Bee Friendly Gardening Special Opportunities
BFG Webinar: Saved by Bees
When: May 25, 2026 at 10:00 a.m. PT / 1:00 p.m. ET
Talk description: 2017. A small organic farm on the east coast of Ireland. Under early evening late summer sun, on a gently sloping north facing field which looks back over a valley of farmland and commercial forestry sits a man in his forties pondering. A dad. A husband. A quiet soul. Undiagnosed ADHD. He’s a little worried. A little tired. A little frustrated. A little lost. To be honest. Raised in the city he’d sought solace in the country. But what he found instead was destruction, ambivalence, ignorance and injustice. As he sits in that field pondering, the hum of bumblebees working the clover all around him grows louder and louder. This hum of life that has resounded across the planet for 130 million years. This primeval hum of a healthy thriving planet resonates in his head. Calling. And somewhere in that moment beyond the pondering he hears it. He hears it. The bees. The bees. And he knows what to do. He’s no longer lost. Found by the bees…
About the speaker: Paul Handrick doesn’t like his name much. He prefers The Bee Guy. He founded the world’s first true Native Wild Bee Sanctuary back in 2017 on a small farm that he had been minding for nature since he bought it back in 2012. This farm is the only Certified Vegan Organic Land in Ireland and is now a beacon of light for bee advocacy across the planet. A safe pure space for turbulent times. This farm is WORLD BEE SANCTUARY and the mission is to get people across the planet to love bees and to turn that love into action to save these wonderful, vital, creatures.
Register nowBFG Webinar: Rewilding a Nation One Lawn at a Time
When: September 22, 2026 at 8:00 a.m. PT / 11:00 a.m. ET
Talk description: Ken has advocated for wildlife-friendly gardening in The New York Times. He'll talk to us about how American lawns originated in Britain, the emerging No Mow May Movement in the U.K., and his work trying to shaggify his own Scottish village by helping to organize a shaggy lawn competition.
About the speaker: Ken Ilgunas is an author, journalist, and backcountry ranger in Alaska. He has hitchhiked ten thousand miles across North America, paddled one thousand miles across Ontario in a birchbark canoe, and walked 1,700 miles across the Great Plains, following the proposed route of the Keystone XL pipeline. He’s written for the New York Times, Adventure Journal, Smithsonian Magazine, and the Chronicle of Higher Education. His adventures and books have been featured on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The New Yorker, National Geographic, and NPR. He has a B.A. from SUNY Buffalo in history and English, and an M.A. in liberal studies from Duke. He is the author of travel memoirs Walden on Wheels and Trespassing Across America, and advocacy book, This Land Is Our Land. He is the host of the adventure and travel podcast—“Out of the Wild.” He is from Wheatfield, New York, and is presently living in Scotland.
Register nowNative Plant Sale with My Home Park
Get plants to support pollinators at our second native plant sale hosted by Bee Friendly Gardening and My Home Park! This time around, we are thrilled to expand this sale to the entire contiguous U.S.
Pollinator Partnership’s Bee Friendly Gardening and My Home Park make it easier for people to support pollinators with native plants. From April 1 - April 30, BFG Members receive 10% off this sale with the code P2BFG26!
By purchasing a native plant garden kit through this partnership, you’ll not only create a thriving pollinator-friendly space in your own yard, you'll also be helping make native plants more accessible to others. For every four plants sold through this partnership, My Home Park will add another one to a native plant garden jackpot, available for claim one BFG member. Last year, we gave away 140 plants to support a Bee Friendly Gardening member create habitat in their community. Check back at the end of the month to apply for the garden jackpot.
Spread the word! The more plants purchased, the more we’re able to give back to support pollinator habitat.
Past opportunities
BFG Photo Contest
2025 Winner: Cassie Franklin, The Bee and Bee
Show off your pollinator paradise! BFG Members can enter in one of two ways - by posting your favorite photo of your garden to the BFG Facebook group (and tagging @Sara Ress Wittenberg) or by emailing your photo to bfg@pollinator.org. Our wider Pollinator Partnership audience will take a vote and the garden with the most votes will win a BFG hat and sign for their garden! Winning members who already have a sign will have an opportunity to choose a product from the Pollinator Partnership merch store instead.
Rules:
- One photo per entry
- One entry per member
- Include the name of your garden in your entry
- Deadline – September 1st
Toyota Native Seed Grant
