Tag: #pollinators

7 ways you can ensure a summer of beautiful pollinators

A butterfly garden doesn’t need to be a formal thing – no dedicated beds required, no full redesign. A few additions in the right places, just one or two things left alone that would normally get cleaned up. That’s pretty much the whole formula. What follows is where to put the effort this month.

What Butterflies Need

Supporting butterflies doesn’t require a big overhaul. Most of what they need is already achievable in an afternoon – a few additions, maybe one deliberate choice to leave something alone, and the season starts working in their favor.

1. Plant Nectar Sources Now for Peak Bloom Later

Nectar is the obvious starting point, but timing the plantings matters quite a bit. Put in mid-to-late summer bloomers now – coneflowers, Joe-Pye weed, native asters – and they’ll be peaking right when butterfly populations are at their heaviest. Garden centers are well-stocked, and these plants go in without much fuss.

Flower shape pulls in different species too; flat-topped blooms give some butterflies a platform to land and walk, while tubular flowers suit others. A mix of forms over a long bloom window pulls more variety than a single mass planting, however popular the plant.

2. Set Out a Water Source

Butterflies don’t drink like birds do. They puddle – touching down on damp soil or wet sand to pull up moisture and minerals, especially trace minerals and sodium – and open water isn’t very useful to them. Sand or fine gravel in a shallow dish, kept consistently damp, is all it takes to water a butterfly.

A butterfly puddling dish should have the right depth and texture without collecting enough standing water to become a mosquito issue. Put it somewhere sunny and near the nectar plants – a puddling station in the shade gets ignored.

3. Add Host Plants for Egg-Laying

Nectar pulls butterflies in to feed. Butterfly host plants are what keep them around long enough to reproduce – and without the right ones, they won’t.

Female butterflies are picky about where they lay; each species needs specific plants for its eggs where its caterpillars can eat, and if those plants aren’t somewhere in the garden, breeding just doesn’t happen.

Monarchs and milkweed is the pairing that is widely known. Swallowtail caterpillars go after parsley, dill, or fennel. Fritillaries need native violets. Even one or two host plants tucked in somewhere makes a garden part of the local cycle rather than just a feeding stop on the way through.

4. Ease Up on Pesticides

Broad-spectrum sprays don’t sort between the insects a gardener wants and the ones they don’t. Butterfly eggs, caterpillars, and adults are all vulnerable, and May is when caterpillars from early-season eggs are actively feeding. Chewed-up leaves on a host plant aren’t damaged – that’s the whole point of having host plants.

Where pest pressure elsewhere genuinely needs attention, spot treatments in the evening do far less harm than a broadcast spray. Reach for targeted controls first; a general spray that doesn’t discriminate between a caterpillar and an aphid isn’t really solving the problem.

5. Create Sunny Resting Spots

On cool May mornings, butterflies can’t fly until they’ve warmed up – they spread their wings and angle toward the sun, sometimes for a while before doing much of anything. Flat garden stepping stones work well as basking surfaces and pull double duty as path material – dark-colored ones absorb heat faster, and that difference shows in how much traffic a spot gets.

A patch of dark bare soil in a sunny corner does the job too, if hardscaping isn’t in the plan. A garden with a few good basking areas sees activity start earlier in the day – which is a small thing, but it adds up over a season.

6. Leave Some Corners Alone

The urge to tidy everything up is understandable, but it’s worth resisting in at least one corner of the garden. Some species are still finishing out winter as chrysalises in the leaf litter or pupae just under the soil surface – raking things out too aggressively can destroy them before they get the chance to emerge.

Loose soil and a bit of debris pull double duty as puddling spots and basking patches anyway. A deliberately rough corner costs nothing to maintain and tends to support more butterfly activity than things added on purpose. Leave it messy. That’s the point.

7. Reduce Mowing Near Flower Beds

Lawn right up against garden beds creates a kind of dead zone – mowed grass offers nothing to butterflies and acts as a barrier between habitat patches. Even a foot or two (30–60cm) of unmowed edge changes that. Clover moves in fast on its own, and violets aren’t far behind – both happen to be host plants, which is a bonus. The border looks intentional once things fill in, not neglected, though that probably depends on the neighbors. Either way, the butterflies aren’t judging.

Source:  msn.com©

((Image credit: Shutterstock))

Related:  Why Every Garden Needs a Butterfly Puddler—And How to Make Yours – TUTORING YOU

The Basics of Pollinator Garden Design

Pollinators are an essential part of the complex ecosystems that make up our gardens. Even spartan gardens are teeming with life above and below the soil, including species of plants, fungi, insects and animals. You can strengthen your connection to that natural world — and better support it — through a solid pollinator garden design.

When I dig into a project, I ask myself the “five Ws” and one “H” learned in grade school: Who? Why? What? When? Where? How? The “who” is you! You can easily create a pollinator garden, and you may already be closer than you think. Here’s what you need to know to get started.

Asclepias tuberosa, Butterfly Weed

Why Do I Need Pollinators in My Garden?

When you think of pollinators, you likely think of bees. But pollinators also include critters such as butterflies, moths, birds, flies and even bats. Each of these animals is on the hunt for pollen and/or nectar to sustain themselves.

In turn, each plant species has its own need for pollination. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 75% of all flowers require pollinators, including most fruits and vegetables. When you add pollinator-friendly plants to your garden, you help expand the pollinators’ food sources and breeding range. Many pollinators use plants’ flowers, stems and the soil around them for breeding and protection. Expanding your garden can create a refuge for these essential workers to continue to thrive outside of their shrinking native habitats.

What Plants Do Pollinators Like?

Pollinators have certain food preferences. If you’re looking to attract bees, you’ll want to design your garden to include plants that bees like: flat, bright-colored flowers that grow in full sun. If you’re looking to attract hummingbirds, you’ll want to include the tube-shaped red, orange or pink flowers that long-billed hummers favor. Plants such as moonflowers are night-blooming with large, white flowers that bats stick their heads into in search of nectar. To attract insects, you’ll want to focus on diverse plants that bloom throughout the growing season in a wide range of colors, shapes and sizes.

When Are Pollinators Active?

Many popular pollinator plants such as echinacea (aka coneflower), liatris, asclepias (aka milkweed), rudbeckia and annuals such as zinnias or cosmos don’t begin to bloom until June, then continue through late summer. Pollinators, however, often appear much earlier in the spring and well into fall after many plants have ceased blooming. To attract pollinators during these times, consider planting early-blooming bulbs such as snowdrops, crocus, creeping phlox, species tulips and anemones, and late blooming plants such as asters, sedum and goldenrod.

Where Is My Garden Located?

What’s your growing zone? Make sure the plants you choose for your native pollinator garden are well-adapted to your climate and the pollinators in your area. The Xerces Society lists recommended native pollinator plants by state or region to help you make this decision.

After you’ve pinpointed your region, pay close attention to where the sun hits the areas you’d like to plant. If there’s shade in the morning but blazing sun in the afternoon, focus on full-sun plants. If there’s full sun in the morning but shade in the afternoon, focus on shade plants. Don’t worry, even shady spots can attract plenty of pollinators.

How Do I Approach My Pollinator Garden Design?

Each year in late spring before you cut back last year’s growth, identify spots in the garden that aren’t currently filled with evergreen perennials or dead stems. These spots should be your go-to fillers for the upcoming season. Take note of how you can fill those gaps from all viewpoints in the garden and across the growing season.

Sketch out your space and create a list of pollinator-friendly plants you’d like to feature. It’s easy to underestimate how many plants comfortably fit into a well-grown garden — and for pollinators, the more the better. However, be sure to space plants out according to their needs. While some plants may thrive living close to each other, letting you create a “living mulch” that blocks weedy species, others might get overcrowded, which could reduce their bloom. Focus on varying plant heights, with taller plants toward the back of your garden and shorter plants in the front. Layering is pleasing to the eye and provides ample space for pollinators to access their preferred flowers. Also, be mindful of leaf textures, shapes and sizes. Mix up clumps of large-leaved plants with grasses and fuzzy-leaved plants with smooth forms. Create textures in your yard for visual appeal even when your plants aren’t at peak bloom.

Here’s an example of a plant combo that attracts pollinators from spring through fall: ‘Blue Fortune’ agastache and red ‘Solar Flare’ echinacea grow throughout the summer, and birds favor them for their post-flower seed heads. These plants can add height to your garden. For texture, planting annual fernleaf dill creates a compact habitat for swallowtail butterfly caterpillars, and the prairie native orange ‘Butterfly Weed’ asclepias is a magnet for monarchs. ‘Purple Dome’ aster will bring cool autumn color to the mix and is an excellent late-season food source. Finally, add a crocus mix along the front edge for early spring flowers.

Avoid any potentially harmful chemicals in your pollinator garden as they could hurt the creatures you’re trying to attract; even some organic pesticides can be risky. With a diverse selection of hardy, disease-resistant plants and a multitude of beneficial creatures heading your way, you’ll be one step closer to creating a sustainable ecosystem that takes care of itself.

Source: The Basics of Pollinator Garden Design – Burpee