As I was walking out with the dog, I just couldn't help to seem to notice the abundance of wild flowers seemed to be at its peak. Around every corner there is a new field of flowers and the most beautiful colors are sneaking in to fill up the scenery.
I have the feeling that something has changed in there over the last couple of years. I can't seem to remember this from years ago that also these fields of flowers are also taking over the city, which of course is a fantastic thing to make everything just a bit more green.
No filter here, this is the real color!
Regardless of the change, I just also can not remember that there the colors were so vibrant. And also...blue flowers? For me it seems kind of new haha.
Now what I know there has been some changes in the policies in the municipalities regarding exactly this. Since the honey bees are having a hard time and as they say that the amount of small flying pollinators has reduced significantly, that is when these changes has started.
First it started that the sides of the roads are not being cut down anymore, which means that wild grass is growing everywhere, which also bolts after a while. Bolting in this case equals more options to eat for the flying critters and that surely helps. Because especially in the city there isn't a reason to cut down the high grass. The greener, the better, the more diversity in what is growing there.
Monoculture here in the Netherlands also hasn't always been helping the bees. Farmers just planting one type of crop or trees. We need more types of everything just being everywhere.
And that was a next thing that brought in this flower abundance. As the bees needed more, but also more diverse stuff to eat from, that is also when the municipality started to give out these little bags of wild flower seeds.
You were able to pick up your own bag of seeds and just dump them anywhere in a spot which didn't have a purpose as yet.
That is where all of these flower fields originated. Supported by the city.
So people are encouraged to plant these wild seeds. Another thing that is promoted a lot more and what I am also seeing a lot more, is that buildings and office buildings have these flowers and also other small plants on their roofs.
The cool thing about that is that it drops the general temperature of that surface area because there is something green in stead of concrete which also absorbs the water from the flat roofs.
You know the drill about how much warmer it is in cities compared to the country side right? The concrete, asphalt and stones take in the heat, while a trees or some flower fields do a lot of good stuff in there keeping it cooler.
All of these things combined really make it a much greener place. The wild flowers in the borders along the side of the road which aren't being cut down anymore. The flowers and little plants on the roof of buildings. And the seeds being given out for free in the region.
Endless fields of all kinds of different colors there
It all just makes it so more more green. But maybe that is the reason why I hadn't seen them before so much. Maybe they just weren't there before.
Or did I turn my eye from them, which is also entirely possible. Regardless, what I do like a lot now at the moment is that every time I turn a corner there is a new area of flowers filled with color waiting for me.
Full blown summer. I love it!
