Friday, March 6, 2009

Sausalito team wins Häagen-Dazs-UC Davis 'Bee Friendly' garden competition

DAVIS, Calif. ─ It's a honey of a garden, the judges unanimously agreed.

The Sausalito-based Sibbett Group created a series of interconnected gardens with such names as "Honeycomb Hideout," "Nectar Nook" and "Pollinator Patch" to win the international bee-friendly garden design competition, a gift to the University of California, davis, from the Hagen-Dazs brand.

The design, the work of landscape architects Donald Sibbett and Ann F. Baker, interpretative planner Jessica Brainard and exhibit designer Chika Kurotaki, will be brought to life this summer on a half-acre site at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility on Bee Biology Road on the UC davis campus.

Last December Hagen-Dazs ice cream committed $125,000 to the UC davis Department of Entomology for the garden project. This encompasses site planning, preparation and the design competition.

The key goals of the garden are to provide bees with a year-around food source, to raise public awareness about the plight of honey bees and to encourage visitors to plant bee-friendly gardens of their own.

"We'll not only be providing a pollen and nectar source for the millions of bees on Bee Biology Road, but we will also be demonstrating the beauty and value of pollinator gardens," said design competition coordinator Melissa "Missy" Borel, program manager for the California Center for Urban Horticulture. "My hope is that it will inspire everyone to plant for pollinators!"

"The winning design fits beautifully with the campus mission of education and outreach, and it will tremendously benefit our honeybees at Bee Biology," said Lynn Kimsey, professor and chair of the UC davis Department of Entomology and director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology. "The garden will be a campus destination."

Kimsey served as one of eight judges who unanimously selected the design from among 30 entries, submitted from as far away as England. The winni

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