Clients get bee friendly at Home Instead North Oxfordshire

30 clients have grown flowering plants from seed across the towns and villages of North Oxfordshire and South-West Northamptonshire to attract pollinating insects.

The plight of our bees?

Bees are an essential group of insects that pollinate between 5 and 15% of the UK’s pollinated crops. But they are under threat with numbers declining as a consequence of habitat destruction, resulting from the of the intensification of agriculture and urbanisation, as well as the use of pesticides and herbicides. Three bumblebee species have become extinct in recent decades. The recent European Red List for Bees reports that almost one in ten species of wild bee face extinction (https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/savingbees).

A bumblebee perched on the ornate rim of a white plate with a brown surface in the background. - Home Instead

Our bee friendly project.

From Towcester to Middle Barton, Hook Norton to Chacombe, Epwell to Bicester and Banbury to Brackley, we have thirty clients participating in this project. Home Instead provided, to each client, a large pot filled with compost and some bee-friendly flower seeds. They were supported by their Care Professionals to plant and care for the flowers from small seedlings to full flowering plants over the next months. Photos have been shared showing how well client’s plants have been doing and some images have shown bees being attracted. Things have got quite competitive at times!

This has been lovely project of engagement between Care Professionals and their clients and has supported their collective involvement in growing plants from seeds over a number of months in the Spring and Summer of 2023.

Person planting seeds in a large white pot filled with soil on a paved outdoor area. - Home Instead