Gardening for the future: How to help pollinators

One of the best ways to help pollinators right now is to garden for the future; planting native species – especially perennials, which come back year after year – creates habitat for all sorts of beneficial creatures. Wherever you’re planning to install a pollinator garden, make sure you know what species will best thrive in the area you’ve chosen. Soil type and pH (acidity level), light and water are key elements to note before you break ground.

Be intentional about what you plant and have a plan.

Trees for bees

Native flowering trees like basswood, crabapple, catalpa and more are great nectar and pollen sources. These trees also attract other wildlife.

Learn how to care for these beneficial and beautiful trees and how to add them to your yard or neighborhood.

Plant native

There are many resources online to help you design and install a pollinator garden, and familiarizing yourself with plants best suited for your local landscape can be immensely helpful.

Unfortunately, many nurseries, greenhouses and landscape companies still sell plants that are known to cause harm to local ecology. These ornamental plants are attractive but can grow beyond garden boundaries and cause havoc on the surrounding habitat. Many times, they have misleading names that can cause confusion.

It’s easy to mix up species with similar names; plants like butterfly bush (Buddleja davidii) are often touted as great for pollinators but in reality are invasive. Butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa), on the other hand, is a native variety of milkweed and much better suited for pollinator gardens. If you live in an area that can grow Karner blue habitat, make sure to plant wild lupine and avoid the big leaf variety (Lupinus polyphyllus), which can’t support Karner blue caterpillars.

When looking for native species suited for your area, your local conservation district is a great place to start. Check out programs like Go Beyond Beauty, too, which is dedicated to promoting native species while phasing out nonnative ornamentals.

If your goal is to create a pollinator paradise, make sure you know what you’re planting!

Become a community scientist

It can be hard to study bugs. Small, fleet critters are difficult to track, especially if they’re solitary. Many species are lacking significant data, meaning we don’t really know much about them. That’s where you come in.

Databases like BeeSpotter and Bumble Bee Watch help track bee sightings and offer resources for identifying species. Other community science databases like iNaturalist can help identify and log sightings of all manner of species, especially when paired with the Seek smartphone app.

Whether you live in the country, the city or anywhere between, here are a few things you can do right now to help pollinators:

• Get involved in your local conservation district and volunteer for community science opportunities in your area.

• Learn more about Michigan’s native species and how to identify them.

• Keep a pollinator journal.

• Download Seek and iNaturalist onto your smartphone.

• Leave your garden alone in the fall and spring – many insects overwinter in plant matter. Leave bare patches of earth, and don’t rake leaves or trim back pithy-stemmed plants with long, hollow stalks that dry out over fall and winter.

Pollinators are vital for the continued health and safety of our planet, and they need all the help they can get. Remember, no action is too small!