KELOWNA - Bees are giving gardeners another reason to plant flowers this year.
The Nectar Trail Project asks residents to plant one square meter of flowering plants in their garden, creating a network in which bees can travel safely.
“A network of flowering plants creates these flowery stepping stones where bees can move through urban landscape safely,” Nancy Holmes, UBC Okanagan Professor of Creative Studies and Director of Border Free Bees says in a media release.
The Nectar Trail Project is a global initiative, with ‘trails’ in Vancouver, Norway, Britain and the United States. This will be the first in the B.C. Interior.
“The Lower Mission is an interesting place because it has major wildlife corridors, like Mission Creek and Myra Bellevue Park, as well as two organic gardens that are very bee heavy - the demonstration garden at H2O and Summerhill Organic Winery,” Holmes says. “We want to join great gardens and wild places to create this flowery pathway.”
According to Holmes, the network would be seven kilometres long, connecting the key bee areas.
“We want to raise awareness of pollinators in our community and get people to feel empowered to do something,” she says.
Volunteers will be available for those who don’t have a green thumb, says Holmes, so anyone can be a part of the project.
Holmes is hoping to get people to sign up during the month of March, just in time for spring. For those who sign up, ambassador packages, including a packet of seeds to plant, will be delivered by early April.
To sign up to be apart of the Nectar Trail, you can go to the group's website.
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