Pollinators not only add beauty and activity to gardens, they’re essential in helping plants flourish. Pollinators include bees, hummingbirds and butterflies – as well as beetles and dragonflies which help control pest insects – but they’re also integral in controlling insects that damage them!
Plant flowers throughout spring, summer and fall that bloom throughout their lifespan in order to attract pollinators. Bumblebees and hummingbirds will especially appreciate having access to wide landing surfaces; moths will appreciate a similar arrangement.
1. Plant a Variety of Flowers
Flowers provide vital nourishment for many pollinators, including bees. To encourage bees and other pollinators to visit your vegetable garden, plant an array of colorful blooms throughout the growing season. Vegetables require pollination in order to thrive so it’s essential that enough flowers be grown so as to maintain a high population of pollinators.
To ensure that your vegetables are pollinated efficiently, plant an assortment of annual and perennial flowers which bloom at different times throughout the growing season. You could also include flowers that attract specific pollinators – for instance hummingbirds love bright red blooms while bumblebees prefer flat-topped blooms; cornflowers attract monarch butterflies.
Many vegetables require pollination by insects like bees, flies and butterflies in order to complete their life cycles. Not all insects act as pollinators – for instance squash bees require ground nesting sites in which to lay their eggs. Therefore it would be wiser not to till your soil and leave patches of bare ground so squash bees can build their nests and feast upon seeds they need for survival.
Add flowering plants like sweet alyssum, zinnias and cosmos to your vegetable garden to attract pollinators and attract insects that feed upon pollen. Also try planting herbs such as thyme or dill to repel damaging insect pests while providing nectar sources. For help finding suitable pollinator-friendly flowers in your region check out Xerces Society’s list of pollinator-friendly plants by region.
Flowers such as dill, thyme, and oregano produce delicious scents that attract bees while being easy to grow from seed or transplant. You could also add marigolds, scented geraniums, and chives to your garden to deter vegetable pests; marigolds in particular have proven very successful at repelling squash bugs and tomato hornworms, while the lavender blooms of chives will attract beneficial insects as well. Ideally locate these flowers somewhere with morning sun and afternoon shade while making sure the soil drains well – morning sun/afternoon sun/afternoon shade conditions will ensure their success!
2. Provide Water
An effective vegetable garden relies on pollinators. Without them, tomatoes, cucumbers and squash won’t produce. So to maximize productivity in your garden and ensure maximum production from it all year long, provide pollinators with food and water sources.
Although bees and butterflies often captivate our imaginations, other pollinators play just as vital a role. Flies, beetles, moths and other small pollinators such as flies can all help pollinate plants – although these pollinators might be harder to attract initially they should still be considered important contributors – just consider what their specific requirements might be when trying to draw them in.
Many pollinator species enjoy sipping from shallow pools or puddles in your garden, such as birdbaths or even complex structures like ponds and streams. It’s important to avoid using chemically treated or chlorinated water in pollinator gardens as this could harm insects that visit it.
While pollinators require food and water, some also need shelter. Some species like bees may choose to overwinter in leaf piles, hollow stems, or other debris in your garden – when cleaning up in the fall leave some dead branches behind for this purpose; don’t rush to “spring clean” too early in spring as doing so could disrupt any overwintering bee colonies that might still be living there!
To attract hummingbirds, plant flowers easily accessible from the ground and hang feeders that supplement their diet. Hummingbirds prefer bright red blooms with trumpet-shaped petals – such as those found in plants such as foxglove, canna lilies and petunias – that bloom brightly against a dark background. You could also put out a feeder near any flowering vegetables or herbs to draw them in.
Bats are another important source of pollination. Bats regularly feed on fruit-forming flower species that they feed upon as food for themselves – thus pollinating these as they search for fruit and berries to eat. To attract bats to your garden, plant various fruits and flowering plants with fruit on them, as well as adding tall shrubs and trees as perching spots for perching spots.
3. Build a Bee Hotel
Most people recognize honeybees as important pollinators, yet many remain unaware of the many native and non-native solitary bee species that also play an integral part in pollination. Solitary bees don’t form social colonies like honeybees do – instead choosing to nest in natural or man-made cavities like hollow logs, tree stumps, rock crevices and drilled blocks of wood – rather than communal nesting places such as hollow logs. To encourage them into your garden create a bee hotel!
Bee hotels are structures designed to house nesting materials such as wooden blocks, cardboard tubes and stick bundles drilled with holes for bees to nest in. There are numerous plans and designs online for bee hotels; the key element in making one is using untreated wood as building material – avoid pressure-treated as this can be toxic to bees and other solitary insects; for an ideal bee hotel wood source is found by finding cut limbs from your property that have not been treated with chemicals prior to drilling holes of various sizes into them before drilling them with holes of various sizes for bees to nest in.
As part of building your bee hotel, it’s also essential that you select an environment which provides adequate protection from the elements. Your bee hotel should ideally be placed at least a meter off of the ground and away from highly trafficked areas – an elevated spot between knee and eye level would be best. Depending on where you reside, drainage holes at its base could also help ensure it does not become saturated during rainstorms.
Once your bee hotel is completed, it’s essential that it be regularly monitored during spring and summer months. If birds or other animals occupy any tunnels within your bee hotel, add chicken wire over its entrances as a protective measure against predators. Furthermore, wood blocks and tubes should be replaced every two years; replacement kits are readily available from most gardening or hardware stores – creating one can become an educational family project you can enjoy for many years ahead.
4. Create a Nest
When planting your vegetable garden, select flowers that attract pollinators such as bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, moths, and wasps – essential pollinators of vegetable gardens! When selecting flowers as pollinator magnets, look for varieties with various hues as each pollinator prefers different ones.
Consider also the scent of your flowers when planting. Pollinators love pollen-emitting aromatic flowers such as sage, thyme, rosemary, dill and basil; including these in your flower beds is surefire way of encouraging more pollinators! Additionally, group your blooms together into small drifts for maximum pollen spread!
Attract pollinators to your garden by planting flowers that bloom throughout the year rather than just during summer, rather than just during a short bloom period. This will allow pollinators to gather nectar from multiple plants at any given time instead of only those most abundant at that moment in time.
Leave areas of your vegetable garden unplanned and natural can also help. By leaving an area as a natural habitat or designing your garden to mimic native wildflowers in your region, more pollinators will be drawn in because pollinators are naturally drawn towards species which have co-evolved with them over time.
For instance, to attract hummingbirds to your garden, plant climbing vines and hanging baskets with flowering plants like strawberries. A birdbath or sheltered perches could also attract these beautiful insects; they often prefer vibrant red blooms with trumpet-shaped blossoms as perches while resting on trellises or hanging baskets.
Your vegetable garden can attract more pollinators by employing natural pest management methods and adding native plants into your landscaping design. Finally, build a bee hotel in your yard so bees have somewhere safe to nest – just make sure it features smooth insides with overhangs for them to nest! You can find one online or at local garden centers.