- Author: Loren Nelson
May 16-17 noon to noon, the UC Master Gardener Program launches our independent statewide giving day! We call it UC ANR #Giving Day—a day to ‘dig deep' to support the program you care about.
We invite you to support our mission to extend sustainable gardening practices in thousands of community, school and demonstration gardens across California.
By donating to the UC Master Gardener Program and UC ANR you extend the knowledge and resources of the University to your community. Mark your calendar, spread the word, and stay tuned for more details!
Join us at noon and be the first to give — or visit us anytime during the 24-hour giving day. Make your gift then share your support on social media using #Giving Day or call a friend to let them know what's happening.
We hope you will join us on May 16-17!
/h3>/h2>- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Get ready...it's happening...the annual World Bee Day...
Monday, May 20 is World Bee Day, as declared by the United Nations "to raise awareness of the importance of pollinators, the threats they face, and their contribution to sustainable development."
"The goal is to strengthen measures aimed at protecting bees and other pollinators, which would significantly contribute to solving problems related to the global food supply and eliminate hunger in developing countries," the website points out. "We all depend on pollinators and it is, therefore, crucial to monitor their decline and halt the loss of biodiversity."
Lately we've been noticing multiple species of bumble bees in our pollinator garden in Vacaville. One of them appears to be Bombus bifarius.
The bumbles we've seen over the years in our pollinator garden--B. californicus, B. melanopygus, B.vosnesenskii and B. bifarius--especially like Coreopsis, a genus of flowering plants in the aster family, Asteraceae. It's also called tickseed.
Now that's not a good name for such a showy flower!