Attracting Pollinators to the Garden

Many of our favorite fruits and vegetables require pollinators. Fortunately, you don’t get to keep a beehive to make sure that your fruit trees and kitchen garden produce an abundant harvest of apples, peaches, strawberries, cucumbers, or melons. By attracting honeybees, native bees, butterflies, moths, and other pollinators, you’ll help your garden and therefore the environment at an equivalent time!

Honeybees

The honeybee is that the most wanted pollinator, and permanent cause. it’s the foremost efficient of pollinators, thanks to its unique pollinating behaviors and to its specialized hairs that trap pollen whenever the bee brushes against the flower’s stamen. Plants they pollinate: Honeybees prefer flowers of purple, blue and yellow color. they’re general pollinators and can select any flowers that have high pollen or nectar levels. However, they’re not well adapted to collecting pollen from tomatoes and other nightshades. the way to attract them: Plant large patches of flowers like vetch, borage, buckwheat, sunflowers, alfalfa, clover, or wildflower mixes to bring them to your yard. you’ll also hang a honey bee lure in your garden. Honeybees need tons of water to form honey; provide them a drinking pool by placing stones or another perch during a shallow dish of water.

Bumblebees

Many species are native to North America, and these insects are often found at higher altitudes and colder regions than other bees. Bumblebees are simpler at pollinating nightshades like tomatoes and eggplants than most other pollinators because they will “buzz pollinate” the flowers. This specialized pollination releases tightly bound pollen better than other pollinators can, essentially by vibrating it lose. Plants they pollinate: in your veggie garden, bumblebees enjoy tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, squashes, gourds watermelons, cucumbers, strawberries, apples, beans, cane berries, fruit trees including apples, pears, stone fruits, almonds, and persimmons. Carpenter below to draw in them: Plant vetch, sunflowers, lupine, clover, and wildflower mixes. Provide bumblebees a bee drinking pool and a little pool with some sea salt mixed certain their daily minerals.

Native and Naturalized Bees

Many species of native bees help with pollinating the garden, including orchard mason bees, squash bees, Southeastern blueberry bees, carpenter bees, and digger bees. Alfalfa leafcutter bees were introduced as alternate pollinator and became naturalized. Most species are “solitary bees” meaning they are doing not form a colony or hive with a queen and workers. Plants they pollinate: while some species are particular, like the squash bee which prefers plants within the squash and melon families, most are general pollinators and can select any pollen or nectar-producing flower they will find. Native species can pollinate any flower found in your garden or orchard. the way to attract them: Plant another vetch, buckwheat, sunflowers, lupine, clover, alfalfa, and wildflower mixes. Install a pollen bee nest to supply a home for several species of native bees, and an orchard bee kit to introduce and keep orchard mason bees.

Butterflies and moths

butterfly on a flowerThese pretty pollinators isn’t as efficient at pollinating flowers as bees, as unlike bees they are doing not actively collect pollen from the flowers they visit. Instead, they passively transfer pollen from flower to flower as they looked for nectar. Plants they pollinate: butterflies and moths will visit any brightly colored flower on which they will perch and luxuriate in the nectar. the way to attract them: Plant colorful, nectar-producing flowers like zinnias, coneflowers, daisies, marigolds, and wildflower mixes. Flowers that are open during the night will attract pollinator moths (Evening Primrose, Moonflowers, Four O’Clocks, and Gourds). Native wildflowers will support new generations of caterpillars, or plant a Save the Monarch Kit to supply species-specific plants for your region.tachinid fly

Beneficial Flies

From the house fly to the flower fly, many species of flies pollinate the garden. Of all the species, hoverflies are perhaps the foremost helpful for the garden, because the larvae of the many species of hoverflies are predatory to aphids, leafhoppers, and other garden pests. Plants they pollinate: peppers, strawberries, cane berries, grapes, stone fruits like peaches and cherries, almonds, pears, apples, pawpaw, cashew, fennel, caraway, beets, carrots, and celery are some beneficial fly favorites. the way to attract them: Plant alyssum, buckwheat, chamomile, parsley, yarrow, or our Good Bug Blend which provides a food source and shelter for adult and immature beneficial flies.

Hummingbirds

Hummingbird feeding on a flower while these zippy little birds are best adapted to drinking the nectar of tubular flowers, they’re going to visit any flower with nectar, regardless of its shape and size. They also eat mosquitoes, gnats, aphids, and other small insects. Plants they pollinate: These general pollinators can help any of the garden and orchard flowering plants that have easily accessible flowers. For better hummingbird access, grow climbing plants on a trellis and hang potted plants like strawberries near flight paths. the way to attract them: Larger patches of colorful flowers will encourage hummingbirds to maneuver into the world better than individual scattered blooms. Though they don’t require beverage, hummingbirds appreciate a birdbath and sheltered perches to rest upon.

Bats

Many species of bats include flower nectar in their diets, and passively pollinate these flowers as they move around the garden to eat. Bats have a further benefit to the garden of eating small flying insects including mosquitoes. Plants they pollinate: a number of their favorite fruit-forming flowers include avocado, cashew, agave, and figs. the way to attract them: Install a bat house for your local bat population to call home. Plant night-blooming flowers to supply a further source of nectar for the bats to enjoy.

Attracting Pollinators to the Garden

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