Garden for Pollinators!
National Pollinators Week is June 19 – 25, 2023. Yes, we celebrate these wonderful and very crucial critters. You can garden for pollinators by planting flowers they love!
Garden Pollinators are necessary for our survival. Over 80 percent of the world’s flowering plants require a pollinator to reproduce.
Animals that assist plants in their reproduction as pollinators include species of bats, butterflies, moths, flies, birds, beetles, ants, and bees. We are talking about our food supply!
Butterflies as Garden Pollinators
Butterflies are great garden pollinators. They flock to your flower garden especially if you have an array of blooms from early Spring to late Fall.
They are nearsighted so plant your flowers in colorful masses. Did you know they can smell better than they can see? Fragrance is a powerful attractant for them. (Plant for Scent in your Garden)
Butterflies like sun-loving flowers that are flat (daisies, black eyed susans) or grow in clusters (butterfly bush or liatris)
Did you know many weeds are host plants for butterflies? Soon I will share a full-blown post just on butterflies and how we can plant gardens to benefit them better.
Bees as Garden Pollinators
I did a post not long ago on planting a bee-friendly garden, It has a great rundown of info on how to make your garden as bee-friendly as you can.
We all have heard how bees are endangered and how much we need them.
There are loads of species of bees but these types of bees are the most common in U.S. Gardens!
can you identify the
Different Types of Bees
Different types of Bees. We all know that they’re important for pollinating our flowers and food crops, but when we spot one buzzing around the garden, how can we tell which type it is?
Many new hybrids and modern strains of flowers are not as pollen-rich as native or heirloom plants.
So try to include heirlooms or native plants in your garden. Here is a great list for you to check out: Bee Friendly And another from Seed Savers
Hummingbirds as Garden Pollinators
Though Hummingbirds eat small insects they also will spend plenty of time at your flowers feasting.
They go for tubular flowers like Trumpet Vine, Salvia, Foxgloves, and Petunias, etc, their long bill and tongue make those hard-to-access flowers prime eatin’ for them.
They have excellent eyesight with a leaning towards the red spectrum (we all know they love red so now we know why!)
But did you know they are just as attracted to blue?
Though we love to feed them with our sugar-water feeders they will benefit from the vitamins and minerals in nearby flowers too.
Birds and Blooms have a great article on Hummingbirds as Pollinators
The not-so-glamorous Garden Pollinators
Other insects are also included in the list of pollinators, even some we don’t particularly like.
Flies, wasps, beetles, and ants. Click here for more on that. 7 Insects pollinators that aren’t bees or butterflies.
What NOT to do in your Garden to help Pollinators
No matter how organic a pesticide or insecticide is, even the homemade DIY ones, that does not mean they are safe for our garden-pollinating friends.
Most are nonselective or broad-spectrum, meaning they kill the bad bugs but also kill the good ones.
Treat your pollinators like special guests:
Create a Bee Bath
50 Flowers to Plant in a Bee Garden
Create a Butterfly Feeder
Happy Pollinator Week!
I used to put out hummingbird feeders, but the ants kept getting into them. We don’t do anything to attract the hummingbirds, but we must have enough flowers to keep them happy. We do try not to disturb the mother when she’s on the nest. It’s like having our own little nature show!
How exciting! That would be so much fun to see. I am not sure where all these hummingbirds I have around here are nesting but it is possibly close. Some stick around all winter so I am sure to keep a feeder or two available year round. Sometimes I have to defrost them in winter but I do that at first light.
I get caught up on reading blogs too, but they all offer some great ideas and I am always learning so, like you, I just catch up when I can. 🙂
For the third time this spring, we have a hummingbird nest, complete with eggs, in a large tropical plant just outside our front door! It’s been very exciting to see the eggs hatch and the baby hummingbirds grow so quickly. We’ve even been able to watch the mother teaching the fledglings to fly. This is the fourth year in a row that we’ve had a nest. We’ve even had a nest used twice in one year, but this year we had one nest used twice and now a new nest. We have a lot of flowering plants that the hummingbirds seem to like.
A great post on pollinators, Pamela. I also read about creating a bee bath. I never tho’t to do that and I’m going to try it.
Always love to read about your garden. I have a few to catch up on; I think I’m subscribed to too many blogs! I like them all, though, so I’m not giving any up!
Happy Gardening!