Apple orchard surrounded by a pollinator garden

Background: I help my dad maintain and manage land that has been in my family for generations. Since he took over the property, he has planted over 500 trees, about 100 of which are fruit trees in an orchard setting (mainly apples and pears with a pair of chestnuts and a few persimmons sprinkled in. He mainly designed it as a orchard so that deer would have something to nibble on during the colder months on our land (we are avid outdoorsmen who try to cull in the most ethical ways possible ie. a friend who is injured or struggling to survive the winter months plus we planted 4-500 trees for them. We love our deer and the meat they provide)

He/ set on keeping it an orchard setting for mowing purposes even though a fender forest garden would nullify most mowing needs but that’s beside the point. The site is predominantly kentucky clay in zone 6B. Other than the orchards the sites canopy is completely open minus the trees on the perimeter of the property.

I have convinced him however to let me surround the orchards with pollinator gardens. My thoughts are taking the woodline (made up of predominantly ash that is dying, oak, maple, and honey/black locust) then stairstepping it down to flowering trees. I was thinking eastern redbud, red buckeye, high bush cranberry and some semi dwarf/dwarf crab apple trees. Anyone have thoughts on these species and how they may do?

Then underneath and in front of the flowering trees I’d like to add new perennial pollinator garden species that are not currently in the landscape. We have dogbane, milkweed, butterfly milkweed, an ironweed, and goldenrod dispersed across the farm with goldenrod and iron rod being the predominant species.

I was thinking of adding some yarrow, anise hyssop, and more echinacea (very few plants have been spotted from our last pollinator garden). Then I was also thinking of starting some varieties of mint under neath a few apple trees in the orchard.

Any input on additional perennial/annual species to be added to the pollinator mix would be quite helpful. Thanks I’m advance for any insight you all may offer. Best wishes and happy growing.

Two additional native flowers that pollinators love are Joe-pye weed (eutrochium purpureum) and tall bellflower (campanula americana)  also native asters that provide nectar and pollen late into fall.

Mk Neal wrote:Two additional native flowers that pollinators love are Joe-pye weed (eutrochium purpureum) and tall bellflower (campanula americana)  also native asters that provide nectar and pollen late into fall.

Awesome thank you! I’m just getting into pollinator garden research. I’ll look into those! 👍🏼

how does sourwood do in your area? i’m thinking about how it could extend the bloom time in your tree layers…

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greg mosser wrote:how does sourwood do in your area? i’m thinking about how it could extend the bloom time in your tree layers…

Still relatively new to habitat management and tree knowledge so I couldn’t tell you, but it’s something I’ll look into and ask around about. Does it have any utilitarian uses other than pollinator food?