Our wildflower verges throughout Perthshire have been allowed to grow longer due to council staff not being available to cut them during lockdown. As a result, they’re thriving! There’s a huge variety of flowers and grasses, and the bees, butterflies and other pollinators are returning in great numbers. Not only that, the flower-filled verges look attractive and colourful, and are a great place for kids to learn about nature.

Wild flowers provide a valuable source of food for bees emerging from hibernation. The humble dandelion for example, often regarded as a weed, is an important source of early nectar offering a lifeline for hungry pollinators.

As well as a pandemic, we are in the midst of an ecological crisis. Studies show that 40% of insect species face extinction. Without the ecoservices they provide, we are in trouble. It is estimated that 1/3 of our food requires insect pollination; Perthshire’s soft fruit production is unsustainable without this.

The countryside is often less hospitable to pollinators than urban areas due to agricultural production and research shows that bees are now heading in to towns attracted by the flowers in our gardens. If the bees are clever enough to adapt to changing circumstances, then we should be clever enough to help them.

Perth & Kinross Council, we the undersigned ask you to manage greenspaces to support nature, not to work against it. Please manage grasslands to encourage floral diversity. Cut the grass later, cut it less and time the cuts carefully. Let the flowers grow and the bees flourish. 

In doing so you can save money, reduce emissions, protect food security and support our hard-working bees.