Wearable Garden Creates Food for Bees

All around the world, bees are dying and no one can figure out why.

The worst part, writes Care2′s Kristina Chew, is that the dramatic drop in population is especially being seen in domesticated honey bees who are useful in agriculture. Officially, scientists and agricultural specialists are calling the phenomenon Colony Collapse Disorder, an epidemic that’s resulted in the loss of millions of bees since it was observed starting in about 1995.

One of the best things that you can do to support the bee population in your area is to plant organic gardens full of plenty of attractive flowers for the bees to feed on. If you live in the city, where gardening space is scarce, you might want to changing your shirt instead.

Created through collaboration between artist Karen Ingham and several scientific institutions, The Pollinator Frocks Project is a limited edition collection of clothing based on scanning electron microscopy images of plant pollen grains linked to endangered pollinators.

The fabrics are treated with pollinator food sources that replicate nectar, which will be specially coated onto the fabric prior to cut and assembled as “pollinator frocks” (loose fitting unisex clothing).

“The designs consist of ‘day-wear’ for insects such as bees and butterflies and ‘evening-wear’ for moths. In the urban environment where garden space is limited and nectar rich plants rare, the clothing can be hung out as clothes are hung on a washing line, to act as an attractant to pollinators,” writes Ingham on her website.

Working with technologists at the Welsh Centre for Printing and Coating, Ingham found aromas and materials that mimic the way insects relate to flowers. Ingham sees these “wearable gardens” as a way to stabilize bee populations in areas where nectar-rich plants are rare, and as a way to generate some “buzz” about their dwindling populations.

Learn more about this unique and functional fashion statement in the video clip below:

Also Check Out:
EPA Memo Shows Pesticide Harms Bees
Honey Trouble: Why Urban Bee Keepers are Seeing Red
Bees Could Save Elephants And Protect Crops
Bee-Friendly Landscaping

Image Credit: Karen Ingham

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Donna H.

10:17AM PDT on Apr 23, 2012

Thanks for the info.

send a green star

KS G.

5:36AM PDT on Apr 23, 2012

Thanks for the article.

Aoife O.

11:38AM PDT on Aug 15, 2011

thanks

Howard C.

9:19AM PDT on Jun 9, 2011

A novel way of feeding bees but if you have access to a washing line maybe you could plant out a pot of flowers instead!

Shelly P.

8:05AM PDT on May 29, 2011

This is interesting!...it is the pesticide and all the radiation from the cell phone towers (which interfers with the bees communication to each other as to where the "food" is) so they are starving and being poisoned... that is what is killing them.

Wioletta S.

1:51AM PDT on May 25, 2011

love it

David Erik B.

4:42AM PDT on May 4, 2011

Yes, I hope enough of the good.

Berny P.

3:00AM PDT on Apr 9, 2011

Interesting!!!!!!!!!!!!!

7:21AM PDT on Mar 24, 2011

Hummmmmm!!!

Sarah Z.