HOW To Create A Pollinator Garden

Pollinator Garden

A pollinator garden is a garden that is planted predominately with flowers that provide nectar or pollen for a wide range of pollinating insects. Keep reading if you want to learn how to create your own pollinator garden.

Purpose

Pollinator gardens support and maintain pollinators by supplying food in the form of pollen and nectar that will ensure that these important animals stay in the area to keep pollinating our crops for continued fruit and vegetable production.

Choose the location

While flowering plants can grow in both shady and sunny locations, consider your audience. Butterflies and other pollinators like to bask in the sun and some of their favorite wildflowers grow best in full or partial sun with some protection from the wind.

Best Pollinator Plants

Eastern Swamp Milkweed
Fennel
Wild Petunia
Monarda (Bee Balm)
Sunflowers
Thyme
Poppy

Butterfly Garden

Create a butterfly garden. Beginning a butterfly garden can be as simple as choosing flowering plants that will invite adult butterflies to your garden to feed.

Colors

What colors attract bees?

Bees have a good color vision to help them find flowers and the nectar and pollen they offer. Flower colors that particularly attract bees are blue, purple, violet, white, and yellow.

Sow sunflowers

Sunflowers’ height makes them beacons for pollinators. They’re also rich sources of nectar and pollen for honeybees, bumblebees and other wild bee species, butterflies and other beneficial insects.

Native Plants

Native plants are the ideal choice because they require less maintenance and tend to be heartier. It’s essential to choose plants that have not been treated with pesticides, insecticides, or neonicotinoids.

Plant in drifts

Pollinators are more likely to find plants in gardens that provide larger drifts of color. When you purchase plants, get at least three or more of one kind—more if you have the room—and plant them near one another.

Feed hummingbirds

Hummingbirds are guided by their eyes, and many red-colored flowers provide good sources of nectar. Try perennials like red or purple hollyhock, pink or red coral bells, bee balm, summer phlox, or sage. Annuals that attract hummingbirds include begonias, cosmos, geraniums, and petunias.