May 20 2022 - No Mow May

 

Is the Jordan front lawn part of the No Mow May movement. This movement was started in Britain in 2019 by the U.K. conservation charity Plantlife.  The movement has grown to include thousands of lawns in the U.K. in 2021, and the charity’s head of participation Felicity Harris said 2022 is expected to be the biggest year yet. The campaign is gaining steam in Canada, as municipalities and environmental activism groups across the country champion the cause.  The movement is rooted in research: several studies show that less frequent mowing can be a boon for biodiversity.  Findings from the U.K. suggest that allowing plants to flower in May can create enough nectar to support ten times more pollinators. A 2018 study from Massachusetts found tremendous rise in abundance and diversity of bees in lawns that are mowed every second week instead of every week. “People want to do things to help, and No Mow May is an easy thing to pick up,” said Ms. Knight, “but I think it’s more of a feel-good initiative than a helpful one. We need to do more than just not mowing – first and foremost: planting native.” So let's draw our attention here in Ontario to the lawn campaigns.  First and foremost is the Dandelion - we love and hate them in the lawns.  We see campaigns to save the Dandelions. However, they are not considered great contributors to bees.  Their pollen is not the first, the ideal, mor most nutritious food that bees look for.   What about Creeping Charlie?  It is all over our lawns (especially mine). Creeping Charlie has an ok pollen count.  One of its characteristics is a strategy called "Lucky Hits" where one flower out of many will have much more pollen/nectar.  A U.K. researcher (Southwick et al. 1981) found that bees foraging on Creeping Charlie for 5.9 minutes obtained enough nectar from the flowers to make foraging on Creeping Charlie energetically profitable.  Something tells me that it isn't a significant contributor - I just don't see bees in the lawn on the Creeping Charlie. Bees need a variety of food sources, and the best lawns have many kinds of flowers, hopefully with a range of bloom times.  The flowers recommended for the bee-friendly lawn include English daisies, Speedwell (Veronica) Buttercup, Clover, wild Violets, Thyme and Chamomile.   That makes me think of the realm of the English Cottage Garden.  It seems to me that the Jordan lawn is pretty, but not really a "no mow" poster child garden.  Even Randolph's naturalistic lawn around the corner needs more variety of flowers.   What do you think?   The Wisteria is just starting to open here in Niagara. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

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BC or BCE?

The Oldest Country in the World?  Is it China, Japan or Iran? What about Greece, Rome and Egypt? I read in Thoughtco that the makeup of these ancient empires largely consisted of agglomerations of city-states or fiefdoms, which overlapped jurisdictions with the imperial government.   I wondered when our modern nation-states/countries came about.  The answer: in the 19th century - today's nation-states came about from the dissolution of empires, around communities that shared a common geography, language, or culture. The thoughtco article says that the Republic of San Marino is one of the world's smallest countries and is the world's oldest.  It was founded on September 3, 301 BCE.  It wasn't recognized as independent until 1631 by the pope, who controlled much of central Italy politically. San Marino's constitution is the world's oldest dating from 1600.   Japan is the next being founded in 660 BCE.  In the eighth century Japanese culture and Buddhism spread across the islands.  Modern Japan came about in 1868. China is the third with the first recorded dynasty existing more than 3,500 years ago. China celebrates 221 BCE as the founding of the modern country, the year Qin Shi Huang proclaimed himself the first emperor of China.  In the third century the Han dynasty unified Chinese culture and tradition.  in the 13th century, the Mongols invaded, decimating the culture. The Repulic of China came about in 1912, and the People's Replic of China was created in 1949. Here are the more founding dates: France (CE 843) Austria (CE 976) Hungary (CE 1001) Portugal (CE 1143) Mongolia (CE 1206) Thailand (CE 1238) Andorra (CE 1278) Switzerland (CE 1291) You noticed that the terminology used is now BCE and CE - Before the Common Era and Common Era.  I read a few rationales for this - from accuracy to the removal of Christian context.  It is part of the ISO 8601 standard which came about in 1988.  Here's the section on CE/BCE: "To represent years before 0000 or after 9999, the standard also permits the expansion of the year representation but only by prior agreement between the sender and the receiver. An expanded year representation [±YYYYY] must have an agreed-upon number of extra year digits beyond the four-digit minimum, and it must be prefixed with a + or − sign instead of the more common AD/BC (or CE/BCE) notation; by convention 1 BC is labelled +0000, 2 BC is labeled −0001, and so on." Isn't this a great spring image?  A lawn full of dandelions - everything a bee could desire!  If you look, you can see the little leaves in the lawns.  They are ready!