What is The Melissa Garden?

It is a place where the buzzing of bees is tangible, and flowers, vehicles of life for pollinators, explode from every inch, and the air is filled with the movement of many organisms feeding on the brilliant bounty. Check out our photo album and watch our garden grow!

The Melissa Garden is a honeybee, native pollinator (there are 1700 species of native bees in California) and habitat garden sanctuary in Healdsburg, California, at the western edge of the Russian River Valley, on top of a ridge at 850 feet in elevation. Four gardens planted with many exuberant flowers for nectar and pollen forage are situated in the center of a pristine 40-acre ranch that is lush with native vegetation. The Melissa Garden is a new project that began in the fall of 2007 by Barbara and Jacques Schlumberger at their home. The goal is to provide honeybees, native bees and other pollinators with an almost year-round source of floral resources- free from pesticides. Studies have found that native bees and honeybees both benefit from feeding on a variety of flowers, so season-long the garden is kept filled with an abundance of annuals, perennials and shrubs that offer attractive pollen and nectar to insect visitors. There is a mixture of plants native to California, many Mediterranean plants and others that are appropriate for the site and climate.

The same exuberance of flowers and explosive colors have attracted many people as well. The Melissa Garden has become a garden of life to feed all visitors, both insect and human. Many people have came to visit, bee-tenders, mothers groups, children, school classes, University of California Master Gardeners, garden clubs, professional gardeners, scientists and the general public who are concerned about the plight of honeybees and biodiversity in general, and wanted to learn about gardens that support them. The gardens vibrant colors, naturalistic plant compositions, and intense buzzing life have created deep connections with people, and many share very touching early and present associations with nature. A lot of people leave inspired to plant their own pollinator or habitat gardens, fulfilling exactly the main goal of the project.

Living with bees – a new approach to “bee tending”. Barbara and Jacques Schlumberger live with the bees under a new paradigm at the Melissa Garden. The phenomena of the bees is approached on the premises that the colony constitutes one single being. The focus is shifted towards the study of their life forces and interaction with them shall be centered around their natural needs on all levels. Most of our hives are designed to serve their health and well being. Natural comb, free swarming and innovative hives are part of the TMG way. No allopathic treatments are applied. By becoming “bee-stewards” and understanding bees natural needs and lifecycles we benefit the world by translating these questions to other organisms as well. Once we can see bees as part of our human culture and wellbeing, they can enrich our life on many levels.

We chose the name “Melissa” because Melissa officinalis, or Lemon Balm, is an herbaceous plant that has been considered a favorite bee plant for a very long time. Also, in Greek mythology, Melissa is the name of one of the nymphs that fed Zeus honey as an infant while hiding him from his father, Cronus. When Cronus discovered this, he turned her into a worm. After Zeus came into power, he changed her into a queen bee, not being able to change her from an insect form. Melissa is a Greek word meaning honeybee.

The Latest Buzz at the Garden

Updated September 18, 2011

	New resource with tons of information: naturalbeekeepingtrust.org
	We've added a new series of classes entitled "Living with Bees". See the Classes/Events page for more info.
	The USDA has a wonderful pamphlet on attracting pollinators to your garden using native plants.
	New bee favorite shrubs and trees planted in May. Check out which on the plant list page.
	Be sure to see Queen of the Sun and Vanishing of the Bees at your local theater.
	Barbara, Kate Frey, and Gunther Hauk are speaking at Bioneers in October 2011.
	Feral Bees at gaiabees.com
	New features added to Holistic Beekeeping page
	Juan, Michael and Barbara placed 7 hives throughout the 40 acres. We are exploring a new paradigm in hive distancing. Check out The Melissa Garden (Surrounding Forest)

Learning Opportunities

The Melissa Garden offers monthly tours, tours by invitation; classes on what to plant for honeybees; workshops on apiculture of the 21th century, with an holistic approach to all elements of living with bees, including information on alternative hives; opportunities to learn about apitherapy, the therapeutic use of products of the hive; and artistic and cultural activities inspired by the honeybees.

We are here to educate on these important topics, venerate the honeybees, and inspire others to plant botanicals for honeybees to the extent that they can. We hope to create honeybee sanctuaries throughout the United States and around the world.

Click here to tell us about your honeybee sanctuary.

"It is a wholesome and necessary thing for us to turn again to the earth and in the contemplation of her beauties to know of wonder and humility." - Rachel Carson