No cost or low cost preps

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Medusa
Posts: 488
Joined: Sun Jan 24, 2016 8:41 pm
Location: UK

Re: No cost or low cost preps

Post by Medusa »

Arzosah wrote: Fri Sep 11, 2020 12:39 pm I'm slightly obsessed by shoring up the local ecology - wildflowers, bug hotels etc. As preppers, conserving the environment on behalf of the insects that pollinate our crops, and purify the soil/ water, is a good idea even on practical terms. Did anybody else see Jimmy's Big Bee Rescue on Channel 4, or whatever it was called? He had a really good point about "corridors" to create sustainable bee habitats, where they can fly to and return to their hives, rather than expend so much energy trying to get to a far off group of flowers that they die on the return journey.

My town is quite little, only about 35,000, and it's also still quite green, a lot of rec. spaces, a lot of grass verges, even a little flood plain about 100m across that hasn't ever been built on, as well as at least 3 allotment sites that I'm aware of. Jimmy Doherty's year long experiment, based on just a few inputs, almost tripled the bee count in those areas - it's the kind of initiative that could be helpful in so many ways, including to those of us wanting to grow our own crops.

As a start, I'm going to draw a plan of the town including green spots where flowering plants could be very easily inserted, plus verges, plus areas where gardens seem to be already well tended.... it will probably take me about a thousand years, but I love the sound of it.
Seed bombs are really good in areas where you might not be able to be seen planting things and wildlifetrust.org have some ideas. I have loved that our local Council have been planting wildflower patches recently, but this year they have been sadly lacking due to Covid or funding. I plant new wildflower seeds in the garden each year but have noticed a real lack of bumblebees this year. Also a lack of other insects such as ladybirds which I love in my veggie patch and dragonflies which i just love to see.
Growing old disgracefully!
bobble
Posts: 168
Joined: Tue Aug 02, 2016 8:57 pm
Location: merseyside

Re: No cost or low cost preps

Post by bobble »

Collected a bag full of elderberries from a local park. Made a few jars of cordial ready for winter. 2lb sugar cost 59p and I already had the jars! 🙂