Annual Fruit, Vegetables and Flower show 2023 and Pollinators in your garden, the Ecosystem approach a talk by Lima Rosalind.
AIKGA, a non-profit organization will be holding its annual Fruit, Vegetable and Flower show on 18 – 19 February 2023. The theme for the Show is, “Gardening for Peace and Environmental Health” Participation to the competition is open for members only. Members who do not attend monthly meetings will not be allowed to participate. Entry to the Mela is free of cost and open to all.
This month’s speaker was Lima Rosalind, she is the Founder Director of Green Future Foundation. With over three decades in the NGO sector, she has been working in the area of conservation for biodiversity. An environmental educator, waste composter, gardener, ecopreneur, healer, a scientist she is passionate about conservation and is a living encyclopedia of biodiversity.
She spoke on the importance of Pollinators in our garden and how they help us free of cost, silently working all the time. All flowering plants need pollination in order to reproduce. It was interesting to know that one out of three bites of food we eat is because of pollinators doing their work. Pollinators support healthy ecosystem that clean the air, stabilize soils, protect against severe weather and support other wildlife.
Lima also spoke on how, we can help these pollinators survive and do their work. Some of the things which are easy and doable that she mentioned were, keeping water in the garden, a shallow bird bath, a fountain, a pond or any water body to give them water to drink and lessen their stress and travel time. Providing them shelter is another way to help them build their nest and hatch young ones. These shelters can be in the form of a compost heap, a hedge, a dead tree, etc. Growing plants, herbs which attract pollinators, and local native plants are the best choice to grow. Build a community garden, and avoid using pesticides. If you see a caterpillar on a plant, let it be, they might eat up your leaves but their cycle is very short in three weeks a butterfly is formed from an egg. Putting up Bee hotels helps the bees to build their nests. These are artificial structures where female bees lay eggs and fill up the nest.
It is important that we spread the word about the importance of pollinators, support local, grow local, and eat local.
It has been observed that the population of pollinators is going down, in order to get food we need to save them.
