Attract Pollinators to Your Garden for Improved Harvests!
Plants that attract pollinators to your garden are a great addition to your yard or homestead. Many plants will not produce a harvest without pollination.
Hummingbirds and insects visit flowers looking for nectar and pollen to consume. In the process, they pollinate countless crops.
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A flower ovary must receive pollen to fertilize the ovum or seed. Without pollination, we wouldn’t harvest nearly as much food from our gardens.
It is very important to provide a safe place for pollinators to find nectar and pollen. There are many ways that we can encourage pollinators to visit our homestead, and maybe
How To Attract Pollinators to Your Garden and Homestead
Here are some of the things you can do to give a safe haven and food source to pollinators:
- Let some weeds grow – Allow dandelions, clover, and other nectar-producing plants to grow in your lawn.
- No pesticides – Don’t attract pollinators to your yard only to kill them with toxic chemicals. Systemic insecticides contaminate the nectar and pollen and kill the insects that consume it.
- Be a little messy – Leave flower stalks, leaves, and other ‘debris’ until spring for beneficial insects to overwinter.
- Give them water – Keep a shallow pan of water, birdbath, or a mud puddle near your garden for the pollinators to drink.
- Put up a hummingbird feeder and make your own sugar water for them.
- Install mason bee and butterfly houses.
- Plant nectar-producing plants and native plants in a bed near your garden.
Plants that Attract Pollinators to Your Garden
Choose old fashioned and native varieties of flowers and plants. The new hybrids are often bred for larger, showier blooms at the expense of nectar and pollen production. Here are some of the plants that attract pollinators to your garden:
- Aster
- Azalea
- Beebalm
- Black Eyed Susan
- Blazing Star Liatris
- Blue Columbine
- Butterfly bush
- Butterfly weed
- Cardinal flower
- Clarkia
- Cleome
- Common Chokecherry
- Coralbells
- Crocus
- Elderberry
- Gaillardia
- Golden Currant
- Goldenrod
- Honeysuckle
- Joe-pye Weed
- Lantana
- Lavender
- Lupine
- Milkweed
- Penstemon
- Petunia
- Purple Coneflower
- Rabbit bush
- Red-osier Dogwood
- Rhododendron
- Sage
- Salvia
- Scarlet Globemallow
- Scarlet Trumpet vine
- Sedum
- Serviceberry tree
- Showy Fleabane
- Sunflower
- Yarrow
- Yellow Evening Primrose
- Zinnia
The Benefits of Attracting Pollinators to Your Garden
Grow plants that attract pollinators and your garden will be more productive. You’ll also
The beds of flowers and native plants are very attractive and it is enjoyable to watch butterflies, hummingbirds, and other pollinators as they visit. You might even see a hummingbird family raise their young!
Learning to enjoy the beauty of nature is a wonderful side-benefit and you are sure to love these plants that attract pollinators to your garden!
Attracting Pollinators to Your Garden Using Native Plants
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