Bronze Award Spotlight

Troop 91546 Bee-utiful Gardens

Troop 91546 explored several different paths to earn our Bronze Award. A simple conversation about our favorite fruits led to talking about bees and how important bees are to the growing of our favorite fruits. We learned that more than 70% of the world’s flowering plants rely on pollination, which is crucial for producing fruits and seeds.

We noticed a need for a pollinator garden within our community that would provide pollinators with a place for food, water, and shelter. With the help of Pauline Nadar’s Bee Sanctuary, we learned about flowers that are native to our area, which flowers bees prefer, and the best ways to start the flowers from seeds. We also learned how to choose a location for our garden: away from heavy vehicle traffic, open to plenty of sunlight, with trees or bushes around for protection from rain and wind. We educated our community with posters showing do’s and don’ts during late fall and early spring gardening. We partnered with a community development corporation to use unlandscaped space for our garden. In addition to flowers, we will have a watering station and bee hotels in the garden. We’re currently growing sunflower seeds that we’ll plant in the garden in June. Sunflowers were chosen since they are self-seeding and will allow the garden to be sustainable. Plus bees LOVE them!

Discover how to earn the Bronze Award at gsep.org/highest-awards

Ally W., Mila M., Aria B., Natalie R., Izzy C.