Summer reflections: Sustainable landscape training and pollinator survey

First thing we did was learn how to distinguish the difference between a plant and a weed. Then we pulled white and yellow sweet clovers and thistle. Both thistle and sweet clover are tap roots so they were hard to pull, especially the thistle because it was spiky.

We also learned how to inspect and take care of a rain garden. You need to have inlets and outlets in a rain garden and a lot of different species of plants to keep a rain garden going.

We learned about different insects in the garden like orb weavers, assassin bugs, and bumble bees. I really enjoyed learning about all the different bugs and what they do and how they survive in a rain garden. We learned most about bumble bees or Bombus. They are very interesting. They all look a lot alike but there are so many species you can’t even tell the difference. We even got to pet the bees!

The most memorable part was when we got to pet the big bees because they don’t care too much when you pet the big ones. It was just very cool to see and feel the bees.

I’d say the most valuable experience I got from this is learning the different weeds, flowers, and plants like ragweed, the cone flower, and thistle. Overall this was one of my favorite units so far I really liked the insects and all the different plants. 

Northside Safety NET (Neighborhoods Empowering Teens) is an internship program for a cohort of North Minneapolis youth. The program is led by Environmental Initiative and has been developed in partnership with public, private, and nonprofit partners.