La Center Gardens and Family Farm and next door Smart Bee Pollination provide complementary farming operations during the spring and summer, but once the weather turns to fall and winter, the focus of each changes.
When the weather turns in the fall and winter months, harvesting shifts to maintenance and preparation for the following spring and summer seasons.
The La Center Gardens and Family Farm operation includes growing flowers that can thrive into November or until first frost. With the mild climate extending late into the fall and even winter, Smart Bee Pollination’s honey bees pollinate the flowers at the neighboring farm and make enough honey to last almost year-round.
“For me it’s nice because I get honey, the flowers, the pumpkins, the fruit trees are all pollinated every year … it’s a complementary business,” said John Parsons, owner of La Center Gardens about the neighboring bee-keeping company.
Smart Bee Pollination owner Viktor Plyushchev agreed.
“I mean it benefits John as a grower and then me giving the bees something to pollinate because right now the flow has dove down,” he said of the amount of pollinating flowers. “There’s really not much forage going on around. There is still some pollen coming in here and there.”
The farm and bee business work together further by sharing a farmstand that sells flowers, produce and honey and follows an honor system. The farmstand allows the two farms to sell products and generate an income year-round while Parsons and Plyushchev prepare for next season.
La Center Gardens
During the spring and summer months, Parsons grows flowers and produce that can last into the fall season.
The 50-acre farm, family-owned and operated since 1911, includes a barn built in the 1950s, produce, flowers to cut, chickens for eggs and more. In addition to the farmstand Parsons sells his produce at the La Center farmers market. Parsons considers the farmers market more of a community service than a money-making effort.
“We’re from La Center. We know a lot of people here, and it’s just fun to come and visit,” Parsons said. “This is not a money-maker thing for me. It’s kind of, I’d rather have them come to the farm because it’s less work, but it’s fun just to meet the people that need support here.”
Parsons specializes in growing daffodils, tulips, lilies, sunflowers and more. While some flowers bloom into November, when the first frost soon approaches, Parsons takes the tubers and bulbs from his flowers out of the ground to store over winter in a climate-controlled room so they can be replanted the following spring. If they are left in an exposed field, the tubers and bulbs may rot over the winter months.
The La Center Gardens and Family Farm, 32110 N.E. 40th Ave., can be reached at 360-852-3140 or jtp98629@gmail.com.
Smart Bee Pollination
Like Parsons’ farm, Smart Bee Pollination is a family-owned operation and Plyushchev a third-generation beekeeper.
His grandfather, despite being allergic to bees, became a beekeeper and passed down the trade to Plyushchev’s father and then to Plyushchev.
When summer transitions to fall and the last honey harvest is complete, Plyushchev prepares his hives for winter. One of the most important things Plyushchev does is treat his bee hives for mites, including the Varroa mite. The Varroa destroyer mite is an external parasitic mite that attacks and feeds on the honey bees and gives them a disease called varroosis.
To help the bees even further, he will provide his hives with sugar water and pollen patties to help sustain them because the mild climate of the Pacific Northwest often causes the bees to not go fully dormant in the winter.
Smart Bee Pollination is responsible for 1,200 hives across Clark County but primarily in the Ridgefield, La Center and Woodland areas, with some around Battle Ground as well. Each hive is capable of pollinating a 3-mile radius.
For more information on Smart Bee Pollination, call 360-719-9630 or email smartbeepol lin@gmail.com.
