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  • From: Terri Buckner <tbuckner AT ibiblio.org>
  • To: OCBA <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [ocba] San Francisco Bee Garden exhibit
  • Date: Wed, 16 Sep 2009 17:45:16 -0400


Bee-friendly garden a hive of activity for show

In one part of Shirley Watts' open-air Alameda workshop, hundreds of bees hover over a bank of potted flowers - a sea of yellow, burnt orange and gold. In another corner, a grouping of handmade, cast-concrete stools await their finishing touch: a generous splash of resin which coats the hexagon-shaped top and drips languorously down the sides before it sets. Cabinetmaker Ross Craig turns up and carefully unloads from his truck a curved redwood structure framing a honeycomb-like screen. Watts is working on the installation of a garden for the "Late Show Gardens" event Friday through Sunday in Sonoma - and there can be little doubt what the theme is going to be.

"We are designing around the theme of bees - both honeybees and native bees," confirms Watts, who adds she was keen to participate in this new garden show because of its earnest focus on sustainability. Watts specializes in using found and salvaged materials in her work. She might use old advertising billboards as fencing to add drama to a small backyard or stack up Caltrans sandbags to be used as seating as she is doing for this garden.

The bee garden is one of 17 on display at the event, named for fall's "late show" plants. Watts' starting point was a photograph of a beehive that she found in a book she picked up in France. Unlike the typical structured, boxy hives one usually sees, this one had grown naturally into a sensuous, undulating shape. Watts spoke with Craig about creating a curvaceous wooden structure using reclaimed redwood and Nomex, a honeycomb-like material used to make lightweight airplanes. This became the centerpiece of a garden that hopes to educate visitors about the impending threat to the world's bee populations.

Also on the team are architect Andrew Kudless and native bee expert Jaime Pawelek, who works at UC Berkeley's urban bee lab. Guided by Pawelek's expertise, Watts selected a diverse mix of bee-friendly flowers. These include several varieties of sunflowers, daisies and asters, black-eyed Susans, buddleia and dahlias, as well as squash. The ground is to be left bare because most native California bees make their nests in underground tunnels and will not excavate through mulch, eco-friendly though it is, or soil blanketed in black plastic.

Using gold paint and beeswax foundation (used to get honeycomb started in hives), Watts, who has a fine arts background, has created a three-panel piece for the garden inscribed with "The Beekeeper's Daughter," a poem by Sylvia Plath whose father was an entomologist.

A sound collage includes several different voices reading about the potentially toxic effects on bees of Malathion, a commonly used insecticide, as well as "The Flight of the Bumble Bee," a piece by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov played on the cello by Bihn Park, a gifted 11-year-old student taught by Watts' mother, a music teacher in Philadelphia.

Native-bee experts will be on hand in the garden to talk about creating bee meccas and to provide tips on beekeeping. To complete the picture, there will be honey tastings offered by Cameo Wood from Her Majesty's Secret Beekeeper store in San Francisco.

Watts is providing lots of seating and olive trees for shade and hopes people will stick around. And for those concerned about being stung? Listen to Pawelek who has not been stung in the three years she has worked with bees at UC Berkeley. "Their first line of defense is to fly away," she says - probably not something you will want to do once you discover Watts' garden.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/16/DDCP19LB06.DTL&type=homeandgarden <http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/16/DDCP19LB06.DTL&type=homeandgarden#ixzz0RJBWBTPz>







  • [ocba] San Francisco Bee Garden exhibit, Terri Buckner, 09/16/2009

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