Tips for Installing and Caring for a Pollinator Garden

Choosing a palette of plants that will sustainpollinatorsthroughout the growing time of year is a expectant start . However , the way you plant and care for your selection can allow for additional advantages for the pollinator you ’re seek to draw in . Here are some ways to make the lower layers of your garden even more beneficial .

Find thebest ground covers for attracting pollinatorsto your garden.

Layering wildlife - friendly flora adds bionomic time value , seasonal beauty , and beguile to any space , large or little . Incorporating a strategical raiment of dry land covers is a great agency to maximize the wildlife benefits your garden fling .

Avoid double flowers

The superfluous petals in dual flowers usually arise from tissue that would have been nectary or procreative anatomical structure in the straight species , so these show - offs declare oneself very little in the fashion of pollen ornectar . Most double efflorescence are also uninspired and produce no seeds .

Double bloom . picture : Carol Collins

Single prime . Photo : Michelle Gervais

Plant densely

aggroup pollinator - well-disposed plants together will help your fly friends find and gather food for thought more efficiently . Whether you are planting multiple of a single species or a smorgasbord of different cultivar , assay put them together in one area rather than scattering them throughout the garden .

Leave your ground covers alone

Most aboriginal bee build up their nests in the primer and depend on undisturbed spaces to make their homes . earth cover can protect areas of your garden from to-do , creating worthful habitat options for bee .

Be pesticide-free

chemical substance that kill harmful insects also kill the beneficial creatures you are adjudicate to pull in . But if you draw a various community of dirt ball to your pesticide - devoid garden , the helpful ones will attend with controllingthe plague .

Provide a water source

Many native pollinator have small home ranges . Not only do they ask nutrient and shelter , but they also want weewee . A small water feature , even just a sports stadium of blank water locate in the garden , will do the trick .

Don’t be too tidy

let some of the natural detritus from tree diagram and shrub to pass through your land masking , where it will biodegrade and create stable and diverse home ground . Rhizomatous and suckering land covers are particularly serious at receiving and incorporating constitutive stuff .

Be lazy in fall and winter

The stem and leaves of garden plants and fallen dust are often ideal place for louse to hole up and position their orchis , so balk the itch to do a big fall cleanup . Instead , neaten thing up after spring temperature reach about 50 ° F and most insects have emerge for the new season .

Gary Lewis is the owner of Phoenix Perennials , a retail and mail - order nursery in Vancouver , British Columbia , and the author ofThe Complete Book of Ground Covers : 4000 plant That keep down Maintenance , Control Erosion , and embellish the Landscape .

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