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Beekeeper Clara will present her bee marathon on Facebook this weekend. (Photo courtesy Clara) |
One enterprising Girl Scout Junior is doing her part to help bees, and she’s inviting other kids – and grown-ups, too – to improve their bee IQ.
“Bee the Change with Beekeeper Clara” is a two-day online marathon, hosted by a youthful backyard beekeeper. Set for 9 a.m. Saturday, July 9 , to 9 p.m. Sunday, July 10 , the virtual event is free and open to anyone with Facebook access.
Karysa LeAnn, Clara’s mom, shared the event to the Sacramento Garden Group on Facebook. Karysa also is monitoring and managing the event to make sure it’s safe (both around the bees and the Internet). But Clara is leading the project and the content.
According to Clara’s webpage, it will be a “weekend of total brain pollination – instead of pollen, we're transferring knowledge! Learn about different types of bees, a little about what backyard beekeeping looks like for our family, and how you can ‘bee’ a friend to these fuzzy pollinators. We'll have live broadcast presentations, interactive live Q&A sessions, informative pictures and posts, and instructions for easy DIY projects.”
The projects and information will be “great for kids and grown-ups alike,” says Clara. “Times for live broadcasts to be announced; replays will be available if you're ‘buzzzy’.”
This project combines Clara’s love of bees and scouting. Clara is a Girl Scout Junior and backyard honey beekeeper, “who loves to create a buzz about the things she cares about,” says her mom. “This educational event is the final step in her path towards earning her Bronze Award, the highest honor a Junior level Girl Scout can receive.”
Girl Scout Juniors are girls in grades 4 and 5.
“You may want to keep notetaking supplies handy,” suggests Clara. “DIY projects can usually be completed with household objects and items found easily in most yards.”
Clara’s bee-class idea is catching. As of
Tuesday morning
, 32 people are “definitely attending,” with another 144 interested.
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Food in My Back Yard Series
July 1: How to grow summer salad greens
June 24: Weird stuff that's perfectly normal
June 17: Help pollinators help your garden
June 10: Battling early-season tomato pests
June 3: Make your own compost
May 27: Where are the bees when you need them?
May 20: How to help tomatoes thrive on hot days
May 13: Your plants can tell you more than any calendar can
May 6: Maintain soil moisture with mulch for garden success
April 29: What's (already) wrong with my tomato plants?
April 22: Should you stock up on fertilizer? (Yes!)
April 15: Grow culinary herbs in containers
April 8: When to plant summer vegetables
April 1: Don't be fooled by these garden myths
March 25: Fertilizer tips: How to 'feed' your vegetables for healthy growth
March 18: Time to give vegetable seedlings some more space
March 11: Ways to win the fight against weeds
March 4: Potatoes from the garden
Feb. 25: Plant a fruit tree now -- for later
Feb. 18: How to squeeze more food into less space
Feb. 11: When to plant? Consider staggering your transplants
Feb. 4: Starting in seed starting
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Garden Checklist for week of June 29
We're into our typical summer weather pattern now. Get chores, especially watering, done early in the morning while it's cool.
* It’s not too late to add a splash of color. Plant petunias, snapdragons, zinnias and marigolds.
* From seed, plant corn, pumpkins, radishes, winter squash and sunflowers. Plant Halloween pumpkins now.
* Keep your vegetable garden watered, mulched and weeded. Water before 8 a.m. to reduce the chance of fungal infection and to conserve moisture.
* Water, then fertilize vegetables and blooming annuals, perennials and shrubs to give them a boost. Feeding flowering plants every other week will extend their bloom.
* Don’t let tomato plants wilt or dry out completely. Give tomatoes a deep watering two to three times a week.
* Harvest vegetables promptly to encourage plants to produce more. Squash especially tends to grow rapidly in hot weather. Keep an eye on zucchini.
* Pinch back chrysanthemums for bushy plants and more flowers in September.
* Harvest tomatoes, squash, peppers and eggplant. Prompt picking will help keep plants producing.
* Remove spent flowers from roses, daylilies and other bloomers as they finish flowering.
* Pinch off blooms from basil so the plant will grow more leaves.
* Cut back lavender after flowering to promote a second bloom.
* Give vegetable plants bone meal or other fertilizers high in phosphate to stimulate more blooms and fruiting.