There is much interest in creating habitat for pollinators. Pollinators are animals, birds, and insects, who through their feeding and grazing habits, move pollen from plant to plant. If you want to landscape to attract a diversity of pollinators, look around your yard and garden to see what you may be doing, or not doing, to help these beneficial critters. You might be able to make a few changes, creating a pollinator–friendly habitat that will reap benefits beyond your own corner of the world.
Dogwood: a good source of food for early pollinators.
Pollinators need plenty of food, water, and places to live and lay their eggs within your pollinator-friendly property. Provide generous patches of pollinator–friendly plants and flowers with a variety of color, shape and scent to increase pollinator foraging efficiency. Pollinators need a source of clean water, such as a birdbath or hollowed out rock with a shallow indention to catch rainwater (keep it clean to discourage mold and mosquito larvae).
Lupine (Lupinus perennis). A beautiful bloomer that works well in garden, meadow or along the road.
Your landscape plan needs to include plants and flowers that provide nectar and pollen spring through fall. Spring flowering plants are especially important when pollinators are just starting their jobs. A habitat blooming with crocus, narcissus, violets, dandelions (yes, dandelions, one of the best early sources of food for bees), and clover will feed hungry pollinators. Shrubs like dogwood, blueberry, serviceberry, willow and cherry also provide nectar and pollen in spring when food is scarce. Early garden bloomers like Indigo (Baptisia australis, blue), Milkweed, and Lupine (Lupinus perennis) are great spring food sources.
Enhance your pollinator-friendly landscape with these steps:
Eliminate pesticide use, especially those with neonicotinoids, which are particularly harmful to bees and other beneficial insects.
Be open to some plant damage where butterflies and moths may lay their larvae.
Leave dead tree trunks for wood-nesting bees.
Accept that 70 percent of bees nest in the ground, so eliminate landscape cloth and use only a light covering of mulch, if any at all.
Allow natural green spaces, such as meadows, at the edge of your property which will be rich in native wildflower food for pollinators.
Plant a variety of Spring blooming bulbs in the Fall.
