Tillamook Beekeepers promoted National Pollination Week

National Pollination Week was celebrated across the US during the week of June 17-23, 2024.

Pollinator Week is an annual celebration in support of pollinator health designed to promote the health of pollinators, critical to food and ecosystems, through conservation, education, and research. It is a time to raise awareness for pollinators and spread the word about what we can do to protect them.

To help promote pollination and Pollination Week, the Tillamook Beekeepers Association created a magnificent Children’s Pollinator Sensory Garden to promote pollination and demonstrate how a simple garden can both thrill children and teach gardening in a fun and stimulating way. This new children’s pollinator sensory garden is located adjacent to the apiary where a dozen beehives are maintained. The apiary and the garden area are all open to the public. Families, groups, clubs, and schools are all welcome to visit. For those wishing a real pollinator experience and would like to see what goes on inside a beehive, we can dress you in bee suits and veils and dive deep into the hives to see up close and personal what the honeybees are doing. Contact us for an appointment. (719)-896-0000 or dradleyyork@gmail.com.

The Children’s Sensory Garden features the five human senses with pollinator friendly plants, flowers, and herbs. Four beautiful, raised garden boxes 2’ x 8’ and roughly 24 inches high create the boundaries of this garden. Taste is a garden box that has a delicious variety of edible plants. Smell is a garden box with fragrant plants and flowers. Vision is a garden box just for beauty. The Touch garden box has plants that are just fun to feel. Hearing is simply a wind chime hanging on the entrance arbor leading into the garden. At either end of the garden are two bean pole teepees. When the beans have fully grown, children are welcome to sit within and enjoy the beauty of the garden. A sturdy wooden bench provides a full view of the apiary and all the bee activity and companion plantings.

Materials for this project were generously provided by Rosenberg’s Builders Supply, Averill Landscaping, and Stimpson Lumber.