Filtering by tag: pollinator gardening ✕

Customers lining up at the Growing Wild Nursery booth.

Photos from Extension’s Pollinator Workshop & Native Plant Sale

On September 19, 2025 the Chatham County Center of North Carolina Cooperative Extension conducted a workshop on Landscaping for Pollinators and Other Wildlife at the Chatham County Agriculture &…

Leafcutter bee foraging on dwarf wild indigo in the spring.

Spring Chores in the Pollinator Garden

Around late February things start kicking into high gear in Cooperative Extension’s Pollinator Paradise Demonstration Garden. Usually I have taken most of January off in the garden. I start back with…

Green praying mantis grasping and feeding on a large black insect

Challenging the Conventional Wisdom About Praying Mantids

Folks of all ages delight in finding praying mantids in the garden. These charismatic predators are large and easy to spot and have a reputation for being cool beneficial insects, helping to dispatch…

Bumble bee on Carolina lupine.

View Recording of CCP Bumble Bee Conservation Webinar

Chatham Conservation Partnership (CCP) conducted a webinar on Bumble Bee Conservation on April 18, 2024, and we had a great turnout of about 115 folks attend the live webinar. If you missed the live…

Wildflower garden with clusters of red and yellow blooms and tall pale-green flower spikes

Celebrating 15 Years in Pollinator Paradise!

This year (2023) marks the 15 year anniversary of North Carolina Cooperative Extension's Pollinator Paradise Demonstration Garden at Chatham Mills in Pittsboro! I created the garden in 2008 with…

Passionflower bee collecting pollen on yellow passionflower. 

Critter Spotlight: Passionflower Bee

For 15 years I have enjoyed observing the many pollinators that forage on the native passionflowers in my Pollinator Paradise Demonstration Garden. North Carolina is home to two native passionflower…

Camouflaged looper on lemon bee balm.

Critter Spotlight: Camouflaged Looper

Recently while working in my Pollinator Paradise Demonstration Garden I was observing all the bee activity on the lemon beebalm (Monarda citriodora) when I noticed a slight movement out of the corner…

participants practice netting bumble bees

Community Scientists Trained to Participate in Bumble Bee Atlas Project

In mid-June about 16 pollinator enthusiasts gathered at N.C. Cooperative Extension's Pollinator Paradise Garden in Pittsboro to receive training as community scientists for the Southeast Bumble Bee…

Dried wildflower seed heads with white fluff against a blurred pink background

Fall Chores in the Pollinator Garden: Leave the Leaves and Save the Stems!

After planting, weeding, and watering through the spring and summer, some gardeners look forward to fall as a period of rest as plants senesce at the end of the season. Other gardeners are eager to…

Giant swallowtail butterfly on lantana.

Have You Seen the Largest Butterfly in the U.S.?

Every week (sometimes every day!) Extension Agents get asked to identify all sorts of interesting things. We get stopped on the street or queried through emails, social media, texts, calls, and/or…