St Mary's Church, Cubbington - Eco Church                         
POLLINATORS!
Our next Eco Church meeting will be all about pollinators. It will take place on
Saturday 13th May 2023 at 2pm in the Parish Room.
We may well be going outside into the churchyard as well – so don’t wear your best shoes! We will be looking at pollinators of all sorts and how we can help them out.

See Poster for details.

 

 

 

Every third bite of food we consume can be attributed to pollinators, who play a vital role in not only pollinating our food crops, but also in supporting the survival of other wild plants that are essential to wildlife. Although bees are commonly associated with pollination, the group of insect pollinators is diverse, with honeybees being responsible for pollinating only 5-15% of insect-pollinated crops in the UK. The remaining 85-95% rely on wild pollinators, such as various species of bees, moths, butterflies, hoverflies, flies, and beetles, which are estimated to pollinate crops worth £690 million annually in the UK. If we were to take on the task of pollination ourselves, it would be both challenging and costly, with an estimated annual cost of £1.8 billion. Unfortunately, pollinators are currently facing threats that could lead to their decline. For example, in recent decades, three bumblebee species have gone extinct, and almost one in ten species of wild bees are at risk of extinction according to the recent European Red List for Bees. Furthermore, half of the bee, butterfly, and moth species studied in the 2013 State of Nature Report have experienced population declines in the past 50 years. These declines can be attributed to changes in farming practices, such as habitat destruction due to the intensification of agriculture, fragmentation of remaining habitats, and increased use of pesticides and herbicides. Urbanization and the effects of climate change and disease also pose threats to insect pollinators. But we can help locally to do our bit! Come along and get, or share with us, some ideas.
Eco Tips For May Now is a good time to be thinking about growing summer flowers and vegetables so this month we're looking at ways we can be more “green” in our patch, whether we've got a garden, balcony, allotment, window box, hanging basket, or pots and tubs.
Create a larder for bees. Choose flowers that bees can get into easily and provide them with a banquet of food. Some useful information is online here: http://www.gardenersworld.com/plants/plant-inspiration/plants-for-bees/
Plan for slugs. When it comes to sowing and planting, assume you'll have some casualties and plant more than you need. When planting out seedlings, make a circle of crushed eggshells around each one – slugs don't like crawling on a rough surface. Protect your seedlings from frost, slugs and mice. Make mini greenhouses from clear plastic bottles: remove the screw top, cut off the base and push the sawn-off bottle over the seedling and into the soil. Don't be too tidy. Leave a patch of leaves and twigs where bugs and beetles can feel at home: they could be your friends by feasting on the less welcome insects that eat your plants. Join Us! – Are you interested in joining us? Could you lend a hand? If so, please give Tricia West a call on 07855-830011 or email stmaryseco@gmail.com                         

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