What a great weekend! The fun began at the 2019 Southeast District FFA Career Development Events where Megan and I judged for the first time, continued with our birthday celebration and concluded with Megan and Kyle’s engagement! It is hard to believe it is Tuesday already! With that being said, I have fun Ag in the Classroom lessons ahead of me! But before I log off and dive into this week, I wanted to highlight one particularly awesome activity from last week!
Students at Harding Middle School were inspired to make seed bombs Tuesday, March 5th after learning about the importance of pollinators! Did you know 100 crop species provide 90% of the world’s food? Out of those 100 species, 70 depend on pollinators. According to the USDA, “pollinators play a crucial role in reproduction of many plants that provide our nations food, fiber, fuel and medicine.”
There are five main types of pollinators: bats, birds, butterflies, bees and beetles. We focused on the Honey Bee. Did you know bees can pollinate 95 different crops? There are three types of bees- worker, drone and queen! We depend on bees to help pollinate crops like chocolate, apples, melons and cranberries. Without pollinators, it would be impossible for these crops to reproduce. Not only do bees pollinate, but they produce delicious honey from nectar and we use beeswax to make candles, polishes and makeup.
So as you can see, pollinators are extremely important to agriculture! To help, students made seed bombs with a pollinator flower mix. Would you like to make your own? Seed bombs make a great Mother’s Day gift, weekend activity or summer project! Just roll a few seed bombs together and toss them somewhere outside in need of some color.
Five easy steps:
1. Mix 4 parts air dry clay (white or red) to 1 part potting soil.
2. Add water- just enough to make clay movable.
3. Add more soil if neeeded.
4. Spoon in flower seeds.
5. Roll into balls and let air dry!
Spring is right around the corner and pollinators will soon be buzzing around. Until next time Picking Wild Flower Followers!
Picking Wild Flowers 