What's Buzzing in The Gardens: May

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, one year, I got my first beehive. I was enamored. I was entranced. I was hooked on beekeeping and now, another 20 years has slid by in my second career as a beekeeper.

Beth delivered the hives late last month

Bee Squared Apiaries manages more than 100 colonies of bees from the roof of the Denver Botanic Gardens to Silver Reef organic farm in Wellington. We continue to expand hive locations and would like to eventually reach somewhere in the 200 colony range. We love partnerships with like-minded organizations and institutions! It is also becoming more and more difficult to find “safe” places for bees and The Gardens offers an opportunity to buffer bees from many of their stressors: pesticides, poor forage, pests and pathogens.

Colorado is home to over 930 species of bees! Yes, you read that correctly! Most of these bees are solitary bees that live in little holes in the ground or in the hollow stems of plants. Many of these are gregarious bees meaning that they live in large groups—but are still solitary. Some of these bees, such as bumblebees, live in small colonies. Only one, Apis mellifera, lives as a large perennial colony.

Beth installed two hives along the back fence at The Gardens

It is the ability to function as a colony that allows them to produce honey! And did you know that a honeybee produces only 1/12^th – yes one twelfth - of a teaspoon of honey in its short life? Or that it takes 2 MILLION flowers to produce a single pound of honey?

On your next visit, look closely at the insects in the Gardens and discover how many pollinator species you can see. You will be surprised!

Gardens on Spring Creek Hive Information:

Number of Hives: Two
Type of Hive: Langstroth
(Beautiful copper top / copper cornered hives made by my husband, Mike.)
Installation Date: April 27, 2020

OtterCares Foundation Grant Award

The Gardens on Spring Creek is honored to be a recipient of a recent OtterCares Foundation grant award totaling $19,523 in support of our established Project Hort and new Junior Hort Programs ! These two teen educational initiatives are an essential part of growing the future of horticulture and environmentalism in our community , and we thank OtterCares for providing foundational support to help this program expand! Started in 2022, Project Hort is a program for teens who are passionate about gardening, plants, animals, and the environment. Th is summer -long volunteer and stewardship program combine s service learning, community building, and horticulture education. In the first two year s of Project Hort , 35 dedicated student s volunteered over 5,000 hours , completing projects focused on building new gardens, facili t ating education around plants and mental health, assembling garden exploration backpacks, and organizing our Garden Animal Fes...

What's Blooming: Harvesting Your Own Christmas Tree

Harvesting Your Own Christmas Tree By Jessica Clarke, Horticulturist It’s the holidays, and no matter what you celebrate this time of year, seeing the trees glowing around town brings warm cozy feelings during this dark season . To bring that feeling home , m any people have been going back to the traditional live tree and even going so far as cutting down their own tree. Fortunately for the adventurous type in Colorado , there is easy access if you want to harvest your own Christmas tree . With a permit through the local Forest Service , individuals are allowed to harvest a tree on Forest Service land . H ere a re a couple of factors you will want to consider: Even though most of us in Colorado live at or above 5,000 feet in elevation you will still have to go higher up in elevation to use your permit . This elevation in the wintertime will be cold and , h opefully , have a good snowpack. Be prepared for winter driving , the roads can be snow-packed, icy, and so...

Hornworms by Brionna McCumber

Gardeners in Colorado may find large green caterpillars with an iconic horn on their plants every summer—these are hornworms! Tobacco hornworms ( Manduca sexta ) feed on common garden crops, often leading to conflict with humans. These very hungry caterpillars are defoliators, damaging plants such as tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, and eggplant. While the caterpillars use crops as a food source, which could be seen as negative, the moths provide a critical step in reproduction for the plants via pollination. Carolina Sphinx Moths ( Manduca sexta ), also called Hummingbird moths, are the adult form of hornworm s. They are known for their unique ability to hover mid-flight. Combined with the use of a special elongated proboscis, these moths are especially important for plant species with long tubular flowers that other pollinators cannot access or pollinate. The Gardens on Spring Creek Butterfly House wants to highlight the importance of these specialized pollinators in our...

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