Beekeeper Clara will present her bee marathon on Facebook this weekend. (Photo courtesy Clara) |
One enterprising Girl Scout Junior is doing her part to help bees, and she’s inviting other kids – and grown-ups, too – to improve their bee IQ.
“Bee the Change with Beekeeper Clara” is a two-day online marathon, hosted by a youthful backyard beekeeper. Set for 9 a.m. Saturday, July 9 , to 9 p.m. Sunday, July 10 , the virtual event is free and open to anyone with Facebook access.
Karysa LeAnn, Clara’s mom, shared the event to the Sacramento Garden Group on Facebook. Karysa also is monitoring and managing the event to make sure it’s safe (both around the bees and the Internet). But Clara is leading the project and the content.
According to Clara’s webpage, it will be a “weekend of total brain pollination – instead of pollen, we're transferring knowledge! Learn about different types of bees, a little about what backyard beekeeping looks like for our family, and how you can ‘bee’ a friend to these fuzzy pollinators. We'll have live broadcast presentations, interactive live Q&A sessions, informative pictures and posts, and instructions for easy DIY projects.”
The projects and information will be “great for kids and grown-ups alike,” says Clara. “Times for live broadcasts to be announced; replays will be available if you're ‘buzzzy’.”
This project combines Clara’s love of bees and scouting. Clara is a Girl Scout Junior and backyard honey beekeeper, “who loves to create a buzz about the things she cares about,” says her mom. “This educational event is the final step in her path towards earning her Bronze Award, the highest honor a Junior level Girl Scout can receive.”
Girl Scout Juniors are girls in grades 4 and 5.
“You may want to keep notetaking supplies handy,” suggests Clara. “DIY projects can usually be completed with household objects and items found easily in most yards.”
Clara’s bee-class idea is catching. As of
Tuesday morning
, 32 people are “definitely attending,” with another 144 interested.
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Garden Checklist for week of Nov. 3
November still offers good weather for fall planting:
* If you haven't already, it's time to clean up the remains of summer. Pull faded annuals and vegetables. Prune dead or broken branches from trees.
* Now is the best time to plant most trees and shrubs. This gives them plenty of time for root development before spring growth. They also benefit from fall and winter rains.
* Set out cool-weather annuals such as pansies and snapdragons.
* Lettuce, cabbage and broccoli also can be planted now.
* Plant garlic and onions.
* Keep planting bulbs to spread out your spring bloom. Some possible suggestions: daffodils, crocuses, hyacinths, tulips, anemones and scillas.
* This is also a good time to seed wildflowers and plant such spring bloomers as sweet pea, sweet alyssum and bachelor buttons.
* Rake and compost leaves, but dispose of any diseased plant material. For example, if peach and nectarine trees showed signs of leaf curl this year, clean up under trees and dispose of those leaves instead of composting.
* Save dry stalks and seedpods from poppies and coneflowers for fall bouquets and holiday decorating.
* For holiday blooms indoors, plant paperwhite narcissus bulbs now. Fill a shallow bowl or dish with 2 inches of rocks or pebbles. Place bulbs in the dish with the root end nestled in the rocks. Add water until it just touches the bottom of the bulbs. Place the dish in a sunny window. Add water as needed.
* Give your azaleas, gardenias and camellias a boost with chelated iron.
* For larger blooms, pinch off some camellia buds.
* Prune non-flowering trees and shrubs while dormant.
* To help prevent leaf curl, apply a copper fungicide spray to peach and nectarine trees after they lose their leaves this month. Leaf curl, which shows up in the spring, is caused by a fungus that winters as spores on the limbs and around the tree in fallen leaves. Sprays are most effective now.