For many places across the globe, this last winter was…ODD. From overly cold temps to a Spring that seemed to never come, our gardening plans are needing to be postponed a few weeks in 2022. This unusual weather is also hard on our pollinators; many of which haven’t gotten Mother Nature’s wake-up call to get out of bed. There is a real concern among scientists and green experts that people, in their zest to embrace springtime ASAP, may prematurely mow their lawns or till their garden beds before our invaluable pollinators have had time to vacant their winter beds.
With this in mind, many communities are initiating a No Mow May campaign. No Mow May encourages gardeners to leave their mowers in the shed and transform their lawns into havens of biodiversity.
This unique movement began in the United Kingdom and has been quickly catching on around the United States. This mindful committment to holding off on mowing our lawns has proven successful in the past. An article in Better Homes & Gardens shares that:
{No Mow May} allows lawn flowers to bloom and feed hungry native bees emerging from hibernation when other flowers are scarce. Several studies done in areas of Wisconsin, Kentucky, and Massachusetts have shown that lawn flowers can support a high diversity of bees and other pollinators.
Another Way to Help the Bees
“Bee”-ing and bee is hard work (we assume) so what can we do to give our sweet pollinators a break? Build a Bee Watering Hole, of course!
Supplies:
- Flowerpot saucer
- Rocks which you’ve collected or purchased at a craft store
- Water
Directions
- Arrange the rocks in the flower pot saucer.
- Add water until the water covers the bottom half of the rocks.
- Place outside near flowers
Interested in more activities like this one?
Inside A Year in the Secret Garden, we explore the world of bees as we make a bee house/hive to attract bees into your garden. Though our garden might be a secret we always need bees and other pollinators inside to help our gardens grow.
But that’s not all!
Enjoy more month-by-month activities based on the classic children’s tale, The Secret Garden! A Year in the Secret Garden is a delightful children’s book with over 120 pages, with 150 original color illustrations and 48 activities for your family and friends to enjoy, learn, discover and play with together.
This vibrant, softcover book is filled with 12 months-worth of idea to help families step away from devices, smartphones, and televisions to discover more about the classic children’s tale The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett—with a modern twist!
A Year in the Secret Garden is available (free shipping within the USA) on the Audrey Press website or on Amazon.
Meet us in the Garden!
What if you could “live” inside the pages of the children’s books your family reads? What if you could enjoy the same adventures as the characters? BookJumping is taking the solitary act of reading a book and transforming it into an event that can be shared with others. It’s the process of pulling books off shelves and stories off pages. It’s making kids’ books come ALIVE by “jumping” inside the pages.
The ABC’s of BookJumping: The Best of Jump Into a Book is a concept that lets parents, caregivers, homeschoolers, and educators use the books they have on their shelves to create moments of “learning by doing” and reading all rolled into one!
This robust literacy-based e-book contains over 150 hand-picked book reviews, unique book-inspired activities and recipes, book pilgrimages, facts about classic book authors that we all know and love, and many, many reasons to spend countless hours “unplugged” and revisiting classic stories.
Making reading an adventure for kids and not a “task/ chore/requirement” is a great way to help them increase the desire to learn and keep them interested as well. Setting aside time as a family and selecting a summer reading list is a great way to not only make the idea of reading more exciting but also to involve kids in voicing their thoughts and options on what it is that they would like to read.
Re-ignite your child’s love of reading and encourage screen-free family time today.
Get the details here and reserve your copy ASAP. The ABC’s of BookJumping: The Best of Jump Into a Book will be delivered to your eReader May 12, 2020.
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