Plantlife’s No Mow May and Let it Bloom June are over- so it’s nearly time to do some more flower counting- and if you haven’t already, sign up for Every Flower Counts.
Next weekend 11th-12th July is the count to see how many pollinating insects your lawn can support, so this week take a few minutes to make simple quadrats to make counting easier and more accurate.
you will need:
4 bamboo canes or reasonably straight sticks (or pieces of pipe- anything thin, long and straight) at least 1m long each or 4-8 pieces of newspaper
string or sticky tape
a pen, pencil or chalk
a tape measure or ruler (you can use a short ruler- just use it enough times end to end to measure 1m)
method
using sticks or canes:
Mark 1m lengths in the middle of your sticks. If they are a lot longer than 1m, cut them down to 1.2m or so.
Using your markings, tie or tape the sticks together to make a square.
You now have a quadrat!
using newspaper:
if you don’t have newspaper, you can usually get it for free by calling in at a newsagent or supermarket at the very end of a day or asking them to save out-of-date papers a few days before you want them- or of course find someone who buys newspapers - they’ll probably be happy to give you a stack of old ones!
Take one or two pieces of newspaper
lay them flat
Roll them into a tight tube, starting at one corner so you get a long diagonal roll of paper.
Unroll and re-roll the tube until it is over 1m long and you are happy with it. Rolling a tight tube can be easier if you roll into a pencil- but make sure you leave the end of the pencil sticking out so you can pull it out once the tube is rolled!
Tape the end of the paper so the tube can’t unroll
Make 3 more tubes
Follow the same instructions for sticks
You can fold a newspaper quadrat up for convenient storage:
Then, next weekend you’ll be all ready to follow the Plantlife instructions and contribute to some real citizen science!