Conference Time

This next week I will be busy attending conferences.  Tomorrow I will be attending (and helping to run a booth) the Quiet Water Symposium.  The following two days I will be at the Wildflower Association of Michigan (WAM) annual conference.  Then on Friday and Saturday of next week I will be attending the Michigan Science Teachers Association (MSTA) conference. 

I really enjoy all three of these conferences, but my favorite is the WAM conference.  Of all the conferences and workshops that I have attended over the last few years, I always learn the most at the WAM conference.  The focus the last few years has leaned heavily toward using native plants to attract and conserve populations of pollinators.  This is something that I feel very strongly about.  I have written several times about the relationships between pollinators and host plants, about gardening for Monarch butterflies, and about native pollinator gardens in general.

I thought I would share a photo from one of the four native pollinator gardens that I have helped install in the local area.  This garden is located at Winn Elementary and was planted two years ago.  2014 will be its third Summer and I can hardly wait to see how the garden will take off this year.