Make sure you 'bee' part of a wildlife-loving event on Saturday 13 April at Howard Park, Letchworth, 10am to 2pm.
Organised by our grounds maintenance contractor John O'Conner, they’ll be offering a range of fun activities to help promote the Letchworth bee corridor, including face painting, arts and crafts, and making bee/bug hotels. You can also make a seed bomb with additional colour to throw in a specific area at 1pm – the idea being that the seeds will grow into a patch of wildflowers for bees to enjoy!
John O'Conner initiated a 'bee corridor' last year, to help bees buzz around more easily – you may have seen the cute bee logo in shop windows in the town. By increasing and joining up our bees' natural environment, we are helping this essential insect find the flowers they need to feed on and pollinate, find a mate and nesting site. Establishing a bee corridor is part of the criteria for a Bee Friendly Award that we are working towards for Letchworth, and £10,000 has just been allocated from next year’s council budget towards more bee corridors in the district!
Bees are in decline on a global scale due to loss of wild spaces and climate change. They are also affected by toxic pesticides and the way land is managed.
Councillor Steve Jarvis, Executive Member for Environment and Leisure, said: “The bee corridor is a real community effort, so please do come along to the event, they’ll be lots on offer for children, as well as the all-important seed bomb throwing! By transforming Letchworth into a wildlife haven – including planting nectar rich flowers and re-wilding patches of grass – we can make it easier for bees to get around and increase their numbers.”
Karen Green, Pest Control Manager at John O’Conner, said: “The ‘Bee part of it’ project has been amazing, we’ve had such a good response from businesses, schools, scout groups, community groups and most of all from Letchworth residents. Everyone is on board with the project, I was amazed at the amount of gardens that are already bee friendly. I really hope John O’Conners can help Letchworth get the Bee Friendly Award that they truly deserve. Please come along on Saturday 13 April, it’ll be great fun!”
Organisations due to take part on the day include Love Letchworth, Culturewood, Letchworth Scout Group – providing refreshments, and local bee keepers.
We would like to thank Bikerdikes Garden Centre, Tudor Environmental, Chilli Promotional Products and Hitchin Lavender for their kind donations to the project as well as Love Letchworth for their help and support and Elan Graphics and Line Print for providing posters.
Get in touch to learn more or share your bee friendly photos so we can include what everyone is doing in Letchworth to help bees and wildlife – please email beepartofit@johnoconner.co.uk
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