Ruud Kleinpaste: No-Mow November, December, January

No-Mow November started a few weeks ago. For me it started on the grounds of Tekapo Primary School, where we had a decent discussion about pollinators… especially bumblebees!  

Mating season!  

The kids love bumblebees! They are gentle and very active – even in the coldest months of the year. They can warm themselves up through wing-beating action while having the wings set to “neutral”.  

I told the kids that we have four different species of Bumblebee in New Zealand – all four imported from the UK (in the 1800s), to help with the pollination of plants, crops and trees from all sorts of parts of the world. Mostly to do with the various lengths of their tongues, which pollinate different sized flowers.  

Three of the four species are quite easy to find in New Zealand, but the fourth (the short-haired Bumblebee – Bombus subterraneus) is quite rare. It occurs largely in the Mackenzie country and in a few patches of inland of Otago.  

When I told the kids that Tekapo Region is where they are found every now and then, the kids pricked up their ears. They wanted to know what it looks like and what sort of flowering plants it gets its nectar and pollen from.  

But when I revealed that this bumblebee is now considered extinct in the UK, the interest grew a notch or two. And so did the development of serious questions…  

Can we grow the favourite plants in the school grounds? Could we raise their population density in the Tekapo area? And if that is successful: can we ship some fertile queens back to the UK to translocate them to their country and habitat of origin?  

A few weeks ago we dug some gardens on the edge of the school grounds and playing field. We sowed some seeds – lots of seeds, provided by the New Zealand Bumblebee Conservation Trust and specialist seed merchants such as Kings Seeds.  

Most Gardeners will know these names… Wild Flower World and Geoff and Liz Brunsden… there was an army of support  

Zonda sent them a live Bumblebee hive, just to get the kids completely engaged with the Bumbles and the Bees, in anticipation of luring this rare species back to the Mackenzie country – HeadQuarters: Tekapo Primary school!  

The Zonda Live BumbleBee hive – my goodness they really have a go at pollinating tomatoes!   

The kids learned how to get rid of weeds, fertilise the soil and sow the seeds in patches for the future of these pollinators. There was talk about creating a huge edge around the Sports Field where the grass would be taken off the field and replaced by a colourful melange of flowering plants for the bumble bee whanau.  

Now, THAT reminded me of the No-Mow-November we talked about many times before: A monocultural grassland replaced by a colourful meadow of wildflowers for our nectar and pollen eating invertebrates!  

There’s even a list of students signing up for the watering duty during the summer Holidays…  

I bet Simon (the principal), Maria, Libby, Angela, and Jane will be chuffed. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast
from News Talks.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
That'd be ah Man in the Gardener's roode climb past
and he's here with us this morning, Kilda.

Speaker 3 (00:19):
Jack. Is everything all right there?

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Everything is very well, thank you. The garden is absolutely thriving.
It is that time of year, of course, when it's
hot and wind, which is kind of what you want.
What you want.

Speaker 3 (00:31):
It's so dry here, it's unbelievable.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
It's well, that's true, Yes, that's true. You're depending on
what part of the country you're in right now, there
are some very very dry parts. You hate to think
what parts of Kenny going to be like and parts
of North and they're going to be like six or
eight weeks from now.

Speaker 3 (00:44):
Ay, but that's right.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (00:46):
Julie was out on my back when I was using
the changeaw to cut some wood and she says, I
wouldn't do that with this heat and this dryness.

Speaker 3 (00:54):
It's a good point, quite right. Yeah. Absolutely. And we've
had a few fires around here.

Speaker 2 (00:59):
Yeah, no, you certainly have. You've had one just up
the road from you, right, yeah, and on the.

Speaker 3 (01:04):
Road yeah, yeah, we could smell it. Sea Invictor was
good health.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
It is really scary. I mean one of the things
I suppose, well, on your side of the porthills there's
a bit more vegetation as as you here further east,
there's not a whole lot for it to burn. That's
sort of just the grass. But yeah, anyway, you're right.
So what is no mow November?

Speaker 4 (01:25):
It's it's actually a saying that says, why do we
always have to mow the lawns? And when you can
do really cool things about it? And I'll give you
an example of what you and I talked about. I
would say, why not get rid of all your grass,
your lawn and.

Speaker 3 (01:39):
Plants, wild flowering, and you don't have to mold. Yeah,
it means you don't have this problem you got.

Speaker 4 (01:46):
You're starting to get there now, you see, and and
and so that's the idea, that was the original idea.
So so no mo November. But that usually October November
when you start the mod the lawns here and I
always think, oh gosh, another week, weekly thing to do,
blah blah blah weekly. Anyway, Well, yeah, yeah, you got

(02:06):
good when you get We've had really warm weather and
we had some really wet, wet springs.

Speaker 3 (02:12):
So it went quickly.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
You got to get the number two on it. You
got a buzz cut there, rode low and then your son.

Speaker 3 (02:20):
Like my hairdresser.

Speaker 4 (02:21):
Yeah, anyway, so no, no November. So a couple of
weeks ago I went to Takapo Primary School where I
was going to do a little project with them, and
it was they loved it because of course always bugs
with me and things like that. But we were going
to talk about bumblebees, and so I told these kids,
this is actually a lovely story, by the way, Jack.
I told the kids that there were four different species

(02:43):
of bumble bees in New Zealand, all imported from the UK,
by the way, and they all have different tongue lengths.

Speaker 3 (02:52):
Yeah, there you go.

Speaker 4 (02:53):
And the reason of course is that, yeah, yeah, thats
some flowers have got very deep flowers if you like
other shallow flowers, and that means you need different tongue
lengths to pollinate them. See that's just the original thing.
Makes sense, Yeah, makes sense. Three of those pieces are
quite common in New Zealand. The fourth one is not
so common, and that's the one that lives near that's

(03:15):
called the short haired bumblebee by the way. That is
the one that lives in the mcghenzie country near Techapole.
And I told them that thing is actually not that
common at the moment. So what we should do is
take a bit of the school grounds off, get.

Speaker 3 (03:31):
Rid of it.

Speaker 4 (03:32):
Yeah, yeah, get rid of that stuff, and then we
plant the right plants for this particular bumblebee. And they said, oh,
that's a great idea. I said, I've got something else
to tell you. This thing came from the UK, where
it is now extinct.

Speaker 2 (03:47):
Wow is that right?

Speaker 3 (03:49):
Yes?

Speaker 4 (03:50):
So what do you think if we can grow a
heck of a lot of these long wald bumble bee. Yes,
we can then send fertile queens back to the UK,
which which failed in the past that copparently, but I
wasn't there, it didn't matter, and then we can help
the UK the English people from getting their own bubble
bee back.

Speaker 3 (04:10):
They thought it was amazing. So they started this what
do we need? What plants do we need?

Speaker 4 (04:16):
Can we raise the population density in the techable area?
Can we then ship them? Can we do all the
Of course we can. So we started that stuff off.
So I ranked some of my mates from King Seeds
and the Bumblebee Conservation Trust and Jeff and lift this
brunsom from the wildflower world, that sort of stuff, and
said what can we do here? And suddenly it all happened.

(04:39):
These kids were planting stuff everywhere. Zomba which is a
very famous company that actually let you get some beehives
if you like in your in your area. For instance,
in my tunnel house, they wanted to send them a beehive,
and all that stuff happened. So they learned how to
get rid of weeds, fertilized the soil, They know how

(04:59):
to sow the seeds, they know what to do, and
basically they are on their way. But the coolest thing
is they even signed up during the school holidays to
have a roster for watering in the school ground, so
Simon and Maria and everybody else basically on holiday. They're
so tough that the kids are doing it.

Speaker 2 (05:20):
So just for people who haven't seen the short head ones,
how different do they look compared to the bubbles you
see in other parts of the country.

Speaker 4 (05:27):
Well, we've got three different species, so we've got these
and so yeah, three or four four?

Speaker 3 (05:32):
Now, yeah, this is the fourth one.

Speaker 4 (05:33):
It is quite dark in color and it is smaller
than the others basically, but they are still there basically
on all these flowers that they like. That they like
all these flowers in the mcginsey country. That's where they are.

Speaker 2 (05:47):
Yeah, the beautiful, aren't they. I think bumble bees are
underrated somehow. They're just absolutely gorgeous. I reckon they are.

Speaker 4 (05:53):
Yeah, if you ever, if you ever grow to Manthdows,
you need that big bumblebee by the way, Jack, because
it vibrates when it lands, and that takes the spores.
And they're sorry that the pollen from one flower to
the next.

Speaker 3 (06:05):
That's how that very good.

Speaker 2 (06:08):
Yeah, yeah, my tomatoes are looking very good already. I
mean it's an early day. Yeah, I know they're looking good.
And so too of my walking onions. So thank you
very much for those. Very much enjoying those. They've been
smashed over the last couple of weeks in my place.
So yeah, we very much appreciate that little drop off
from you. Here's a cheeky line just to close you
out for the morning, Rude Jack. Isn't planting wildflowers a

(06:30):
contradiction in terms? If they're planted, technically they're not wild, Yes.

Speaker 3 (06:34):
And that's why they called wild flowers. I love it.

Speaker 2 (06:36):
Yeah, I'm sure you've heard that one before. Hey, thank
you so much. You have a wonderful weekend and we
will catch again very soon.

Speaker 3 (06:43):
Okay, absolutely, I'll be there.

Speaker 2 (06:46):
Rude climb past our man in the garden there After
eleven o'clock on news Talk z'd B, we are continuing
the theme of huge name iconic musicians reflecting on their
life and achievements this morning. So before ten o'clock we
were telling you about the new film based on Robbie
Williams's life, that's the one with the chimpanzee. After after

(07:08):
ten and that screen time segment this morning, we recommended
the new show with Elton John on Disney Plus him
reflecting on his life. And then after eleven this morning,
our book reviewer is in and she wants to tell
us about a book in which Shaer reflects on her life.
It's a two part memoir, so we'd give you all
the details on share the memoir very shortly, as well

(07:28):
as that, a few street treats in Dunedin and new
music from this amazing Australian musician Becka Amani who blends
all sorts of different styles together. It is just coming
up to eleven o'clock. It is a Saturday Morning of Jack Tame.
This is news Dog's EDB.

Speaker 1 (07:48):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live
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