@wormerama@ecoevo.social avatar

wormerama

@wormerama@ecoevo.social

I own and run a tiny little coffee roastery in South Yorkshire, UK. Also studying environmental science and spend the rest of my time either tending my wildlife-friendly mini food forest or thinking about plants. Amateur worm-farmer. Owned by many cats. More questions than answers, always exploring

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wormerama, to random
@wormerama@ecoevo.social avatar

New genders just announced at Indy500:
Men
Women
First responders

wormerama, to random
@wormerama@ecoevo.social avatar

This water storage feature from the flood resilient garden at Chelsea Flower Show has got me searching for steel tanks

wormerama, to random
@wormerama@ecoevo.social avatar

Happy world bee day! I'll share what I learned in my recent pollinator investigation:
One of the best things for bees is interconnected landscapes. Planting native flowers is great, but if they're isolated in your garden then their benefit is limited. Plant things that connect your garden with the local environment. And if you don't have a garden, stand up for green spaces.

wormerama,
@wormerama@ecoevo.social avatar

Ask your local council to plant locally appropriate pollinator-friendly plants and leave more spaces wild. Some parks are so neat and dominated by ornamental plants that they have less diverse bee populations than in urban environments!

You might not be able to oppose local developments, but maybe you could influence an increase in green spaces in them and protect some of the existing plant communities on the land they're developing.

wormerama,
@wormerama@ecoevo.social avatar

Get to know your local bees. Charasmatic bumblebees and honeybees get all the attention but there are many more!

Before I did my garden bee investigation I had no idea that the tiny little insects gorging on my dandelions were actually brassy mining bees with beautiful irridescent greeny-blue markings when you get up close (Lasioglosum morio). Now I've spotted them I see them checking out gaps in my walls for nests, who knows how many baby bees are in my garden wall!

wormerama, to gardening
@wormerama@ecoevo.social avatar

I left a lot of dead annual plants standing over winter instead of clearing them away. Found lots of ladybirds hibernating in them and then as soon as spring arrived the garden filled with them so they were ready for the aphid onslaught on my fruit trees. The ant farmers are loosing this year! Normally they’re well established by the time the ladybirds arrive. Keep your gardens messy!

LoraHughes, to gardening
@LoraHughes@mastodon.social avatar

This crittur, which I think is a bee fly, was sniffing around my seed pots, for some reason, literally putting its head to the compost as if sniffing, then moving to the next pot. @gardening

wormerama,
@wormerama@ecoevo.social avatar

@LoraHughes @gardening I don't think it's a bee fly, they're a bit darker and have their proboscis permanently out. Could be a batman hoverfly (Myathropa florea). They lay eggs in decaying vegetation so might fancy your compost as a home for its babies. https://uknature.co.uk/hoverflies/m.florea-info

harshad, to random
@harshad@sharma.io avatar

Hydroponics is the bitcoin of agriculture.

It's a science experiment to grow plants on life support, everyone interested should try it, but it's not how we'll feed the world. The energy, maintenance and expertise costs will remain not worth it until life support is the only way left to grow plants.

We're still far from that, and, growing plants and trees in the ground will nudge the chance of worsening climate further away.

wormerama,
@wormerama@ecoevo.social avatar

@harshad a lot of modern intensive agriculture is essentially hydroponics in the soil as there’s so little life left in the soil it needs a constant supply of artificial nutrients to function

wormerama, to random
@wormerama@ecoevo.social avatar

JohnI with the real climate change conspiracy in The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/article/2024/may/05/readers-reply-which-conspiracy-theories-have-been-proved-true

wormerama, to random
@wormerama@ecoevo.social avatar

Doing a 30 minute pollinator recording in 2 areas of my garden every day for the next week. Day 1 has revealed far more species than I ever realised were visiting!
Hairy-footed flower bee
Common drone fly
Orange-horned nomad bee
Tree bumblebee
White-footed hoverfly
Brassy mining bee
Red-tailed bumblebee
Blue mason bee
Honeybee
Common carder bee
Nomad bee
Buff-tailed bumblebee
Small white butterfly
Common yellow face bee
Early mining bee
Blue mason bee
Panzer's Nomad bee
Orange tip butterfly

wormerama,
@wormerama@ecoevo.social avatar

For my project I am comparing pollinator visitors to my yard which is enclosed by tall impermeable fences with my more open very young food forest garden just the other side of an alleyway behind my house.

wormerama,
@wormerama@ecoevo.social avatar

There's also a bunch that I've labelled generic bumbles because they looked like bumblebees but were moving too fast to identify! But I'm only counting those that actually interact with the garden (ie foraging or nesting activity)

wormerama,
@wormerama@ecoevo.social avatar

A few weeks ago my ability to name insects to my garden was limited to ant, bumblebee, butterfly etc with a limited number of species that I knew by name. Shout out to Field Studies Council whose pollinator course was excellent, and also these free fantastic photo ID guides
https://www.naturespot.org.uk/gallery/bugs

https://www.flickr.com/photos/63075200@N07/collections/72157629222209764/

Even weird looking bugs are more fascinating when you know their name and can learn about their habits

wormerama, to random
@wormerama@ecoevo.social avatar

Everybody tells you to leave the dandelions for the bees but they forget to mention what a joy it is seeing a gaggle of goldfinches swoop down in to your garden and fill their beaks with fluffy dandelion seeds

wormerama, to random
@wormerama@ecoevo.social avatar

Don’t fight the dandelions, embrace the dandelions

wormerama, to random
@wormerama@ecoevo.social avatar

Ever since I first got in to gardening I keep finding myself becoming increasingly annoyed at capitalism-led Big Gardening.

Every single gardening guide tells you to buy compost and amend your soil. It's why anybody who says that they grow their own to save money gets scoffed at. In a regular allotment or garden you probably have an excess of nutrients. Cut Big Gardening off.

(I'm sorry I get irrationally angry after reading gardening magazines)

wormerama, to gardening
@wormerama@ecoevo.social avatar

folk - do you do any soil testing before adding amendments such as fertilisers to your soil?

If not, how do you decide what amendments to add and how much?

Curious about gardener's use of fertilisers and knowledge of soil health.

wormerama, to random
@wormerama@ecoevo.social avatar

I went in to my garden for a mental break from studying. In the tiniest triangle between my garden, next door’s garden and the horse field behind is a little scrap of what I think is the original old wood that would have covered this area. One very big old hawthorn is the last original tree standing, the others are newer. In its shade lie a carpet of wild garlic and bluebells. I noticed that they’ve made their way on to my side in the far section that I’ve left wild.

wormerama, to random
@wormerama@ecoevo.social avatar

Sometimes studying environmental science is discovering that this beautiful planet is even more fascinating and awe-inspiring than you realised, and sometimes it’s discovering that we’ve messed it up even more than you realised

JimmyB, to gardening
@JimmyB@mas.to avatar

1/ For the here: I have been discussing with a small group of environmentalists, a Horticultural Therapist and my local Connetable (elected, Parish level, with real power) the possibility of creating a wetland educational project and an adjoining community garden on land near my house.

That conversation has been going on for 2 or 3 years now - and I've got tired of the daft local issues preventing progress.

The biggest of these is the question of land ownership.

wormerama,
@wormerama@ecoevo.social avatar

@JimmyB Transition Towns have some good resources on starting community projects https://transitionnetwork.org/do-transition/

As do Parks Community https://parkscommunity.org.uk/how_to_guide/lets-be-friends/

and Incredible Edible https://www.incredibleedible.org.uk/get-involved/get-going/

Sounds like an interesting project.

wormerama, to gardening
@wormerama@ecoevo.social avatar

Looks like I’m 100% no dig now

wormerama, to random
@wormerama@ecoevo.social avatar

10 ways to get involved with citizen science. All UK based simple recording projects covering plants, insects, birds, frogspawn

https://growwild.kew.org/blog/10-ways-get-involved-citizen-science

quixoticgeek, to random
@quixoticgeek@v.st avatar

Ok. Now do cars. Go on.

I wonder how those accident stats look if we take out everything where a car is involved.

Our blindness to the harm of cars, while happily targeting any and all micromobility devices is disgusting.

https://nltimes.nl/2024/03/12/amsterdam-testing-system-can-remotely-slow-e-bikes

wormerama,
@wormerama@ecoevo.social avatar

@quixoticgeek If cars were invented today they wouldn't be allowed anywhere near the public. But they're so ingrained it feels like an impossible battle to push back against them even slightly

wormerama, to random
@wormerama@ecoevo.social avatar

During the big covid lockdown one of my tutors recorded some teaching videos and they're still being used as resources. It is very clear that the poor guy was not OK during that time. It's wild that we're supposed to just move on from that time like it never happened

wormerama, to random
@wormerama@ecoevo.social avatar

I try to keep my focus on things that can be done to tackle climate breakdown and environmental destruction but my course is covering a lot of material about how many habitats are being destroyed by people and the trees along my stretch of river look like this now that river levels have fallen and honestly it's hard not to succumb to dispair

Trees along a river strewn with plastic

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