Buckingham Town Council is looking at ways of protecting and enhancing native wildflowers species in order to support our declining bee population. We know that bees are vital to pollinate the food we need to survive and these hard workers need regular ‘snack-stops’ to provide enough energy to fly from their home to fields and gardens where they collect nectar, and pollinate plants in the process. Modern, manicured gardens, frequently lack the diversity of flowering plants that needed to help re-fuel these busy bees.
Buckingham Town Council has already turned over large swathes of its parkland to wildflower meadows and reviews its grass cutting schedule to ensure verges and hedges are trimmed less and later in the year to support more wildflowers and insects…but this is not enough. Buckingham Town Council’s vision is, eventually, to have a network of bee corridors (which are planting schemes that link up different areas) so bees and other pollinators can travel easily from one area of wildflower planting to another. In order to start on the road toward a more Bee-Friendly town, we are encouraging residents to plant small sections of native wildflowers across Buckingham’s gardens, creating regular nectar ‘pit stops’ for our hard-working pollinators.
Councillors will be handing out free packets of native wildflower seeds at this year’s Celebrate Buckingham event on Thursday 2nd June 2022 from 11-2pm, in Buckingham’s Bourton Park.
The Town Council’s new initiative, Bee-Friendly Buckingham aims encourage the development of Bee-Friendly corridors by handing out free packets of wildflower seeds with instructions on how to create your own Bee-Friendly pot, plot or planter!
Cllr. Schaefer, Vice Chair of Environment Committee said: “Pollinating insects, such as bees, are so important for a healthy environment and also for our own food security, yet they are in serious decline. We can all do a little bit to help them by sowing a small area of insect friendly, native wildflowers in our gardens or even on a windowsill.”
You can access more information and resources on how to support our insect pollinators at Buzzing Buck’s fantastic website. They have lots of advice from Creating Wilder Spaces in our communities to resources for helping each of us to get our homes and workplaces buzzing with wildlife.