Mayor cover girl for bee initiative

OUT AND ABOUT: Children from Martinborough School help a City Care gardener plant wild flower seeds at Centennial Park in Martinborough. Cairo Scarr-Shaw (left), Tana Thompson, Guy Diederich, Elizabeth Barrett, Malinda Marshall, Mayor Adrienne Staples, Diego Sitana, Sophie Sweeny, Gabby Nicholson, Aaliyah Crawford and Oliver Percy sprinkle seeds. PHOTO/LYNDA FERINGA

South Wairarapa Mayor Adrienne Staples is set to be next month's "cover girl" on the New Zealand Beekeeper Journal.

September is Bee Aware Month and the National Beekeepers Association had asked councils nationwide to designate plots within their district to plant gardens which flora bees could forage on.

South Wairarapa District Council was the first council to sign up to the programme, winning the mayor a front-page splash. "At my stage in life, it's a bit of a novelty really," Mrs Staples said.

"Normally they want more younger and glamorous cover girls - there's life in the old girl yet."

A photoshoot with Mrs Staples took place on Tuesday at Greytown's Stella Bull Park.

Four South Wairarapa spots have been designated by the council for "bee-friendly" planting. These include two locations in Featherston, Stella Bull Park and Centennial Park in Martinborough.

On Wednesday, Mrs Staples met 10 Martinborough School pupils at Centennial Park to kick off the plantings.

She asked the children why bees were so important, to which they rightly replied: "To pollinate the plants".

Mrs Staples told them bees were especially vital to Martinborough because of all the grapes grown there.

"The bee industry is so important for Wairarapa, not only for pollination but for manuka honey so it's a great initiative for our area."

City Care gardener Hannah Moore, parks operator for the South Wairarapa, pulled out a bag of wild flower seeds.

"It doesn't look like much but they will go far," she told the children.

Miss Moore divided the soil into 10 patches for each child to sow their handful of seeds.

She raked the seeds into the soil so they didn't blow away and said hopefully we would see them sprout in the next couple of weeks.

Planting the remaining three wild flower gardens would be happening within the next month. "It's good to see the community getting onboard and the council encouraging us to do this," said Miss Moore.