Please Help by Sharing What You Do to Help Our Pollinators

I meant to include this with the first post. Here is caterpillar as I found it on lovage.

Mk Neal wrote:I meant to include this with the first post. Here is caterpillar as I found it on lovage.

That's very interesting! I have raised a number of the black swallowtails. I usually find them on parsley or dill. I had no idea they might choose lovage. I've never found caterpillars on my lovage, but now I'll have to look more closely!

When I pulled weeds from the veggie garden beds in fall, I scattered the black-eyed susan and other flower seeds round the edges of the garden. Then, of course I let them grow in spring. Also, I don't pull weeds, except grass, in the garden beds, until they flower and start to fade.

Takes like no time. My garden looks like a mess, but it always does. The neighbors would be more startled if I didn't have weeds growing in the raised beds along with the veggies.

I do a number of the things mentioned here.  I raise bees. I feel the single most important thing I have done is to have a nearby farmer, who has his crops dusted, to notify me in advance when the dusting is to be done.  

I planted a large pollinator Hugel and consentrated on companion planting with veg and flowers this year. I noticed a 1000% increase in the varied amount of insects, we had mostly mosquitoes & wasps before and now for the first time have hummingbirds. This is my third summer in this location and second with planted garden beds.

Heidi Schmidt wrote:

Mk Neal wrote:I meant to include this with the first post. Here is caterpillar as I found it on lovage.

That's very interesting! I have raised a number of the black swallowtails. I usually find them on parsley or dill. I had no idea they might choose lovage. I've never found caterpillars on my lovage, but now I'll have to look more closely!

So glad to hear of another black swallowtail fan!  Dill and parsley never grow well for me. I think the black swallowtail is happy with any host in the parsley family.

John F Dean wrote:I do a number of the things mentioned here.  I raise bees. I feel the single most important thing I have done is to have a nearby farmer, who has his crops dusted, to notify me in advance when the dusting is to be done.  

Yes, that is a good precaution. The question is, dusted with what (herbicide vs. insecticide)? Do you lock down your hives for a day or two? And building a rapport with the farmer is pretty important I think -- how have you approached that? Please share this good info, there is nothing like hands-on experience.

A small touch, but delayed mowing of lawn followed by only mowing at a higher height have been positive contributors to diversity on my plot.

I'm attempting to consistently add both perennial and easily reseeded annuals into my landscape to provide a variety of nectar options throughout the seasons. A recent discovery is that flowers of the viola family seem to be able to grow rather well in rock mulch. I have several plants alongside my foundation border that have popped up through the gravel. This prior underutilized strip now can be productive!

Lucrecia Anderson wrote:

Anne Miller wrote:
Provide clean water. Put the water in a shallow dish, bowl or birdbath with half-submerged stones for perches.

Next spring I want to add a little pool (ideally with a solar bubbler) to attract dragon flies to the vegetable garden. I watched a video on how dragon flies (and damsels) are awesome pest predators and the water source attracts them. They lay eggs in pools and their aquatic babies eat mosquito larva.

To attract dragon and damsel flies that pond needs to be still, stagnant, and full of food (mosquito larvae) for the young. Clean and clear water is decidedly Not attractive to your target. And don't forget the water plants that your targets like!

Well, the honeybees are very happy to get water from my small but permanently available fish pond. And they continue to harvest the mineral joys of my "personally inoculated" biochar bucket.

The bumblebees (Great Northerns) are gaga over our crabapple trees. I drained pond water on the trees in the fall, and pushed a lot of snow in the winter to support them. The mass of blooms indicate that they appreciate my efforts amidst this drought.

In this long drought, this pollinator support has an element of personal attention. Sometimes it is what you do; sometimes it is what you leave alone -- white clover, red clover, sweet clover, alfalfa -- even if it looks untidy. I also transplanted sunflowers and catmint today, schlepping water so they would survive -- and feed the bees.

A lot of what we do/have isn’t specifically done for pollinators, but does benefit them. We have a very diverse land with muskeg, and wetland along the north which is all just for the wildlife, we also have a dugout and a large pond that while we use are amazing in how much life they attract. About 30 acres of trees we also leave to the wildlife aside from some walking trails and cutting firewood. A good chunk of our understory is wild rose. 3 acres of saskatoons, and adding in another 3 acres of orchard. We are also planting native wildflowers and that is probably the only thing we are specifically doing for pollinators. I’ll probably also put mason bee houses in the orchard.

I don't think it's so interesting what i do. I have planted much biodiversity, that does the trick.
What i think is very interesting is a group of beekeepers who decided to pick up the hedge challenge. Farmers love to kill their hedges all over the world, more light= more produce= more money. Simple.
But not so for the nature.
So these beekeeper folk managed to build a club where they offer willing farmers, alarmed by insect/bird decline a contract. They plant 90 differing trees in the hedges of the farmers which he doesn't cut. Farmer pays nothing. Money comes from donators supporting the project.
Nature profits so much from diverse trees in hedgerows where insects can take a last refuge in an otherwise increasingly dying world. It also helps support a very interesting nursery.

Miles and miles of insect food reserves can be made. Helps farmers keeping pests down as well, because whatever pests rears it's ugly head a predator insect will be around and keep it in check better than without the refugee tree hedges.