Why Include Space for a Pollinator Garden?

As a new Pennswood Village resident, I obtained a community garden plot and also joined the landscape committee. The committee is planning a butterfly garden with native plants. I have had an interest in native plants since my early walks with my grandmother carrying her wildflower notebook. I am also a life-long organic gardener and Penn State Master Gardener as well as a big fan of Doug Tallamy, and his book Bringing Nature Home and Nature’s Best Hope, championing native plants. The planned garden will be essentially a pollinator garden to support our hard working insects. Three quarters of our food crops and almost all our flowering plants depend on insect pollinators.

• Selecting for keystone species: keystone species are a specific plant or animal that are essential for an ecosystem to thrive. Their mere presence supports a diversity of other organisms – so if they are not present, other organisms will not do well or can not live in that area. A great example of a keystone species is an oak tree, which supports over 436 different species of caterpillars compared to a nonnative Callery pear tree which supports less than a dozen. If you choose to plant an oak tree rather than a Callery pear, you will be providing for 100s of organisms who otherwise would not have habitat. Keystone plants are pollinator superstars, they attract and support many types of bees, moths, and butterflies. This guide lists some keystone plant species that live in our region.
• Selecting for extended blooming times: flowers bloom at different times of the year. Native plant gardeners should make sure to include flowers that bloom in all seasons, not just in the summertime. Pollinators need flowers from the early spring when they first emerge through the fall when they are going dominant.
• Selecting to include plants that support different insect life stages: it is important that a gardener consider the entire life span of its pollinators (egg, larva, adult). When pollinators are larvae (e.g., caterpillars) they need leaves to eat, only the adults will eat nectar from flowers. Consider the monarch – females lay eggs on milkweed leaves, which are consumed by the emerging caterpillars, adult monarchs can eat the nectar of many different flowers besides milkweed flowers but the caterpillars can only eat milkweed. If there is no milkweed in your garden, the next generation of monarchs can not live there.

Besides picking plants that support pollinators, gardening habits also matter. For the insects there is the need to protect habitat year round. This requires a level of tolerance and modifying gardening activities. The tendency to “clean up the garden in the fall” has serious impacts for a whole host of pollinators and beneficial insects. According to the Xerces Society, a weekend of weeding, raking and leaf removal can wipe out a whole population of insects who have been working hard all summer and were readying their winter homes. Resist the urge to remove dead garden plants, except tomatoes, and instead add a thin layer of leaf mulch or compost to be incorporated in spring.

Recent research shows 90 percent of caterpillars, moths and butterflies overwinter in fallen leaves and the bottom 12 inches of perennial stems. Also present in this garden litter is a mix of bacteria, fungi, and invertebrates, providing a welcome habitat for beneficial insects and others who convert organic matter that will nourish the soil. We are also reminded to wait as long as possible in spring before disturbing the soil, preferably after some 50 degree days, or when the apple trees bloom. There is a world-wide decline in insect populations. Considering the implications for the food chain, gardeners should be aware of their responsibility to be good stewards.

There are many little changes we can all make to create pollinator friendly yards. From planting native plants to leaving our gardens “untidy” in the winter and early spring, there are many small steps we can take to support these critters!