The Green Thumb
Pollinator Gardens Treat Yourself, Treat the Ecosystem
By Linda Sutherland
Let’s talk about pollinator gardens. Perhaps you know they have something to do with bees and butterflies but have never investigated to see what the benefits would be. I have great news for you! You will gain rich rewards for yourself and the entire ecosystem…and all you have to do is plant a garden. Why plant a pollinator garden? Pollinators like bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds are an important part of our ecosystem because they are crucial to fruit and vegetable production. When you plant a pollinator garden, you support and maintain pollinators by supplying food in the form of pollen and nectar. Once they discover this food source, it encourages them to stay in the area and keep pollinating our crops. There are numerous benefits to a pollinator garden, and the rewards are spectacular! One reward of planting a pollinator garden is that it controls unwanted insects in the garden itself and in surrounding areas. If you are plagued with nuisance bugs, drawing pollinators to your yard is a great alternative to using toxic sprays. A garden that is designed to attract pollinators must have plants of different colors, sizes, and shapes. The birds, bugs, and even bats that your diverse garden attracts will eat many problem bugs, and the assortment of plants will help to make sure no single pest can take over the garden. Attracting pollinators can also boost your yields in a vegetable garden. When bees decide to investigate your blooming flowers, they
are not just eating—they are also transferring pollen from flower to flower so plants can grow delectable vegetables and fruits. In some cases, this is required for fruits to appear. For instance, cucumber and squash vines cannot produce fruit unless they are pollinated by an insect. Watching pollinators at work is also an amazing educational opportunity for adults and kids alike. You can see, firsthand, the flower structure, insect behavior, and plant reproduction while watching nature at work. What better way to learn about science and teach children than with a ringside seat at nature’s finest show? To get started, you need to know which perennials will attract our pollinator friends to the backyard. Let us go with some of the triedand-true flowers that will entice pollinators every time. First up is Monarda, commonly known as bee balm. This plant is hardy, prolific, and a real stunner. Its blooms have a daisy-like shape, with tubular petals
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