Educational Demonstration Gardens

Demonstration Pollinator Garden, Orchard & Apiary

ERC’s Demonstration Pollinator Garden, Orchard & Apiary is where all the magic happens! Our gardens were designed to highlight environmental stewardship, and our innovative bee wellness and organic regenerative agriculture practices. The outcome is a nutritional pollinator buffet of blooms for our diverse community to enjoy… furry, finned, winged, web-footed and human alike!

We believe that it is our responsibility to protect wild pollinators first before introducing honey bees that can put pressure on wild forage available for local native pollinators. By providing a buffet of bee forage options at ERC, our honey bees stay close to home as we have purposely planted their favorite flowers in our apiary. From snow melt in spring to snow blanketing the ground in the fall, there is always yummy nectar available for our buzZzy little honey bees and their wild pollinator friends.

Not only do our honey bee residents hang out in the gardens, but we have also identified an incredible range of wild pollinators that have come to feast on the apiary blooms. There are leaf cutter bees, bumble bees, butterflies, mason bees, Green Sweat bees, and hummingbirds. You name it and we’re sure it can be spotted in our gardens!

Bee Safaris

Because of this diversity, ERC is the perfect place for children to go on Bee Safari. Kiddos on safari get the chance to explore our Demonstration Pollinator Garden, Orchard & Apiary and make friends with all of the happy little pollinators that call ERC home. Participants also get a chance to put on a bee suit to get an up close look inside our beehives and the Elk Root Conservation Bee Barn! For more information on ERC Bee Safaris, check out our Learning Opportunities page

Funders & Sponsors: Urban Bee Supplies, the Kootenay Co-op, Kootenay Savings, West Kootenay Beekeepers and the Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC with funding from the Government of British Columbia