As gardeners know, the season of New Year’s resolutions is also seed planting season. If you missed the 2020 gardening blitz, now is the perfect time to set an intention for 2021. Your soil and our planet will thank you.
Get out to the Garden ...
Gardening certainly gives another way of living with the earth. It gives us huge potential to contribute to climate change and all the positives for planet and our own well-being. You don’t need much and last year proved this - people used whatever materials and space they had to spare: old drawers for planter boxes, narrow balconies for salad crops. Others went beyond their garden spaces, setting up plots or doing their own gardening elsewhere in their community. Some made homes for pollinators, to support their other neighbours: the birds and the bees! Stuck at home, so many people have changed how they live: spending more time in nature, more time on a bicycle or in the outdoors, more time in the garden. If this increasing connection with our environment continues, it might help wake people up to the climate crisis on our doorstep.
How to "Bee" Friendly
Making your garden or balcony bee-friendly can be anything from cutting back on weed killers which are also bee killers and by planting wildflowers so that bees always have plenty of food.
A patio pot or window box will provide a joyful burst of colour. Create impact with pollinator seeds or wildflower seeds bursting with colour eight weeks after sowing. Observe the pollinators that come to feed on the sweet nectar.
Even on the roof – take a look here at what Emma Finn has achieved, just one of many initiatives
Sunflowers are undoubtedly one of the most impactful flowers in the garden and grow from a little seed to eight-foot-tall in a matter of weeks. Their bright yellow petals attract bees to feed on their nectar, and seeds for wild birds such as Bullfinch, Coal Tit, Greenfinch, and the House Sparrow.
Even with little growing experience, you can master raising fresh and flavoursome herbs and vegetables in a window box. ... Shallow-rooted plants, including leaf lettuces, greens, radishes, peppers and bush beans, can yield in soil in the 6-inch-deep range. Deeper boxes (up to 12 inches) can host carrots, onions and tomatoes.
Now is the time to start your seed planting for flowers and vegetables... this weekend get out there and just do it!!
www.bloomingnative.ie -Wildflower seeds
Most garden centres have an online shop for all your needs.
Take a look at some initiatives
www.giy.ie (Grow it Yourself)