Your GARDENING FORTNIGHT
Val explains why bee populations are at such risk from continued pesticide use
Iam truly blessed, because I have two daughters and four grandchildren. Whether they like it or not, my daughters, my three granddaughters and my grandson have all inherited some of my genes. Yippee! I love them all. And the great thing is, they are all different, a bit like opening a bag of Liquorice Allsorts.
My two daughters, for instance, are chalk and cheese. The older one is very sensible and she always worked hard at school and always tries to do the right thing - to this day. The younger one wasn’t quite so diligent or studious, so she was often referred to (fondly though) as the ‘reprobate’. She called me the fun police! Touché!
I find it really funny that the reprobate’s daughter is studious and sensible and far more like her aunt (and me) personality wise. My sensible daughter, on the other hand, has a bit of a scatter-brained daughter who can (and does) get into scrapes at school. She loves clothes and cooking, which are two of my passions. My grandson’s not so lucky. He’s got the impulsive gene, handed straight down from his grandma.
Organic thinking from my grandmother
Personality traits often skip a generation, when you speak to gardeners, many have been influenced by a grandparent. I was far more like my grandmother, than my mother, and she influenced my life in so many ways. I got my love of clothes and cookery from her, as well as my love of plants. She’s the reason I’m an organic gardener, although she never used the term. She was a hands-on gardener, because that’s the way people gardened and had done for generations.
I have two early memories. I can recall getting very messy fingers when I tried to pick off cabbage white caterpillars. They were too squidgy for my uncoordinated fingers. The other memory is watching a bumblebee collecting nectar from the spurs of a dark aquilegia, on one warm day in May. I can remember both like it was yesterday, although it was probably seventy years ago.
Back then, ordinary gardeners didn’t have access to a cabinet of chemicals
I SO wish it was the same today. Chemical use in agriculture and horticulture is affecting the natural world, including our bumblebees and bees. A five-year European-wide research project, led by academics at Royal Holloway University of London, has confirmed that commonly used pesticides are still significantly harming bumblebees, even though there are more restrictions in place. The project, led by Professor Mark Brown, is called PoshBee and research carried out found that bumblebee colonies are growing less and producing fewer offspring because they’re imbibing pesticides in nectar and pollen.
The report says that bees �
