On February 25th, 16 of us gathered in Bob Cassidy's garage fr a winter sow for our Pollinator Garden. Great! So what is a winter sow anyway? Here is what Webster has to say about it. Winter sowing is an outdoor method of starting seeds and it requires plastic containers like milk or juice cartons), soil, seeds and Mother Nature. By growing your own plants from seeds, you can several hundreds of dollars each each year. On February 25th, 16 of us gathered in Bob Cassidy's garage fr a winter sow for our Pollinator Garden. Great! So what is a winter sow anyway? Here is what Webster has to say about it. Winter sowing is an outdoor method of starting seeds and it requires plastic containers like milk or juice cartons), soil, seeds and Mother Nature. By growing your own plants from seeds, you can several hundreds of dollars each each year. We were delighted to co-hosting a pollinator conversation on Tuesday, January 24th. The event was designed to educate the public on Dr. Gegear's and the Native Pollinator Task Force's work (and the work here in Bedford by our club) in hopes to inspire more interest, leading to more pollinator preservation gardens. Sam Cobin, theConservation Coordinator with Sudbury Valley Trustees, and a member of the Native Pollinator Task Force presented an introduction to Dr Gegear's followed by a presentation by Paula Gilarde on the Rotary Club of Bedford's plans for a local pollinator garden.
Our first order of business was to prepare the garden bed. The DPW mowed the area close to the ground and provided wood chips for our use. We had planned on starting work on Saturday, but the remnants of Hurricane Ian pushed our work into Monday afternoon. We smothered the entire area with cardboard and covered the cardboard with woodchips. This is a way of killing weeds without using chemicals. The cardboard will remain on the ground until next fall (or towards the end of the summer) in order to effectively kill weeds. 
To save native pollinators, we must restore pollination systems and rebuild functionally diverse native habitat. Pollination Ecologist and Conservation Biologist Robert Gegear, Ph.D. has been studying the ecology, evolution and conservation of pollination systems native to eastern North America for over 25 years. An Assistant Professor of Biology at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth as well as Founder and Director of the New England Beecology Project, Dr Gegear has compiled a list research-based native plants to support native-pollinators at risk.We will be looking for people to help out with planting, maintenance and more. Let us know if you want to help!
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