News — Blog

Just as you winterize your home to make it more efficient, you can do the same for your garden. Properly winterizing your garden will help your plots rejuvenate naturally and reduce the amount of work you'll have to do in the spring, allowing you to jump right into the fun part, PLANTING! Before we jump into our tips, you may wonder if sustainable gardening is essential for small backyard gardens. Using sustainable gardening practices, we become examples for future generations of gardeners by showing them that growing food or creating space for new gardens does not have to mean harming...

Each month our Bee Informed Blog highlights current news, science, and research related to solitary bee conservation, food insecurity, and sustainability. 1. "These Are My Most Trusted Native Plants For Restoration And Here’s Why" (Anna Murray, Xerces Society) I am a pollinator habitat specialist, which means that I plant a lot of plants. In my 15 years of growing native plants in nurseries and restoring habitats in national parks, college campuses, home gardens and farms, I estimate that I have personally grown or planted over 90,000 native plants and facilitated the planting of over 260,000. Here are a few native plants that...

The solitary bee industry is taking off, which attracts companies with the sole purpose of making money. We helped start the industry back in 2008 and see both good and bad practices abound! Your success is honestly important to us, and we want to give you the tools to make informed decisions. A growing industry, while popular, can often breed problems. Perhaps the biggest problem facing the solitary bee industry is the boom of uninformed people/companies selling bees and products. Did you know that certain bee rearing practices or a poorly designed bee house can wind up doing more harm...

Each month our Bee Informed Blog highlights current news, science, and research related to solitary bee conservation, food insecurity, and sustainability. 1. New Jersey Enacts Groundbreaking Neonic Legislation (NRDC) New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed into law A2070 (Calabrese)/S1016 (Smith), which prohibits most outdoor non-agricultural uses of harmful neonicotinoid pesticides. An outpouring of scientific evidence points to neonics as a leading cause of bee losses; a threat to birds, other wildlife, and human health; and a cause of widespread water contamination. Continue reading...     2. Air Pollution Makes It Harder for Bees to Sniff Out Flower, Study Says (Yale Environment 360)...