r/UpliftingNews • u/ArgentineBeauty • 4h ago

Two Minnesota solar farms planted native grasses and wildflowers beneath their panels. Five years later, flowering plant species had increased sevenfold, native bee numbers more than 20 fold and total insect numbers had tripled, while more bees were also visiting nearby soybean fields.

https://www.ecoticias.com/en/two-minnesota-solar-farms-turned-the-ground-beneath-their-panels-into-habitat-and-native-bee-abundance-rose-more-than-20-fold/36680/
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121

u/Professional_Bed_87 3h ago

Worried about bees people? Plant. More. Wildflowers. If everyone removed some of their grass, native bee populations would explode.

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u/Glum_Opening_2218 2h ago

Plant NATIVE wildflowers!

Don't just get whatever wildfire mix your dollar store is carrying and spread it, even if it claims to be native many times if you read the seeds they aren't. Get seeds from reputable online vendors like prairemoon nursery

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u/nomadicbohunk 1h ago

Yes. Yes, yes, yes. I live in Vermont and have gotten in many an argument about this with folks wanting to use the preferred seed supplier here. This is one thing I studied, know, and get hired to know and people argue with me because I'm not from VT so I'm not an expert but these people evidently are because they're from here. A few years ago I got super pissed at a board of directors with an argument stemming from ordering their one seed mix and said, "I'm sorry you hired me and I have science degrees from good schools and don't have your preferred self given degree from skimming issues of mother jones magazine on the shitter and watching instagram reels." That went over really well, but I'm glad I went full asshole and said it.

I recently found out the state wildflower is red clover. I laughed a lot. I don't know why it took me almost a decade to learn that.

Prarie moon is good for upper midwest, but I'd order from whoever is closest to you just for the genetics. In new england I've ordered from Ernst a few times for projects. Their are good sources all over.

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u/bloodanddonuts 9m ago

Some cities will just give you stuff for free, like native seeds or even actual trees.

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u/Professional_Bed_87 1h ago

Yeah a-lot of the generic “wildflower” mixes in our area have California poppies in them, which are invasive where we live. We planted it when we first moved in and are still picking them out. We have since moved to only buying from local seed producers.

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u/Ryan_e3p 3h ago

Too much work for the average person. Tell them to just stop mowing. Telling people they can do more by actually doing less is how to win over the masses.

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u/Poro_the_CV 1h ago

Or replace their “perfect” grass lawns that don’t benefit anyone with clover, which while still monoculture at least flower for pollinators. They also have deeper roots than most lawn grasses and only grow to 3-4 inches

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u/Professional_Bed_87 1h ago

Yeah this is the more accessible option for most people, while clover won’t attract as many pollinators it’s still a god food source for bees. I’ve switch to overseeding my lawn with micro clover. Clover also has the added benefit of being a nitrogen fixer, which means you also need to fertilize less. At one point, grass mixes typically included clover, I wish we’d go back to that.

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u/Great_Definition_531 3h ago

It’s not too much work. I bought a hundred native plants at a local sale this spring and they are thriving and covered in pollinators. Learn to prep a site (not hard) and look for these programs in spring. Easy.

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u/Ryan_e3p 2h ago

You completely missed the point of my comment.

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u/Professional_Bed_87 3h ago

There’s a little bit of work up front, and then very little after that. We had massive lawn, and year by year, we’ve been converting more and more into wildflower beds. In another year or two we’ll have no more grass and I’m very excited to no longer mow! The amount of pollinators in our yard is astonishing.

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u/HH_Creations 2h ago

Can they grow with grass still there? For those of us who rent and would probably get in a lot of trouble pulling grass

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u/OrphanGrounderBaby 2h ago

See but then you have people that are deathly allergic to pollinators. I’ll probably be downvoted but my wife would die in minutes if stung, just another POV

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u/geldhahn 2h ago

It's a valuable take, honestly. There are adverse effects to almost(?) anything humans do on a large enough scale.

I wouldn't have taken the covid vaccine, if I knew beforehand how mich it will fuck with me. However, it doesn't diminish the utility of said measure for the population as a whole. Same thing applies to planting wildflowers.

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u/ParryLimeade 54m ago

Let’s just kill all the pollinators for your wife, sounds great. /s pollinators are necessary for sustaining human life.

Or you could move somewhere without the pollinators that are dangerous for her.

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u/OrphanGrounderBaby 20m ago

lol sure, that’s what I said.

Maybe you should take a walk

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u/Glum_Opening_2218 2h ago

You can't simply stop mowing or else you'll end up with a ton of invasive overgrown weeds... Native gardening isn't hard, if someone can't handle that maintenance they can't handle owning a house.

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u/Ryan_e3p 1h ago

You can't kill many invasive species simply by mowing them every month. Japanese knotweed, for example, will just continue growing and spreading underground. 

At least by letting them grow, you can identity that they even exist, and where they are to remove them 

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u/pikashroom 2h ago

If you want tick and flea populations to explode, then sure. Sod cutting and planting clover and native wildflowers would be the move

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u/Le_Poop_Knife 59m ago

8 o’clock on a Saturday morning, my father’s out on the riding mower to mow his 2 acres of pristine grass. I’ve never seen the man walk further than 20 feet from the house. Doesn’t use the yard at all, but must mow it every single Saturday.

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u/Ryan_e3p 18m ago

"but the Jones' yard! We must look as good as theirs! We must show off to others that we have grass".

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u/Goldenrah 2h ago

Flowers are also prettier to look at, and usually smell better and take less maintenance.

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u/sasquatch606 1h ago

I added clover to my lawn and not only is it greener now but I get so many bees.

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u/HH_Creations 2h ago

As a renter, idk about pulling out grass

But if I put seeds out and water them, will they naturally take over the grass?

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u/_demello 1h ago

"Crime Pays but Botany Doesn't" did a video of a guy that planted native species on hiw yard after burning his lawn (he knew what he was doing, don't try at home), and the number of polinators grew absurdly on his neighborhood. It's actually crazy how little it takes to make a huge impact.

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u/wherewulf23 1h ago

One of the first projects I'm planning on undertaking when my family can finally move back to our home is to plant a native garden with tons of wildflowers. I doubt my wife will go for it, but I'd love to turn our entire backyard into a native/low maintenance lawn.

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u/ijustreadhere1 51m ago

One of the great joys of summer is when the Russian sage shoots up and the bees swarm that shit! It just makes me happy every time I go outside and see them buzzing around