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  • Writer's pictureClarke Wallace

THE WILD SIDE-PART 1

I stumbled on an article by Kat Tancock in the Globe & Mail a week ago under the heading ‘Get Wild’. Meaning rewilding: in letting native plants run their course in yards, can be a boom for urban environments and species of birds, bees and butterflies.


It began with Stephane Laroye ten years ago when he realized the bee population in his neighborhood was dying off. The answer: give bees a bee hotel to reintroduce them locally and watch them grow. He got his neighbors involved.


“We created," he said, “a very small kind of geeky community of mason bee enthusiasts.”


He realized they would have to do a lot more for bees to survive. He was spurred on by tearing large patches of his front lawn to chafer beetles.


He removed most of the grass and replaced it with low maintenance ‘bee turf’ seed. This is mixture of clover and other flowers such as chamomile, alyssum and daisy.


First came a bit of green fuzz, he said, and after six weeks the flowers appeared – along with a whole variety of bees struggling to survive.


Author’s comment: Laroye is one of many around the world who are beginning to shout loud about rewilding; necessary to keep our planet livable’. Among them, David Attenborough, the writer/author and television personality.

Next week “If 2020 was the year of the vegetable garden, perhaps 2021 can be a time to shift our focus to the broader eco-system.” Like tearing up your lawn and letting (our) private spaces get a little unruly.


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