Urban Pollination Project visits Unpaving Paradise
On Thursday, July 24th, the Urban Pollination Project ( http://nwpollination.org )
came to Unpaving Paradise and spoke with those of us able to be there at 3 in
the afternoon about bees. Gardener Jeff
Stallman had organized the workshop, and Tessa Forbes lead a small group of
urban pollinators in presenting. They
brought some photographs and a box of specimens, gave a presentation, and then
walked us around the community garden stopping to visit pollinators in action.
I discovered that I really didn't know much about bees. I didn't know, for instance, that bumble bees
are not only the most common local pollinators but they are also the only bees
that can "buzz" (vibrate) tomato flowers to gather their pollen. Bees seem to prefer blue-violet colored
flowers (although tomato flowers are yellow) and don't see the color red at
all. Bees aren't very aggressive, unlike
wasps, many of which look a lot like bees.
The bumble bees we saw in the garden use holes in the ground or in tree
branches to nest and only make enough honey to feed their young. I'm not good at Latin, but the U.P. website
has lots of information including the proper names of various bees. It was intriguing to see that there are some
very small bees as well as the more familiar honey and bumble bees.
The timing for the workshop (which was open to the public) was
pretty much chosen by the Urban Pollinator folks themselves. (No evening or weekend hours.) We're hoping we can do this again next year
at a time when more people can come.
