The Gardens on Spring Creek

What's Buzzing in The Gardens:  May by Beth Conrey, Owner, Bee Squared Apiaries Each month, The Gardens on Spring Creek features an article about what's blooming.  This month, we have a guest writer to tell us what's buzzing! Next time you visit The Gardens, be sure to check out my new honeybee hives located at the back of the Theme Gardens.     My name is Beth Conrey.   I own Bee Squared Apiaries in Berthoud, and I have been a Gardens supporter for several years now.   This year, The Gardens decided to install honeybee hives to highlight the plight of pollinators as well as to educate the public on the many benefits of bees.   I am your Gardens beekeeper. I have always been a bit “buggy”.   I collected insects as my 4-H project and won both the Maryland and New Mexico state fairs with my collection.   I stopped collecting insects and pursued a more traditional educational path, receiving my MBA in 1982.   I worked in institutional foodservice for 20 years and then, on

Gratitude from The Gardens by Michelle Provaznik, Executive Director   To our Gardens friends and family -  On behalf of the entire Gardens on Spring Creek team, thank you.   Your support over the last two months, and especially over the last two weeks during our Spring Plant Sale, has been simply amazing.   As I was loading plants into your cars, several of you asked how things were going so I wanted to update you on several things. This year’s virtual Spring Plant Sale was the absolute best ever!   Here are some stats: Total sales: $118,048 Total plants sold: 28,005 Total plants grown by The Gardens: 25,633 or 92% Number of orders filled: 1,849 Pulling this event off without our beloved volunteers was no small feat.   The small, yet mighty Gardens staff did an outstanding job growing beautiful plants, tagging them, building the shopping website, fulfilling orders and developing a curbside pickup plan in six short weeks – all while keeping socially distant.   My deepest

Zebra Longwing The Butterfly House Still Flutters by Chris García-Hellmuth, Butterfly Coordinator, Butterfly Pavilion, The Gardens on Spring Creek Butterfly House At a glance, the diet of a butterfly is simple: nectar.  Whether the nectar is from fruit or flowers does not matter to the butterfly as long as it gets the sugar it needs to fly. In the Butterfly House at The Gardens on Spring Creek, you will find flowers of all kind to provide nectar for the butterflies.  In addition to the flowers, Butterfly Pavilion staff members provide artificial nectar a nd fruit mixtures to ensure all butterflies have an abundance of nutrients in order to thrive.   Most butterflies have an adult lifespan of two to four weeks, due to their simple nectar diet.   The Gardens on Spring Creek receives regular shipments from butterfly farms to keep the Butterfly House fluttering with an average of 300 North American butterflies.   While The Gardens and the Butterfly House have been closed due to the COV

Pawnee Buttes, Josh Cornell 2013 The Pawnee Blooms Again by Josh Cornell, Horticulturist, The Gardens on Spring Creek One of the most anticipated arrivals to the winter weather weary residents of Northern Colorado each spring is that of the annual wildflower bloom.  While most people’s thoughts drift to the mountain slopes, as they eagerly wait for the snowpack to melt, there is another place that can prove to be just as soul stirring as any alpine scene.  The Pawnee Buttes are often unheard of, as they reside in the overlooked (and underappreciated) eastern half of the state, but the area has much to offer.  The Buttes (the tallest of which is more than 300 feet tall) are located in the 193,000-acre Pawnee National Grassland, which is one of the few remaining examples of the natural, short-grass prairie that once dominated the landscape of the Great Plains.  In prehistoric times, this area was part of a large inland sea, and most would be surprised by looking at this arid climate toda