Podcasts about million pollinator garden challenge

MARY PHILLIPS BIOFor eight years, Mary has led Garden for Wildlife™ and Certified Wildlife Habitat® as an ambassador for native plants with the National Wildlife Federation. Her work ensures all habitat programs and resources are rooted in sustainable practices and the latest science. Under her leadership, in coordination with the White House Office of Science and Policy, NWF coordinated the National Pollinator Garden Network in 2015 to launch the Million Pollinator Garden Challenge which created over a million pollinator gardens in three years. This partnership involved over fifty national organizations with a third from the commercial garden trade, such as growers and independent garden centers.  Mary helped create the Garden for Wildlife Native Plants Collection™. The goal of this social enterprise is to increase the native plant supply, reduce carbon impacts, and secure survival of iconic species, such as the monarch butterfly, native bees and songbirds. Mary works to ensure Garden for Wildlife, Inc. maintains its sustainability commitments: to engage everyday people in solutions for critical wildlife loss and climate impact and, connect local native plant growers to consumers through ecommerce. Prior to joining NWF, Mary was principal at The Abundant Backyard, a sustainable native plant landscaping service and one of the first Certified Green Businesses in Montgomery County, MD.  As a Maryland Master Naturalist, Mary maintains her Certified Wildlife Habitat® with her family and enjoys hiking and exploring the Chesapeake Bay natural history and heritage. You can find more about Mary Phillips on LinkedIn.THE PLANTASTIC PODCASTThe Plantastic Podcast is a monthly podcast created by Dr. Jared Barnes.  He's been gardening since he was five years old and now is an award-winning professor of horticulture at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, TX.  To say hi and find the show notes, visit theplantasticpodcast.com.You can learn more about how Dr. Jared cultivates plants, minds, and life at meristemhorticulture.com.  He also shares thoughts and cutting-edge plant research each week in his newsletter plant•ed, and you can sign up at meristemhorticulture.com/subscribe.  Until next time, #keepgrowing!

At just 16 years old Adithi Raghavan founded her organization BEEducated (https://www.thebeeducated.org/) when she learned just how serious the plight of the honeybee is (their populations are declining sharply). Through BEEducated, Adithi has created “The Million Pollinator Garden Challenge” to empower young people all over the country to create bee-friendly gardens in their very own backyards using kits that Adithi and her team send out.

Today, I am doing something a little different. Laryssa Kwoczak, my guest, is also a podcaster, so today, I am her guest, too. We will be releasing this podcast on her platform as well as on mine.  Listen in to our fascinating conversation to learn more about Laryssa, why bees are such an important part of our world, what you need to know before attracting bees to your garden, and so much more. Did I mention resources? We’ll have plenty of those for you, too. About Laryssa Laryssa lives in Hawaii. She has been keeping bees for about ten years. She used to work for a commercial apiary where she was teaching people about bees.  The Buzz About Bees When she stopped doing that, she started doing her podcast called The Buzz About Bees. Laryssa created her podcast to dive a bit deeper into the hive and what bees do, and what the beekeeper does. She tries to make her podcast as friendly to non-beekeepers as possible.  Why bees are so important Bees are important because they make honey, plus they pollinate foods like nuts, fruit, and vegetables, and flowers. They are an integral part of our world, and they are fascinating creatures. Bees are also food for birds, and they help the soil.  Honey Honey has antibacterial properties. It gets used in bandaging for burn victims because it helps pull the moisture out. Never goes bad Honey is the only food that never goes bad. Planting for honey bees Honey bees have an action called flower fidelity, so they like to fill their sacks with just one kind of nectar for months at a time. So, when you are planting for bees, it is good to have more than one plant of one variety to encourage the bees by making it worth their while to stop by.  One of the best pollinators The pollen sticks to the fuzzy bodies of the bees. Then they go to the next flower of the same variety, spread the pollen, and pollinate it. That is why honey bees are one of the best pollinators. Lots of everything Different things attract different pollinators. So, have lots of everything! Herbs are great to plant if you want to attract pollinators to your garden. Natural practices It is healthier for everything in your garden if you use natural practices and trust that the bees know what they are doing. Attracting bees Before you try to attract bees to your garden, make it a healthy environment for them by not using harsh chemicals, like weed killers that could kill them. Do not spray any weed killers, even natural ones, in the garden during the daytime when the bees are around. Sunset is the best time to spray. But it is best not to spray at all because some weeds are food for bees. Planting for the bees Planting some bee-friendly flowers is a great way to attract bees to your garden. Planting flowers like tulips, or goldenrod, that come up in the early spring or late fall is best because that's when the bees are desperate for food.  Butterflies are amazing Butterflies can sniff out their host plant from over a mile away. If you plant something that attracts a certain kind of butterfly, there is a chance that they live in your area that they will find it.  Great places to go for resources The Million Pollinator Garden Challenge is a great place to go for resources. You can also post your garden on that site. There is also Xerces.org, where you can go to your state, and it will tell you what to plant for native pollinators, as well as honey bees. Finding more pollinator-friendly places Laryssa encourages people not just to think about their yard, but also to get involved with their homeowner's association and to talk with their neighbors to find places in the neighborhood that can be made more pollinator-friendly. Potted plants If you are not interested in pulling weeds or dealing with unwanted pests, potted plants are also great for attracting bees. Don’t be afraid You do not have to be afraid of having bees in your garden because bees are unlikely to sting. Honey bees will die if they sting you.  Creating a green environment around your home Many different practices will support you in working with nature and help you create a pollinator-friendly environment around your home. Referral Links: My website Green Home Coach Book: Living Green Effortlessly Facebook Group: Love Your Everyday Green Home  Curated for your yard and garden The Buzz About Bees Podcast Pollinator-Friendly Native Plant Lists Million Pollinator Garden Challenge ID plants  Bees in My Backyard videos "This post may contain affiliate links for your convenience. That means that if you make a purchase, I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend products or services that I believe in and usually use myself."

Our guest at 8:30 was Mary Phillips of the Million Pollinator`Garden Challenge.  The idea? lets welcome and invite and create habitat in our gardens for pollinators of all stripes -- honey bees and otherwise!  And there's lots of other pollinators, many native.   Listen in for information on why we should care about this -- you may even get more fruit!

Mary Phillips from the National Wildlife Federation reports on how the Million Pollinator Garden Challenge is creating wildlife habitat in backyards. Ryan Anderson promotes Chicago Grows Green Week, presented by Midwest Grows Green. Madison Hopkins returns to the show to talk about her most recent article for the Better Government Association about Chicago's failing recycling system.

May is Garden for Wildlife Month and Teresa discusses the Million Pollinator Garden Challenge with [Peggy Anne Montgomery, Garden Media Group.](http://www.gardenmediagroup.com/about-us#team-members)   Teresa provides information on how to test for chinch bugs, get rid of love bugs on your car, and what to plant in your garden during May.  Subscribe to [In Your Backyard's free monthly #gardening newsletter.](http://www.she-consulting.com/) Sponsored by [Sunniland Fertilizers](http://www.sunnilandcorp.com)

In this episode, the Magical Mapper tells us some fun bee facts, and explains how honey is made. The Poop Detective shares some arguably less fun, but very important facts about bees: where did they come from, where did they go? What do we say to people who don’t like bees? We share how bees are vital to commercial agriculture and other industries, and explain the concurrent impacts on the food chain.So, why are the bees dying? We delve deep into the many reasons for Colony Collapse, including the use of pesticides. This Science Magazine report published in 2017 confirmed, after previous studies showing that neonecticides were having a significant negative impact to bee, were criticized for not representing field conditions that bee health near fields where neonectitiods are used. Soil Association explains how neonectitiods that are applied to seed only 5% ends up in the plant, while 94% ends up in our soil and water (with 1% as dust). You can also go here if you want more information in a cute infograph.According to a 2016 study, pesticide exposure of bumblebee colonies in urban areas was lower than in rural areas.What can we do to help save the bees?Did you know you can report a suspected bee poisoning? If you see a disoriented or dead (RIP) bee, report it to this app. To learn more about preventing bee poisoning, you can go here.According to Jennifer Sass, the Senior Research Scientist at Natural Resource Defense Council, “The thing we can most control is pesticides.” She also urges people to not purchase plants that have been sprayed with pesticides. However, many stores won’t necessarily give this information on the label, so it may help to inform businesses that this issue is important to you!If you’re looking to make your own garden more bee-and pollinator-friendly, you can go here to learn how to build a raised pollinator garden bed. You can also check out the Oregon Bee Project’s tips for making your garden safe for bees, with tips on which plants to choose and what to use instead of neonicotinoids.We cover more methods to increase pollination: maximizing the time, place, and plant itself. Native plants tend to do best, offering a variety of benefits detailed here. For more information about plants native to the Pacific Northwest and their array of benefits, check out this guide from Oregon State University. Of course, the harmful insecticides have no place in your new outside space. Here’s a list of alternatives.The Horticultural Research Industry has created Best Management Practices for Bee Health in the Horticultural Industry. This offers many specific tips to help pollinators, and offers alternatives to harmful practices.And, last but not least, the bee water garden we mentioned!Our GIS topic this episode was the NDVI Function, where you can analyze a satellite image to determine vegetation health. Head over to the GIS Tools blog to learn more! We also mentioned a couple of interesting studies, which you can find here and here.During Citizen Science, we mentioned the Million Pollinator Garden Challenge, the PNW Bumble Bee Atlas, and the Bumble Bee Watch website and iPhone/iPad app.As always, thank you so much for visiting! If you enjoy our show, you can subscribe to our podcast on all of the major platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play Music, and TuneIn. Rating and reviewing also helps! Stay warm, cool cats!

NRPA has always been a champion for pollinators, but in the past few years as bee and monarch populations have seen scary rates of decline, we’ve stepped up our involvement in helping to save pollinators — not only through local parks and recreation, but at our headquarters and through promoting ways we all can play a small part in saving these critical critters. (You can check out our Pollination Across the Nation poster here.) As part of this pursuit, we support the Million Pollinator Garden Challenge, which is closing in on its goal and now counts over 600,000 pollinator gardens in every area of the U.S. NRPA is also a member of the National Pollinator Garden Network (NPGN), a nation-wide non-profit coalition to fight the decline of pollinator species across the nation. At their recent annual meeting, NRPA’s VP for Strategic Initiatives (and previous contributor to Open Space Radio), Rich Dolesh, heard Kedar Narayan, age 9, tell his amazing story of how he developed an app and a board game to bring awareness to the decline of pollinators and ways that kids and their families could help.   After hearing Rich’s rave reviews on Kedar, we knew we had to chat with him on Open Space Radio. Luckily Kedar (with permission from his mother Anita — his teacher and fellow coder), agreed to tell us all about his app and love of pollinators.  Download Kedar’s App App Tutorial Visit Kedar’s Website Fox 29 News Story on Kedar The Morning Call News Story on the Pollinator for a Pet App Photos courtesy of Anita Narayan. Top photo: Kedar presenting his art work to Cindy Brown of Smithsonian Gardens. Lower photos: Other art work he has created for a local nature art show in his hometown.

Join Daryl and guest Diane Blazek, Executive Director of All America Selections ( AAS ) Learn about the new vegetable and fruit winners that will be great for your garden, the Million Pollinator Garden Challenge and more.