardener a few years ago.
The taster mornings will give a little feel for our September course that we will be rolling out.
The three dates are:
Kilcoole Community Centre Tuesday 11th July
Newtown Community Centre Wednesday 12th July
Newcastle Community Centre Thursday 13th July
Time 11am to 12:30pm for all three mornings.
Actions to help pollinators (take from National Biodiversity Date Series No9 booklet)
We need pollinators to grown many of the fruits and vegetables that make up a balanced diet. The wildflowers that provide us with colour and beauty in our landscape also need pollinators, as do many of your garden plants.
Most pollination in Ireland is carried out by bees. This is because bees feed their young exclusively on pollen so are entirely focused on collecting it from flowers to bring back to their nests. In Ireland, we have 98 different types of bee: the honey bee, 20 different bumblebees and 77 different solitary bees. In providing us with service of pollination, these bees are helped by other insects like hoverflies, butter flies and moths.
Unfortunately, pollinators are in trouble. We know that one third of Irish bee species are threatened with extinction. The All Ireland pollinator plan 2015-2020 is an island-wide attempt to play in the Pollinator Plan, and gardens of any size can make a big difference.