Bee Connected: Save the Date

Bee connected; save the date.

The grand opening of the half-acre Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at the University of California, Davis is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 11.

The honey bees already know it's there. They "celebrate" its presence every day.

Now it's time for us to celebrate it.

It's a bee friendly garden where you can wander through Orchard Alley, waggle down Waggle Dance Way, hide out at the Honeycomb Hideout, ponder the Pollinator Patch, and snuggle up to the Nectar Nook.

The key goals of the garden are to provide bees with a year-around food source, to raise public awareness about the plight of honey bees, and to encourage visitors to plant bee-friendly gardens of their own.

The winning design is the work of a Sausalito team: landscape architects Donald Sibbett and Ann F. Baker, interpretative planner Jessica Brainard and exhibit designer Chika Kurotaki.

The team zeroed in on sustainability and visitor experience.  A series of trails connect the gardens. Trellises define the entry ways and reinforce the passage to the next space.

Identification labels will help visitors know more about the plants, or what they can plant in their own yards. Some of the plants there are salvia (sage), ceanothus, bush germander, seaside daisy, Santa Barbara daisy and tower of jewels.

Then there are almond, apple and persimmon trees, strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, dill, basil, artichokes and eggplant. (Bees pollinate one-third of the food we eat.)

Yet to come: the amazing art work created by UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program classes, taught by entomologist/artist Diane Ullman and artist Donna Billick. A two-column hive sculpture will grace the front entrance. Billick is creating a gigantic bee sculpture to be placed on a hexagonal platform beneath an almond tree.

The  design is online. The grand opening is in the design stage.
 
This is sure to bee-come a campus destination.