Creating a Pollinator-Friendly Garden

[@CrownBees]

If you're going to use drilled wood blocks for bee nesting material, place rolled parchment paper into the holes. In the Fall, it will make it much easier to clean, protect, and store your bee cocoons. Great shoutout to Pollinator Partnership!

[@GardenBoundAnswers]

Thank you for this advice!!! This is great.

[@CrownBees]

@@GardenBoundAnswers You're welcome! We just want everyone to BEE successful. 🐝

[@MatturalSelection]

It's important to remember that the species of a plant is incredibly important. Asclepias is a genus that includes all milkweeds. But not all milkweeds are native to your area. Asclepias currassavica (tropical milkweed or scarlet milkweed) is not native to most of the U.S. and does not die back in winter. Monarchs need milkweed to die back in the north to signal to them that it's time to head south to their breeding grounds in Mexico. Our native milkweeds for the most part die back in the winter and come back in Spring when Monarchs make their way back up. But that won't stop Home Depot from selling it. But most importantly, native plants give where you live a "sense of place." It's appreciating the environment you live in and respecting the thousands to sometimes millions of years of co-evolution it took to create that environment. Or if you are religious, respecting the work of a creator who meticulously placed every component of that environment in a delicate mosaic of life unique to that region. You don't go to a place to make it like some other place. And when you do, catastrophic things can happen (Look up the history of the pine boring beetle, endangered tillandsia in Florida, the death of the American Chestnut tree, Dutch Elms Disease.) If we reject the idea of the sterile grass lawn and embrace leaf litter and utilizing 90% native plants in our yard, we can help bridge the gap from all the destruction being caused by development. It doesn't mean completely abandoning non-native plants. I think pentas are fantastic, and the japanese azaleas dont do any harm. But it does mean getting rid of invasive plants like english ivy, mexican petunias, and monsteras planted in the ground. And even if you have a strict HOA, there's ways to do this to get the most bang for your buck. Plus, it gives you a greater appreciation of the things around you. The more you learn about the native plants in your area and how wildlife interacts with them, the more connected you will feel. You start to see bees that you've never seen before (a lot more docile than European honey bees too). New birds and butterflies. A rich tapestry of life that would not be there previously. Before I helped my parents with their garden, they only had the invasive European honey bee, and maybe a carpenter bee here and there (with a rare visit from the common eastern bumble bee when the azalea would bloom). After planting native, after over a year I've observed 11 different species of bees, 31 species of birds, and 22 species of moths and butterflies. Not to mention the other insect and mammal species taking advantage of the new life in the garden. Bottom line: It's spiritually rewarding, you learn from failures, and it's just flat out fun.