Open house Saturday at Honey Bee Haven
|
|
Get this close to hard-working bees at the UC Davis Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven this weekend.
(Photos: Kathy Morrison)
|
A meme that shows up on gardening social media goes like this:
"I remember when I used to see a bee and go, YIKES a bee! And now, I'm all, Oh wow, a bee, hi! You OK there? Need anything? Can I get you a drink? A cushion? Wanna borrow the car?"
So ... here's your chance! Visit the bees Saturday during the Open House at the UC Davis Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven. It run 10 a.m. to noon, but the Haven is open dawn until dusk.
OK, maybe not lend them the car. But you can say hi, see their habitat and perhaps donate to help the Haven, which no longer receives funding from Häagen-Dazs though it still bears the name.
The Open House runs from 10 a.m. to noon, with a guided tour scheduled at 11 a.m. And the Haven all day will have "bee vacuums" available so visitors can safely catch and observe resident bees. Dr. Rick Wilson also will be on hand to chat about the Haven's unique sundial and its relation to bees.
The website describes the half-acre Haven as "a unique outdoor museum that provides resources for local bee pollinators, inspires and educates visitors to create pollinator habitat gardens, and provides a site for the observation and study of bees and the plants that support them."
Parking and admission to the Honey Bee Haven is free. It's located next to the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility on Bee Biology Road, west of Highway 113 in Davis. Directions and a map are available here.
For more on the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, visit http://beegarden.ucdavis.edu/
And if you like to take pictures of bees as much as I do, do review t he Haven photography policies .
-- Kathy Morrison
|
Comments
0 comments have been posted.Sacramento Digs Gardening to your inbox.
Local News
Thanks to our sponsor!
Sites We Like
Garden Checklist for week of May 12
Get your gardening chores and irrigation done early in the day before temperatures rise.
* Plant, plant, plant! It’s prime planting season in the Sacramento area. Time to set out those tomato transplants along with peppers and eggplants. Pinch off any flowers on new transplants to make them concentrate on establishing roots instead of setting premature fruit.
* Direct-seed melons, cucumbers, summer squash, corn, radishes, pumpkins and annual herbs such as basil.
* Harvest cabbage, lettuce, peas and green onions. This heat will cause leafy greens and onions to flower; pick them before they bolt.
* In the flower garden, direct-seed sunflowers, cosmos, salvia, zinnias, marigolds, celosia and asters.
* Plant dahlia tubers. Other perennials to set out include verbena, coreopsis, coneflower and astilbe.
* Transplant petunias, marigolds and perennial flowers such as astilbe, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, dahlias, rudbeckia and verbena.
* Keep an eye out for slugs, snails, earwigs and aphids that want to dine on tender new growth.
* Feed summer bloomers with a balanced fertilizer.
* For continued bloom, cut off spent flowers on roses as well as other flowering plants.
* Got fruit trees? If you haven't already done so, thin orchard fruit such as apples, peaches, pears, pluots and plums before they grow too heavy, breaking branches or even splitting the tree. Leave the largest fruit on the branch, culling the smaller ones, and allow for 5 to 6 inches (or a hand's worth) between each fruit.
* Thin grape bunches, again leaving about 6 inches between them. For the remaining bunches, prune off the "tail" end, about the bottom third of the bunch, so that the plant's energy is concentrated in the fruit closest to the branch.
* As spring-flowering shrubs finish blooming, give them a little pruning to shape them, removing old and dead wood. Lightly trim azaleas, fuchsias and marguerites for bushier plants.
* Add mulch to the garden to help keep that precious water from evaporating. Mulch also cuts down on weeds. But don’t let it mound around the stems or trunks of trees or shrubs. Leave about a 6-inch to 1-foot circle to avoid crown rot or other problems.
Powered by California Local
