our mission
With Honey in the Heart focuses on connecting people to their surrounding environment, educating about the benefits of pollinators, creating healthy habitat for all pollinators and elevating the status of bees as the divine beings that they are and their crucial role in pollination and our well being through policy and advocacy.
FEATURED PROJECTS
Dolores Street POLLINATOR Boulevard
With Honey in the Heart worked with the community and stakeholders to create a beautiful, drought tolerant pollinator garden in the first block of Dolores at Market Street. Widespread, careless use of pesticides in both urban and agricultural habitats have created an environment less hospitable to pollinators. We committed to combat these harsh conditions with carefully selected low water, pesticide-free, pollinator friendly plants that will bloom in an unbroken relay all year long. Vivid California Poppies, Sages, spiky Spider Aloe, and other bright, drought tolerant, and pollinator friendly plants can create a much needed habitat for our bees and pollinators.
Algarden Demonstration Urban Farm and Apiary
Walking down the street and spotting an empty lot of weeds, Patricia saw nothing but potential, especially when she meet Giancarlo Muscardini, the site neighbor and permaculture expert. This project has been a full collaboration with Giancarlo Muscardini and Patricia Algara. In the last four years, this vacant lot has been transformed into a vibrant foodscape with two thriving bee hives, mushroom towers, and fruit trees. The garden also serves as a base for teaching permaculture classes, and has been used to host seasonal harvest lunches. Patricia popularized the word Foodscaping to describe the art of combining landscape architecture with agriculture.
EDUCATION
Bee Safe Campaign
Beekeepers have been losing an unsustainable portion of their colonies every year since 2006, and neonics are a strongly implicated culprit. Beekeepers can breed honey bees to restore their numbers, but native pollinators like bumblebees and butterflies have no such support. Learn how you can help solve the problem through our educational resources.
Safe Growers
We called several wholesale and retail nurseries in and around Northern California to ask about their pest management strategies and rated them according to how confident we are that their plants are safe for bees. See the full list in our education page. If you're wondering about a grower that isn't listed, give them a call!
Pollinator Patch + Garden Manual
This manual describes how to create a pollinator garden in the urban environment. We describe all of the steps to work with the government and the community as well as the steps to implement and build the garden. We highlight the Pollinator Blvd. in San Francisco as our pilot project and the experiences gained from that garden as well as the measurable impact results.
Pollinator Blvd. Bee Count Report
We worked with an entomologist to document the presence and diversity of bees on the site. The project was document through an entire year and we found 11 species of native bees amongst other pollinators. Compared to only one bee found on the non planted medians. We will repeat this in three years and note if more bees are found.