A few months back, we filmed a bee episode for Growing a Greener World. I got to spend the day with an incredible bee keeper, Corky Luster of the Ballard Bee Company. I learned a lot from him during the filming. It made me even more determined to have my own bees one day.
Corky rents out his hives! He will place a hive in your backyard, maintain it for you and you get all the pollination from the bees and a jar of honey at the end of the season (made from your own backyard plants). How cool is that??
As part of the episode story, we followed Corky as he visited some of his hives. The first stop? My very good friend Robin Haglund’s garden. She is a popular garden coach and owner of Garden Mentors. She helps gardeners create and maintain their dream landscapes. She is so talented.
Here she is with Joe Lamp’l (The host and producer of GGW) She wanted a little extra help in the pollination department for her own backyard, so she had Corky install a few hives.
Wow. Those bees really were working hard.
And check out Robin’s cool greenhouse!
Here we are in Robin’s backyard filming Corky and Joe tasting the honey. YUM!
And during the shoot I got to see the rooftop garden at Bastille Restaurant in Seattle.
It’s made of raised beds with shade-cloth lids and the restaurant can grow vegetables there winter or summer!
It is a great operation and will be featured on the bee episode because Corky placed bee hives up there to help with pollination. The restaurant is then going to cook with the honey from their own hives.
The raised-bed garden was designed by Colin McCrate of Seattle Urban Farm Company.
(Photo: Left to right – Director Carl Pennington, Joe Lamp’l and Colin McCrate.)
McCrate, who has tons of farming experience, noticed that people wanted to have a garden in urban areas but didn’t necessarily want to tend it themselves. So he stepped into the breach and became a garden designer who will come to your house, design a garden, and then maintain it throughout the year so you can have delicious food without hassle. He can even start you up with a chicken house! Costs can very depending on the size of the garden and the amount of upkeep, but at the end of it you’re eating from your own garden and your children are seeing where their food comes from, so it’s definitely worth it.
The bee episode already aired on Public Television, so we now have it up on our show website. Go HERE to watch the show in high definition.
After watching I bet you will want bees of your own too…
About the Author
Theresa Loe blogs here about taking the garden full circle while striving for a more local, fresh-from-the-garden lifestyle. She is a TV producer, video host, freelance garden writer and a wrangler of chickens and children. (Not necessarily in that order.) For more information on these topics, you can subscribe to her free monthly newsletter.
Theresa Loe is the award- winning Co-Executive Producer & Canning Expert on Growing A Greener World TV. She blogs here about Living Homegrown®, local and fresh-from-the-garden. 
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Anne — So happy I found your blog! Don’t know what took me so long.
Bees are amazing! I’ve been up close and personal with my sister’s bees, but am not so sure about doing it myself. Mary Beth’s got lots of beekeeping info on our blog (Bees and Chicks) that you might find interesting.
Looking forward to more posts. Barbara
Barbara,
I am glad you found my blog too. I am sure you guys will all love the bee episode. Check it out if you have time.
~Theresa
I have a friend who just started bee keeping; I think she’ll enjoy your video! As for us, we’re still thinking about it.
All so interesting. Does kind of make beekeeping enticing.
This is really great. I did not know that they rented out bees and the honey is a great bonus. I will have to tell a few of my friends in New York about this. They will love it, too.