Please Help by Sharing What You Do to Help Our Pollinators

Pollinators are the bees, butterflies, moths, bats, birds and various insects that, in the course of collecting food from various plants, also pollinate them, which is essential to producing fruit and vegetables.

Sometimes we tend to forget about the smaller things in life that really do make the world go round. Just as wildlife has suffered, so have the birds, bees, butterflies and other insects. Pollinators must have two things in their habitat: somewhere to nest and flowers to gather nectar and pollen.

Do you provide food for the Pollinators?

In many landscapes, people have started using ornamental rather than flowers so many flowers are only found on roadsides,  field edge or in wild areas. If you provide flowers, you are improving the environment for pollinators. This foraging area not only helps the bees and butterflies that pollinate these plants, but also results in beautiful garden.

Insects such as bees and butterflies are needed for producing much of our food the majority of our fruits, vegetables and nuts.
Many of these pollinators, especially wild ones such as bumblebees, are in trouble.

What can you do?

1. Reduce or eliminate insecticide use.

2. Diversify plantings. Plant flowers and other pollinator-friendly plants — flowers, shrubs, trees, herbs and grasses — everywhere.
Plant a mixture. Pollinators need a variety of plants that bloom at different times (early, mid-season and late) and with different flower types, such as tubular or composite, like sunflower

3. Provide nesting habitat.  This could be trees, shrubs or nest boxes.

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

Eliminate mowing. Provides food and habitat. Mowing also kills caterpillars, etc.

Easiest thing to do, cause you do nothing.

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

I planted Echinacea this year and boy did the pollinators love it! One bumble bee was sleeping under the flower.  When I looked carefully I realized each Echinacea flower is actually made up of several dozen tiny yellow flowers that bloom over a period of several weeks. That is what keeps the pollinators coming back again and again.

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.

Joined the Xerces Society:  https://xerces.org/

Planting about an acre total of native seeds this season.  Starting tomorrow to work on a display Pollinator Habitat along the county road, which will feature this nifty sign from the Xerces Society:



I will update with progress on this project.

I always have several pounds of native wildflowers, clovers, & buckwheat in my car with my beekeeping gear. Sometimes bird seeds too. Any bare spot of soil I see anywhere gets some. I throw quite a bit around every time I visit the apiaries, go hiking, or just wander around natural areas. I plant it in & around my vegetable gardens. I spread it anywhere it seems suitable to do so. Which is pretty much everywhere. It's almost a daily ritual. I have some hummingbird feeders but they much prefer the flowers in the garden. I see many pollinators of all sorts every day. Some of my bees are in an unused pasture that is part of a native species & animal restoration project. Next year that pasture & the surrounding area will get a huge wildflower boost from that organization. I'm learning about breeding & releasing butterflies & hope to pursue that next year.

Pesticides. Not in my world. I persuade people each & every year to stop doing that. Give them a sample then ... You like real honey eh? Then please stop killing the bees. It works.

Thanks everyone for sharing.  I found these today, they are neat idea!

Mike, where do you get your seeds from?

Anyone have any suggestions for having standing water that doesn't breed mosquitoes?  That's a real problem with my homestead.

In my mild climate, I try to provide year round food sources. In the case of hummingbirds that typically means various Salvias, the flower shape is perfect for them and we have so many that do so well. A winter favorite is Pineapple Sage or Salvia elegans. The local hummingbirds fight over my yard.

In pruning, I try not to take all of a plant, like with borage. I wait until another one is blooming, or only cut back half of an old one.

And, I plant a variety of flower types to appeal to different pollinators. The very large bumble bees like large squash blossoms. Small native bees like open blossoms like zinnias. Honey bees love thyme.

Since I've been paying attention to all of this, my yard has come alive. Birds, butterflies, dragonflies, bees, I love it.

Mike, where do you get your seeds from?  

The clovers & buckwheat comes from a nearby farm co-op. Some wildflowers I get from a TN native landscape place & some I simply collect from the wild. There's often some dandelions included in my seed mix too.

Sonja Draven wrote:Anyone have any suggestions for having standing water that doesn't breed mosquitoes?  That's a real problem with my homestead.

We change our water every day.  That way it is not standing so any eggs/larva or what ever they are called gets washed out.

Some more inspiration:

In addition to introduced trees and shrubs that regularly flower, and herbs like Rosemary, we also have several heavy flowering native species in the front and backyard – mainly Callistemon (Bottlebrush), native rock orchid, Banksia and Macadamia. So there's something flowering 365 days a year, inclusive of 'weeds'.

It’s Spring here so the Bottlebrush are in full bloom, attracting bees, moths, birds and too many Flying Fox.

Since we don’t spray, there’s lots of native bees and wasps floating around too. A large proportion of the lot is set aside for native bush garden, so that also provides habitat for the ground-dwelling bees. Mud-dauber wasps build their mud cocoons everywhere as too do the Paper Wasps – mainly under the eaves and do a good job of keeping spiders at bay.

Besides the water containers for the chickens, and a large bird bath, I also leave an old glass vase with a stick sitting in it for bugs to get a drink – the stick allows them to escape if they fall in … it works too! The garden must be healthy, a few months ago there were frogs in the chicken water dish – much to the dismay of the chooks – and there are ones living in the stormwater pits and pipes!

Almost every thing I have so far is on paper.

2019 season plant to plant nasturiums, french marigold, sunflowers, possibly others.  I currently have a mint growing well in a outside bucket, and possibly a second bucket.  Planted out chives, and Lemon Thyme (two days ago).

Here's two seed packets I purchased that will plant in roughly 5 ft sq beds each.

1910 Edible Beauties:

do I want to keep "seeds" or no

ANNUALS:
Common Arugula Eruca vesicaria   keep
Borage Borago officinalis  keep
Calendula Calendula officinalis ‘Fiesta Gitana’     ?
Bachelor's Button Centaurea cyanus ‘Polka Dot’  no
Florence Fennel Foeniculum vulgare   ?
Basil Ocimum basilicum ‘Genovese’    keep
Radish Raphanus sativus ‘Cherry Belle’  keep
Signet Marigold Tagetes tenuifolia ‘Starfire’  keep
Nasturtium Tropaeolum minus ‘Whirlybird’    keep

PERENNIALS:
Chives Allium schoenoprasum  I already have
Johnny-Jump-Up Viola tricolor ‘Helen Mount’  ?

1911 precious Pollinators:
ANNUALS:
Borage Borago officinalis
Dill Anethum graveolens   keep
Cosmos Cosmos sulphureus ‘Bright Lights’   in bucket?
Sunflower Helianthus annuus ‘Lemon Queen’   no
Sunflower Helianthus annuus ‘Velvet Queen’    no
Lemon Bee Balm Monarda citriodora    yes I guess
Phacelia Phacelia tanacetifolia     ?
Scarlet Sage   Salvia coccinea    no
Marigold Tagetes patula ‘Naughty Marietta’  no
Red Clover Trifolium incarnatum      keep
Zinnia Zinnia elegans ‘California Giants Mix’  in bucket?

PERENNIALS:
Milkweed Asclepias tuberosa   no
Lance-leaved Coreopsis Coreopsis lanceolata   yes some where
Purple Coneflower Echinacea purpurea   no
Smooth Aster Symphyotrichum laeve    no

It will be interesting for me to figure out saving seed or digging up what I would like to keep, and composting end of season the rest.

I saw a cabbage butterfly ambling by my 'garden'.

I posted earlier today about how hugelkulturs provide critical habitat for native bees.  I consider this to be an important contribution everyone with access to a yard can make.  Keep planting flowers!  The hummingbirds and bees were all over my red centered cone flower exactly one minute after I took it out of the car!  Joe Pye Weed provides privacy for you and is a good friend to the pollinators.  That is just one example.  Thyme as ground cover helps.  The University of Minnesota Bee Lab has a ton of information on the subject. https://www.beelab.umn.edu/

Thank you for this important post!!

Killing two birds with one stone: allow your vegetables to flower. You get seeds and you get beneficial benefits. Parsnip in flower is parasitoid heaven, as are most of the Apiaceae. The name kind of gives it away

Apiaceae are fantastic companions for trees as well. The roots drill into heavy soils allowing drainage and root penetration for other species.

Might be getting a hive here in the next week or so. I've said yes, but people change their mind so hoping the apiarist doesn't.

I use fish for mosquito control, and duckweed/positioning for temperature control. My 'insect water' is an approximately 14 ft stainless steel sink with strategically placed rocks. It uses sunlight to make duckweed which fixes its own nitrogen via bacteria. It gets minerals from litter from the hedge it is beneath. The duckweed is chook food. The bacteria covered litter is compost food. The mossies are fish food. The fish are chook food. The insects drink...

Apiaceae are fantastic companions for trees as well. The roots drill into heavy soils allowing drainage and root penetration for other species. - dc

Diakon radish Raphanus sati var. longipinnatus is a great one too.

i have steep banks near the road i used to mow. last spring i killed the grass there then reseeded with various annual and perennial bee and butterfly wild flower mix seed. i also tilled sections of my lawn and seeded more of this wild flower mix. the bees , hummingbirds and butterflies loved them! i planted crocus bulbs this fall so early emerging bumbles have something to eat after snowmelt next spring. i have 15 varieties of fruit that flower from late may to october to feed the bees all season.

i also wanted to mention. i have piles of branches on the edge of my property i leave there for the bumbles to winter in. i also buy mason and leaf cutter bee cocoons to put out in the spring and have houses for them to breed in. i collect and overwinterthiere cocoons in my fridge and put them out w/ the ones i bought in the spring. this year was the 1st time all my tubes in my 2 houses were full of cocoons. i made another one to put out next spring. japanese knotweed makes great tubes for them to breed in grows everywhere, and its free! they are easy to split to harvest the cocoons. i cut the sizes that will just fit a pencil in, for the masons and some a little smaller for the leaf cutters. make sure the back of the tube stops at a sealed joint.  i bundle them in small bundles of 4-5 about 6in. long and tape them together then place them in the houses. works great! moutainwestmasonbess.com is the cheapest I've found for getting cocons.

steve bossie wrote:i also wanted to mention. i have piles of branches on the edge of my property i leave there for the bumbles to winter in.

I have huge tree branches, logs, piles of branches, wood chips, ditto in back of my property too.

I have various year round food sources - lavender, rosemary, thyme, currants, nasturtiums, sunflowers, fruit trees, snowdrops, crocus, hazel, marigolds, buddleia, borage, clover, comfrey, various beans, raspberries, lingonberry, roses, blackberries and night scented plants - jasmine, honeysuckle and stock - to attract night insects and (hopefully) bats.

Whenever I hack back the bamboo I tie a few canes together in a a bundle and put them in discreet corners to make hibernation holes for lone bees.

Compost bins for habitat.

In very hot weather I put out small dishes of water though that’s rarely a problem here - this year was an exception. I’d like to create a wildlife pond to attract dragonflies etc. but am wary of having very little children near it so maybe we’ll build it together as an educational project when they’re old enough.

I have areas of overgrown grass/weeds that provide food sources and habitat though I admit that’s mostly because I don’t like mowing! The plan is to move it more towards wildflower meadow and less an overgrown mess as a compromise between providing a habitat and not annoying the neighbours with their manicured lawns.

SEEDBOMBING! I collect any seed heads I see - poppy, foxglove, borage, marigold, grasses etc and always keep a small bag of them in my pocket. If i see a bare patch of soil I discreetly empty the bag on it.

And no articificial fertilisers, weed killer or pesticides

We have several acres we have left for nature to take care of.
We use no sprays, or other types of poisons.
All species that we plant flowers and goes to seed (we even plant extra vegetables so we can let some do this for us)
This coming spring we are going to finally start spreading wild flower seeds at the rate of 50 lbs. per spring. (previously we were only putting out around 2 lbs.)
We grow many medicinal and culinary herbs, all are allowed to go to seed unless I need to harvest some for a medicine.
We have a honey bee tree and I stay at least 20 feet from it (not only because I am allergic but because that way the hive stays put)
We have several coyote bushes because they flower very late and that gives all our pollinator friends one last big shot of nourishment, these trees literally buzz at the end of October and into November.
There are many piles of small limbs back in the woods for the bumbles and masons, I counted around 20 nests on my last walk about of the land.
We have many native plants growing and they aren't touched as yet. There are some cover canopy areas that I am thinning for making silvopasture but these are about 300 feet from the "natural side of our property".

There are many water spots, including the animal water troughs that have "ladders" for animals so they can get down in there for a drink and get back out.
We have enough humming and other bird feeders that it takes us about 4 hours to refill them all.

I think I can sum up the majority of posts on this thread using our farm's motto:

More Is More.

We have been ringing our property with cut scotchbroom, twigs, sticks, downed smaller trees that aren't straight enough for garden poles or stakes, and other plant detritus that accumulates on acreage. The piles are for bird and insect habitat.

In front of the piles, I have been planting:
Native perennials such as nodding onion, camas root, cascara trees, nootka rose.

Every summer gets a larger and larger patch of flowers for drying as well as just for looking and for the pollinators - seed heads are broken off in the fall and scattered in front of the piles on the edges of the property: dollar plant, clary sage (2 year plant) sunflowers, cone flowers, echinacea, yarrow, lot's of lavender, agapanthus, etc.

We let lot's of veggies go to flower and seed - best so far has been arugula, beets and radishes and swiss chard.

Building more and more hugelkultur beds - for all the obvious reasons and especially for the animals and to save on water in the coming years as the PNW will be drying out.

We protect our bats!! Bat houses have been hung in the forests around the farm.

Hot lips salvia is a great plant that is still sending out red flowers, even just this week.

Hummingbird feeders are kept up all year round, but especially in winter. We have lovely visitors all year.

Big patches of our pasture have been given over to wildflower and wild grass growth. Win for me - less mowing, more pollinators, looks pretty and soft and the snakes love to live in that part of the farm.

We have let the forsythia go crazy - early bloomer and a nice slash of yellow in February or March.

We let our nasturtiums go until they are really really dead. I have found around here (maritime northwest) that the nasturtiums will grow and grow and send out tendrils and unfurl their flowers all the way to December in the right year. And when we get a little warm snap, and the bees wake up all confused and disgruntled, they have instant food and a place to land on the nasturtiums. We locate them all over the farm, although other varmints nip them down in the far reaches.

Garden "clean up" is not really a thing anymore - something I've noticed living on acreage vs the suburbs where I was compelled by our lease agreement to keep things much more "tidy". Things go dormant or dead, seeds are collected, slash is piled up, but it's an ever changing flow - never really an end. It's much more relaxing, at least to me and in my opinion. But I think Permaculture is relaxing.

One thing we have been doing for a longer term project on the farm is harvesting a selective amount of our evergreen trees and planting drought tolerant, fast growing trees, instead - the latest addition being silver drop eucalyptus. Our climate around here is gonna dry out pretty bad in the coming decades and the evergreens are gonna take a hit, so we are trying to diversify with flowering shrubs and trees as well as drought tolerant shrubs and trees that also support pollinators and niche species. Shade is important to all animals, and keeping what water we have where we want it is important, too. Some of the logs get piled up for habitat, some are burned for fuel in our home, some make planks for duck and chicken houses. It all gets used for something, somewhere.

One surprising thing I learned in the Dominican Republic: honey bees love corn pollen! I never noticed that when I used to plant corn in temperate climes, but my goodness, my corn tassels here get honey bees all over them! And here I always thought corn was wind pollinated, hence the advice to plant in blocks instead of long rows.

A roadside wildflower, which I have heard some locals call fueragrosa, I have identified as a nonnative species, the Siberian motherwort, Leonurus sibiricus. As surprised as I was to find a plant from the cold steppes thriving on this tropical island, I appreciate it; it brings in more species of butterflies and small native bees than any other plant I have found in the area. Plus it is beautiful; I planted it over my dog's grave.

We are growing 12 acres of native prairie and many acres of fruit trees, shrubs and other pollinator friendly plants.

When we first bought our property it was a rundown rye field and horse pasture littered with trash. We saw one bumblebee the first year. Now we see bees of all kinds and many, many birds and butterflies.

It helps to remember that all restoration takes time and little improvements add up.

You can keep track of our progress at www.duffymeadows.com

Dc Brown wrote:Killing two birds with one stone: allow your vegetables to flower. You get seeds and you get beneficial benefits. Parsnip in flower is parasitoid heaven, as are most of the Apiaceae. The name kind of gives it away

Apiaceae are fantastic companions for trees as well. The roots drill into heavy soils allowing drainage and root penetration for other species.

Might be getting a hive here in the next week or so. I've said yes, but people change their mind so hoping the apiarist doesn't.

I use fish for mosquito control, and duckweed/positioning for temperature control. My 'insect water' is an approximately 14 ft stainless steel sink with strategically placed rocks. It uses sunlight to make duckweed which fixes its own nitrogen via bacteria. It gets minerals from litter from the hedge it is beneath. The duckweed is chook food. The bacteria covered litter is compost food. The mossies are fish food. The fish are chook food. The insects drink...

Caterpillars (Black Swallowtail, I believe) eat my dill, carrots and parsley to the ground in late summer.  The beautiful thing is, they never kill the plants.  I get a great crop of herbs and veggies through the early frosts.

The first thing on my pollinator list is not something we do, but the place we picked to live.  In our neck of the woods, the major advantage is we live near a natural lake with canals and they don't spray for mosquitoes.  Most other areas do, and even though they spray at night, a lot of insects die anyway and the whole ecosystem gets put out of whack.  And just in case anyone was wondering, we have few mosquitoes here.  The bats and dragonflies keep them at bay.  In places I've lived where the spray, the mosquitoes are usually out of control because their predators are few in number.

We don't use pesticides in the yard and we leave the bank of the canal behind our house alone to provide habitat for all kinds of critters.  

The big draws in my yard thus far for day time pollinators are sweet almond bushes (almond verbena), papaya, moringa, Christmas cassia and Spanish needles (which are a hated weed here, but they bloom most of the year and bees of all sorts LOVE THEM).  Night time pollinators like the night blooming jasmine, papaya (especially the male plants), and the sweet almonds.  Once I get my annual vege gardens in, I'll plant all kinds of annual flowers as a hedge row next to my fence, which will be near the gardens.  I'll also be planting passion fruit, native honeysuckle and native wisteria, which are popular with the winged creatures too.

I planted my gardens on purpose a few feet away from the house, the pool enclosure and the fence line.  This gives plenty of room to move around and do maintenance without having to chop everything all the time.  I let things grow a bit wild in my gardens as I like the natural look anyway, and it allows the plants to grow and produce more flowers.  When I do prune, it's done to keep the most amount of flowers on the plant....well, except for end of winter when just about everything gets a massive chop.  

I have several water sources of various sizes and depths around the yard.  I keep them clean and the rain and sprinklers keep them filled with non-city water (we have a well for the sprinklers).  I've noticed that when I used the city water, the water stations weren't very busy for a few days afterwards.  Using the well water and/or rain, they are busy all the time.  .....kinda gives me the creeps on what the hell is in the city water.....

Lastly, we get the esteemed pleasure to talk with our neighbors when they compliment our yard and they ask us what we do to make the grass so green and everything grow so well.  I tell them about the various permaculture things we do (and throw in how much money we DON'T use on chemicals and services and such) and I've noticed folks have started to do a few things differently in their yards too.  One neighbor has even let the Spanish needles grow at the edges of his yard for the bees.....tickles my heart!

Anyone have any suggestions for having standing water that doesn't breed mosquitoes?

Mosquitos are themselves pollinators and food for a delightful array of organisms - worth tolerating/encouraging.
Most mosquito species harbor no disease and only the females of some species will seek to draw your blood (nutriment for her brood).

-

I've found dense-gardens, thick mulch, flowering veg and an unmown lawn to be good for pollinator/predator insects.
Previously I would waste garden space on flowers and insect attracting plants, but the above method is more effective.

Anyone have any suggestions for having standing water that doesn't breed mosquitoes?  That's a real problem with my homestead.  

The native tree frog mate and reproduce in my shallow ponds therefore no mosquitoes in the spring. By summer the ponds dry so no breeding ground.

I try to avoid the sandy hillside where the miner bees nest and keep mullein plants available for the weaver bees to gather fibers for their brood chambers and there is plenty of clay mud around the ponds for the mason bees. Any hollow stalks when clearing are cut into 6 inch lengths and put into shelters for nesting tubes.

Jondo Almondo wrote:

Anyone have any suggestions for having standing water that doesn't breed mosquitoes?

Mosquitos are themselves pollinators and food for a delightful array of organisms - worth tolerating/encouraging.
Most mosquito species harbor no disease and only the females of some species will seek to draw your blood (nutriment for her brood).

-

I've found dense-gardens, thick mulch, flowering veg and an unmown lawn to be good for pollinator/predator insects.
Previously I would waste garden space on flowers and insect attracting plants, but the above method is more effective.

While this may be true, I don't get any pleasure from being the nutrient they feed on.  Although my appeal to them has improved in the last couple of years, I generally am the one that keeps everyone else safe from being eaten just by being anywhere in the vicinity.  It is miserable to try to work outside in the summer when I have to wear a long sleeved/hooded sweatshirt and long pants just to keep from getting bitten with giant swollen welts all over and then worry about heat stroke.

I'll work on encouraging the eaters of mosquitos.  I know there are bats on my homestead, although I'm not sure where they nest.  I want more!

I turned a suburban front and back yard into a food forest for humans and critters.  Well, it's a work in progress as I only started 4 seasons ago.  So what was a monoculture doused in toxins is now a great habitat.  I watch what the critters are doing and what they feed on. I don't care if they're a pollinator or not as I just want to have as diverse an ecosystem as possible and it's just fascinating.

I tend to scatter seeds around and experiment with different plants. I let the critters tell me what they want, not caring if something is "native". Critters learn just like humans do and can discover new food sources that they didn't have before.  I let lots of veggies go to seed.  I try to have as long a flowering and seeding season as possible, including leaving wild sunflowers and Russian sage seed heads for the birds in the winter.  I leave lots of "messy" areas for nesting materials and bug habitats.  In the warm season it's fascinating to walk around and see what's going on.  I feel like I offer an oasis to the critters in our suburban neighborhood.

Sonja Draven wrote:Mike, where do you get your seeds from?

Anyone have any suggestions for having standing water that doesn't breed mosquitoes?  That's a real problem with my homestead.

One place I lived I had my air conditioner drip water going into a container for critters.  It had water in it all summer.  It was constantly being refreshed which mosquitoes don't like.  And, all I had to do was check it once in awhile.

Just planted another patch of native perennial seeds.

If we feed the bees, the bees feed us.

I am a former beekeeper who gave it up due to the heavy lifting and also due to DH having a bee sting allergy — I cannot do all the labor involved in keeping them and harvesting honey, but I know how to make bees happy, attract them, and encourage many species to stick around and keep us well fed. And DH has learned not to use a string trimmer around a ground nesting colony, for example. :D

We live in a temperate four seasons climate. I endeavor to have something always blooming, from very early spring (late winter) through late fall. I have a huge range of plants, some native, some not. I also use no organophosphates, no pesticides, and no artificial fertilizers. We are ... beyond organic here.

Some of the things the bees (native and European honey - I want them all in my world) love:

- violas
- clovers
- dandelions
- clematis (I have these vines growing on a corner fence, away from livestock, as it can be toxic if eaten. I have clematis virginiana, which is native to Virginia, not here - it blooms later in the season and literally HUMS with bees when in bloom)
- roses (I grow hip producing climbers with open flowering habits that make easy access for bees)
- lilacs (old fashioned)
- hostas
- milkweeds (I grow 3 species here)
- echinacea
- salvia
- lemon balm
- feverfew
- squash
- elderberry
- mulberry
- highbush cranberry
- hawthorns
- maypops
- “everbearing” raspberries (bloom twice per year rather than once)
- strawberries, including everbearing
- all the fruits, really - apples, cherries, peach, blueberries, etc.
- willows
- catalpa
- lots more, but I need to head off to take care of business in town :)

Also, I leave any snags for wild bee nesting.

Open patches of dirt are good for not only bees, but other pollinators, so if it wants to be bare, I often resist the urge to plant something (the planting urge is strong in gardeners, but not having every square inch of dirt covered is a GOOD THING. So I take a deep breath and let it be).

Also, put a rock in the birdbath to make it easier for them to get a drink.

Basically, I want them to come here and find all of their needs met so that they set up housekeeping and stay. And I’ve been pretty successful with this strategy.

Ok, more on pollinators!

I also try to do my part to help butterflies, in particular the migratory monarch butterfly.

Monarch populations plummeted in recent years. They were common when I was a little girl, and we’re always my favorite. But farmers sprayed herbicides with wild abandon and milkweed became scarce. And I rarely saw any monarchs. 😿 Monarchs MUST have milkweed to lay their eggs — their caterpillars only eat milkweed.

So, since I live on the monarch migration route, I decided to create a butterfly oasis. I grow 3 species of milkweed in various spots around the homestead. And, we have been blessed with caterpillars and butterflies!

The many flowers around our place also attract a variety of other butterflies (and feed adult monarchs too).

The birdbath, with rock, also makes the butterflies happy.

More on pollinators. I am an avid gardener and have something in bloom for them from late winter to late autumn. Bees will come out of their hives on a warm late winter day, so it is good to consider pollen even in February. This website has a decent beginning list of species to consider for temperate areas of the USA, by time of pollen production.


https://njaes.rutgers.edu/fs1222/

Sonja Draven wrote:

Anyone have any suggestions for having standing water that doesn't breed mosquitoes?  That's a real problem with my homestead.

I don't know how'd they do in your neck of the woods, but  from time to time here, the counties will give out mosquitofish to put in standing water.  Their diet is mosquito larvae and I've heard good things about them.  I believe you can get them online too.

Want to mention hummingbird feeders are no good as they teach natural critters to prefer the easy unnatural sugar you give it rather than it's natural therefore perfect food nature created .. cuz you know .. Mother Nature is smarter than us ... let it be .. plant flowers instead !!

- We let the edge of our yard and woods grow up wild, its thick with many flowering bushes, shrub trees, plants and wild flowers.

- I'm going to plant a  bee feeder flower mix, and a butterfly and bird flower mix this year. As well as Sunflowers and Milkweed.

- I'm putting out a water source with stones in it.

- I have some natural debris piles in sheltered areas.

- Our lawn is full of Dandelion,a few verities of Violets, wild strawberries, White clover and Red clover, the bees love the blossoms! And a handful of other kinds of wildflowers.

- We have several little wet areas we let grow. A handful of wildflowers and flowering plants grow there.

- We have two apple trees and one pear tree. I plan on steadily planting more fruit trees of different kinds each year.  

- I have plans to make some native bee houses this summer.

- And of course we don't use insecticide or chemicals.

I'm just getting started on my little homestead, I have many more plans for the next few years.

I plant lots of different flowers, keep shallow bowels with stones and water, I leave most of my ornamental sunflowers to go to seed.  It's way more fun to watch the birds eat then deadheading.  I no longer spray bug spray or weed killer in my yard.  If I was rich I would buy the orchards on both sides of us and stop the terrible chemicals they spray.  I'm not even close to being rich, so I do what I can on my little plot of land, and try to convince my friends and family to jump on the no chemical band wagon.  The more the merrier our planet will be.  

I encourage a very biodiverse yard. I'm trying to get a whole mini ecosystem functioning here!

It's amazing what shows up. We've had quite a few grasshoppers this summer, and what shows up this week? A number of Great Black Wasps (Sphex pensylvanicus), sipping nectar from my flowers... they seem to especially like the swamp milkweed in bloom. Guess what they feed their young? Grasshoppers! I love when I see the food chains building in this ecosystem. It's so gratifying, because I barely saw a bird or bug the first year we moved in. It was so sterile. The previous owner had kept almost an acre of "perfect" grass. It's no longer perfect but watching LIFE unfold here has been so satisfying. Oh yeah, and those Great Black Wasps do a little accidental pollination as they land on the flowers.

I do mulch, but I make sure to do it "sloppily" so that there are places here and there that are plain uncovered soil. Those wasps above are a type of digger wasp that nest in the dirt. Lots of bees do, as well. When I found my first leafcutter bee capsules, there were in my garden soil (they nest in tubes as well).

I plant a wide variety, and I make sure native plants are part of that. Insects have evolved alongside these specific plants as their food sources. They cannot turn on a dime and start eating other stuff. Their body chemistry is adapted to a particular plant. Monarchs are the most famous... their young only eat milkweeds. The milky latex in a milkweed plant is something they've adapted to over thousands and thousands of years. If you look at other butterflies, it's usually the same story... they've adapted their chemistry to eat a particular food--like the spicebush swallowtail, or the evening primrose moth. If I want those, I have to plant "their" plant... the one that their larvae eat.

This year I planted a tiny oak tree, because it's supportive of dozens of types of caterpillars... which in turn supports nesting birds on our property (they almost exclusively feed caterpillars to their young... and they need a TON of them!)

I keep and use leaf litter all over the place, as it provides shelter and nesting areas for a bunch of critters... fireflies are one.

I make sure to have bloomers from early spring (crocus, dandelion, fruit trees) to late fall (just planted 6 asters).

No pesticides or herbicides will ever set foot here.

I make sure to plant some flowers among my veggie gardens. Sometimes that's  veggies that I let go to seed, but also I put marigolds, milkweeds, boneset (which really attracts the predatory wasps) here and there.

I use buckwheat as a summer cover crop, and then leave it blooming for the bees.

I cut the hollow lovage stems in fall and bundle them and place them around the property for any critters who want to make homes or raise young there.

The more I observe this biodiversity, the more I learn. One interesting thing has been that certain types of bees seem to come in response to certain flowers. For example, the first summer the swamp milkweed bloomed, I suddenly had blue bees buzzing around them. I never see the blue bees anywhere else... just on the milkweed blooms. So if I'm never without swamp milkweed, I'll hopefully always have blue bees. :)

I keep a lot of flowers, some wild, some native, some not. I leave them to go to seed and then leave the stems in place overwinter for insect hibernation.

It's amazing the diversity of bees that visit, some bees just visit all the flowers,  others have their special favorites. The tall bellflower, which migrates around the yard has blue pollen and is mobbed by blue bees.

When I find caterpillars (usually black swallowtail on the lovage and yellow alexanders) I bring them inside and the kids and I feed them leaves from their favorite herbs, them set the butterflies free.  I hope this increases their survival odds just a bit.  

Here is pic of a black swallowtail that emerged today.