Newark valley High School senior, Kristina Knight is a 9th year Girl Scout. She is currently working on earning her Gold Award, which is the highest service award a Girl Scout can earn. Kristina just recently completed her Gold Award Project – a pollinator garden at Waterman Conservation Center in Apalachin.
About a year ago kristina heard in the media that bees were in decline. “About 1/3 of our food comes from bees, so they are a huge part of our ecosystem. Bees are responsible for pollinating blueberries, apples, oranges, peaches, corn, coffee, and many other foods we eat daily. Bees are in trouble because of pesticides, climate change, poor nutrition, and many other reasons that humans have an effect on”. Because of that, she decided that for her project she would plant a pollinator garden grown with plants that are native to New York to provide a source of food for the pollinators. She made sure to plant perennials so that they will grow back every year.
The garden is located at Waterman Conservation center in a 20×60 foot space that was originally intended for a butterfly garden. Kristina seeded the plants in March and transferred them to her garden in July. Kristina also got plant donations from Nanticoke Gardens and Farmer Browns Marketplace that she put in the garden. She mulched over the plants to prevent weeds from growing and placed signs to identify each plant. On August 23rd, Kristina had an unveiling and invited the kids from the Waterman Nature Camp. She taught them about the bees and gave them each a perennial plant and an informational brochure to take home.
