When you can’t go to the lab, bring the lab to you. When you can’t have the PI next to you, constantly send them pictures of a green bee’s clypeus because it could be rounded or maybe it’s straight…or maybe Augochlora and Augochlorella females enjoy a bit of anonymity and are okay with me leaving the identification at “pretty green lady” (just kidding, scientific community. I would never do such a thing….or would I…?). Green Bees. I love and appreciate you, but I am unable to confidently identify some of you to genus. Sincerely, Frustrated, but Thankful Graduate Student Feel free to guess who this shiny lady is. I'll give you a hint. It's either Augochlora or Augochlorella :) And yes, she is sucking her tongue out at you.
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Cloudy skies, “I think this plant is still alive…” and Puppies! – A Plateau AgResearch Tale3/18/2020 One of four Feed A Bee sites is located in Crossville, TN. at the Plateau AgResearch and Education Center. It’s about 90 miles west of Knoxville and features two of our research sites each representing mixed-use agriculture and cattle forage. The Plateau is most well known for its cattle research (where all of our cow pictures are taken) and horticulture outreach. They’ve got a little bit of everything, trust me. The plants in our Feed A Bee study are perennials, so theoretically they should come back on their own each year for a few years, but Crossville is the land of temperature extremes and early/late frosts. Dr. Russo and I made the trek to get an idea of how many plants survived and to give the plot a bit of TLC with a bit of compost and mulch. It’s inspiring how resilient our native perennials truly are. From left to right- The cows, as promised, the hardworking Dr. Russo, our cool borrowed ride for the day, and one of our plots with Cumberland Rosemary looking good and strong! Inexplicably, we were attacked by vicious puppies demanding love while applying weed cloth to the perimeter of one of the plots. This plot will forever be known as "Puppy Plot". We also were gifted Plateau AgResearch hats by Research Director and savior, Walt Hitch. It was a good day.
Amid shutdowns and general chaos, we staked our claim at a fifth research site for the Feed A Bee project at the Organic Crops Unit (OCU). The OCU is one of six research facilities that make up the East Tennessee AgResearch and Education Center, but most importantly it’s my favorite site and where all the delicious goodies from the Volunteer Supported Agriculture CSA ( VSA ) come from. What do the makings of a new Feed A Bee site look like? Well, a lot of measuring (more like guesstimating, and finger crossing), post driving, and a bit of help from heavy machinery and a whole lotta help from Farm Manager, Bill Lively. There are 4 garden plots per site and they’re about 2 meters by 3 meters each. The plots need to be measured for posts and for the 24 plants that will be placed inside. We also put up chicken wire to keep rabbits, deer, people, and other pests out :) We also chose to add a soil amendment (compost, peat moss) and some mulch for a little bit of TLC for our tiny plants.
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