If you go
› What: Pollinator Palooza› Where: Crabtree Farms, 1000 E. 30th St.› When: 9 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Saturday, April 1› Admission: Free, but registration requested› For more information or to register: meaton@crabtreefarms.org
Want to improve your gardening practices or increase yields in your vegetable gardens and orchards?
Join local native plant experts and master gardeners on Saturday, April 1, for a morning focused on how to create a pollinator habitat at "Pollinator Palooza."
This free seminar on why a pollinator habitat is vital to your garden will be held at Crabtree Farms. Participants can hear five presentations by local experts on topics such as native plants, butterfly gardens and why bees are an important link in the food chain.
"Instead of using plants that just look pretty, we want people to use plants that evolved from our region, many of which are very beautiful and underused," says Lisa Lemza, one of the speakers.
"It's really fascinating how much a single yard can do, since most pollinators' range is a couple hundred yards to one mile. Take a drive down your street and you might be surprised as to how little there is (for pollinators) in suburbia. We've built neighborhoods that are essentially deserts to our own native insect panoply," says Lemza.
THE SCHEDULE
» 9 a.m. "Bee Smart" by Ann Brown. Native bees are a keystone species that hold entire ecosystems together. They are the most important part of the food chain and "essential to the entire fabric of life on the planet," Brown says. So why are they in decline?
» 9:45 a.m. "Bee Native" by Lisa Lemza. What are native plants? Why are they important to our yards, gardens and the world?
» 10:30 a.m. "Bee Gardens" by Sally Wencel. How to use native plants to increase pollination and yields. How to attract beneficial insects to your garden.
» 11:30 a.m. "Bee Diverse" by Beth Rice. How to attract bees and butterflies to your yard and create a monarch waystation.
» 12:15 p.m. "Bee Designing" by Nancy and Daniel Talley from Botanica Chattanooga. Learn how to create a pollinator garden and habitat using a wide variety of plants, shrubs and trees that bloom from early spring to late fall.
Pollinator Palooza is sponsored by Botanica Chattanooga, Hamilton County Master Gardeners, Crabtree Farms and the Tennessee Valley chapter of Wild Ones Native Plant Society.