Flower farmer is just buzzing to tackle climate change...
AS it prepares to welcome the public after lockdown, a flower farm in Cork is taking on the task of fighting an even bigger global crisis.
Bumblebee Flower Farm in Drimoleague, West Cork, reopens on June 5. However, the farm’s focus will be on climate change – not Covid-19.
It will host talks and workshops to the public and businesses throughout the summer on how to care for plants without causing harm to pollinators such as honeybees and without filling gardens full of unnecessary pesticides.
Florist Mags Riordan, 57, who manages the flower farm alongside her daughter and friend Catherine Brown, said they are counting down the days until visitors can come and experience the work they’re doing.
Speaking to the Irish Mail on Sunday, Mags said: ‘We had planned to do a big reopening on June 6, but that booked out so we are allowing visitors to come on June 5 as well.
‘People are dying to get back to a bit of nature, I think, and they just really want to come and see the farm. We’re very excited.’
The past year has been difficult for Bumblebee farm, which usually supplies restaurants with edible flowers and also provides bouquets for weddings.
And while business for online bouquet orders kept their small operation afloat, Mags admitted they are all grateful that a return to normality is on the horizon.
The June reopening will offer visitors a walk through the farm and will also show them how to practice regenerative gardening to help support and protect the environment followed by Q&A sessions.
Mags added: ‘We’ll be telling people why we do what we do here and how to protect the ecosystem in their own gardens.
‘We’ll be offering structured courses starting in July too, including one for businesses who want to grow their own sustainable, edible flower garden. We’ll show them how to grow them, how to harvest them at the right time to get the maximum flavour and maximum shelf life. We’ll be giving people the knowledge I’ve developed over 20 years working with these plants and pollinators.’
But she warns: ‘If we don’t change our growing practices, our agriculture and horticulture will continue to be one of the biggest negative effects on the climate. We need to change how we do everything on a small scale as well as a big scale. The pandemic is a symptom of climate change and the vaccine is wonderful, but it’s a band-aid on a bigger problem.’
‘We need to change our growing practices’