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| Daniyal Ghanavati - Pexels |
Here are some tips for a 2020 Pollinator Victory Garden:
1. Design your garden and landscape for a succession of blooms throughout the growing season. You want to create an ongoing pollinator buffet for the different pollinator species that emerge at various times throughout the year.
2. Try to include some native plants. They provide shelter and food for a variety of birds, butterflies and other wildlife. Native plants require little maintenance, and also promote biodiversity of our natural heritage.
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| Pixabay |
3. Try “staging” the menu of blooms in your garden from early spring through fall by planting a wide range of flowering plants. Plants that bloom very early or late in the season are often the most important food sources for pollinators as there are not as many other resources available during this time.
4. Planting in clumps will attract more pollinators than individual flowers dispersed throughout your garden. A diversity of shapes and sizes will accommodate a variety of bees and pollinating insects – some need open flowers, while others prefer more closed flowers or some need long, tubular flowers.
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| Casia Charlie - Pexels
5. Also include some single stem flowering plants that provide easy access for
the pollinators.
6. If you can, try to incorporate some flowering trees, shrubs and vines in your
landscape. They feed a large number of pollinators, in addition to providing
habitat to birds and other wildlife.
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7. Dedicate some open area for ground nesting bees. Around 70% of native bees nest in the ground and need the bare soil in a sunny location free from foot-traffic. Think about adding an insect hotel that has a variety of crevices, cavities, stones, twigs, plant stems to accommodate the other 30%.
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| Pixabay |
8. Want to add a pollinator habitat sign to your landscape? Check with following:
– Certified Butterfly Garden sign from North American Butterfly Association
