The pollinators need our help. Not just because humanity’s food supply relies on pollinators, but because invertebrates are the backbone of a healthy ecosystem. Concerned gardeners will find guidance and an action plan in The Pollinator victory garden: win the war on pollinator decline with ecological gardening: how to attract and support bees, beetles, butterflies, bats, and other pollinators by Kim Eierman (2020).
Eierman’s Tips for a Pollinator Victory Garden
- Don’t use pesticides of any kind, including organic; and avoid buying nursery plants treated with “neonics.” A quality nursery should be able to tell you whether their plants have been treated with this systemic pesticide.
- Create over-wintering habitat by leaving some fallen leaf litter on the ground. Soil organisms will also appreciate the leaf litter.
- Create growing season habitat for solitary, ground-nesting native bees by leaving a sunny, sandy patch of soil free of mulch. Then watch out for little mounds with a hole in the center, kind of like a tiny volcano, for evidence of a bee making a nest for her larvae.
- Native pollinators prefer native plants, and some rely exclusively on native plants. Eierman compiled a list of plants for the Pacific Northwest on her website, Ecobeneficial.com.