Bee Gardens & Bee Garden Network

Apiculture & biodiversity in the city

Since Spring 2011, a network of "Bee Gardens" is being developed.

Bee Gardens are garden installments based on a composition of seeds from so called "honey plants" with blooming periods over the whole spring/summer/early autumn season. Beekeepers and other people engaged in supporting honey bees use these seed mixtures to plant gardens and fields for additional bee nutrition especially in areas where monocultures or other environmental conditions have led to a decline of natural ressources for bees and other insects.

Unlike countryside bees suffering from agricultural monocultures city bees enjoy a likewise comfortable situation: Urban greens will usually provide enough nutritional plants. So why install bee gardens in the city?

The Frankfurt Bee Gardens are conceived as 'educational gardens' and test sites: A tool to provide information about the living conditions of honey bees, inviting people to learn more about the important role bees and other pollinating insects play for biodiversity – and also a tool for research about the socio-ecological conditions of the related "Urban Biotopes".

The Frankfurt Bee Gardens are installed in different places/areas of the city and thus also in different biotopes (= habitats and sociotopes), therefore monitoring will also allow to compare the informations gathered and the experiences made.
The installments are realised in cooperation with several local partners and garden hosts.

"Bee Gardens" is a practice-oriented focus project in the framework of the ongoing projects "Urban Biotopes", "Biotope City Frankfurt" and "(IN)VISIBLE GARDENS".

Over the summer term 2011, working on/with "Bee Gardens" is part of the ongoing project seminar work with students ("Urban Greens" and "Biotope City Frankfurt", and hereby also continuing the work groups started with the project "Bee Hive" in 2010).
The project work of the study groups and monitoring will be documented on the interdisciplinary project platform "ArtSciEd – Art Science Education".

Moreover, it is part of the project "Connected Open Greens Frankfurt Rhein Main" and thus also linked with the international network of "Connected Open Greens" (see also the links below).

A more detailed project description in English will be available soon. Thank you for your patience!
Meanwhile pls. find more details in the German version.

Further information:

Bee Garden Network – Project page at www.under-construction.cc (under construction)
Bee Gardens Frankfurt – Study project and monitoring page at www.ArtSciEd.net
Bee Gardens – Basic info for the work group at www.visuelle-kultur.info (see: Agenda)

Context projects and background info:

Beehive – Basic project info at www.visuelle-kultur.info
Beehive – Project page at www.ArtSciEd.net (under construction / linked asap)
Insect Imagology – Research, lectures and publications on cultural entomology (with focus on eusocial insects and apiculture) at www.under-construction.cc

Urban Biotopes – Main project info site at www.under-construction.cc
Biotope City Frankfurt – Project info site at www.visuelle-kultur.info
Biotope City Frankfurt – Project page at www.ArtSciEd.net

(IN)VISIBLE GARDENS – Special project info site at www.under-construction.cc
Connected Open Greens Frankfurt Rhein Main – Basic info at www.under-construction.cc
Connected Open Greens Frankfurt Rhein Main – Special project pages / Documentation (link will follow)
Connected OpenGreens Network (based at okno.be)

This entry contains links to external websites. You might like to consult the disclaimer in case.

projects: Cultures of Sustainability, Urban Biotopes : Biotope City

main project: (IN)VISIBLE CITY

related projects on www.under-construction.cc: DIY SCI, (IN)VISIBLE GARDENS, Insect Imagology

related projects on www.visuelle-kultur.info: Beehive, Biotope City Frankfurt, Sustainability

tags: aesthetics, art, biology, biosciences, city, communication, cultural history, everyday cultures, gardens & gardening, green, mobility, space, sustainability, urban cultures, urban landscapes, urban planning