It seems not a day goes by that we don’t hear more about the trouble that bees are having. While most of this coverage is about the non-native Honeybee, our native pollinators are in grave danger as well, mostly because we’ve removed or destroyed all of their habitat.
One third of all the food we eat and drink is dependent on pollinators. And pollinators play a crucial role in our natural ecosystems, which provide food for all other wildlife.
Our wildlife gardens can become a vital resource for native pollinators when we learn to provide for their needs: abundant food throughout the seasons, nesting space, and pesticide-free living space.
Native pollinators come in all shapes and sizes, from bumblebees, mason bees, solitary bees, flies, beetles, and butterflies, and your wildlife garden can become a haven for their survival.
I’ve just received a wonderful resource to help you plan your wildlife garden to benefit native pollinators. The Xerces Society Guide to Attracting Native Pollinators: Protecting North America’s Bees and Butterflies is a beautifully illustrated guide to creating habitat in your wildlife garden that will provide for the year-round needs of these essential insects.
Attracting Native Pollinators has many photographs to help you identify the bees and butterflies in your wildlife garden. It contains exhaustive plant lists to help you choose the best plants for pollinators in your region.
There are guides to providing nesting habitat for each different type of bee, and lists of host plants for many butterfly species. But be careful, learning to identify the various bees and other pollinators in your wildlife garden can become quite addictive, as I can readily attest to.
It seems the more I learn about them, the more I want to learn. The identification section of my copy of this book is becoming quite dog-eared as I try to learn all that I can about helping native pollinators in my wildlife garden.
I can’t wait until it’s finally spring so that I can add some more habitat for pollinators in my garden!
What are you doing to attract native pollinators to your wildlife garden?
Carole Sevilla Brown lives in Philadelphia, PA, and she travels the country speaking about Ecosystem Gardening for Wildlife. Check out her new free online course Ecosystem Gardening Essentials, 15 free lessons delivered to your inbox every week.
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About Carole Sevilla Brown
The decline in bees of all varieties is a global problem with only Australia apparently exempt of the problem.. I read ina newspaper article that with the decline of these pollinators, within a few years food prices will be beyond the reach of most people as there will be such a shortage of food.
I know of many farmers with fruit trees who are having to hand-pollinate their trees. This is extremely labor intensive and will definitely cause these crops to cost a lot more.
Carole Brown recently posted..Interview on the Mike Nowak Show
For the past three years I’ve been diligent about only planting things that are native to my area. This year my goal is to make sure that as many of my plants as possible also come from a local seed source.
I’ve seen first hand in my garden how two specimens of the same species, but from different sources, can perform in dramatically different ways: different hardiness levels and different bloom cycles. Our native pollinators need not only the right species, but they also need the plants to bloom at the right point in the season.
My goal for 2011 is to do a better job of making that happen.
Vincent, it sounds like you’re already doing a wonderful job at providing quality habitat for your wildlife! Kudos to you
Carole Brown recently posted..Interview on the Mike Nowak Show
Wonderful post Carole. It’s good to have a valuable resource at hand when we are able to finally get in the garden and plant for wildlife and pollinators. This one looks like another good book from the folks who brought us the Pollinator Conservation Handbook! gail
Gail Eichelberger recently posted..We Cant All Be Pretty Pollinators
Gail:
I love the Pollinator Conservation Handbook! It has been my go to source for pollinator garden information for some time. The best part about this new one is the bee identification guide. It has amazing photos of the different types of bees, which is really helping me learn to ID them. Plus it has really great regional plant lists, which makes it so much easier to choose the best plants for your location. I’m so thrilled I picked this book up
Carole Brown recently posted..Interview on the Mike Nowak Show
I am ordering it, today. I want to be able to id my critters!
Gail recently posted..We Cant All Be Pretty Pollinators
I’m letting a lot of native plants bloom where God chooses to plant them in areas that I’m letting restore themselves AND I’m adding larval host plants to the more “designed” areas to improve breeding capacity.
Loret recently posted..Swallows Passing Through
Loret, your wildlife garden sounds amazing. I love that you are working on improving “breeding capacity!” I think only an avid wildlife gardener would say something like that LOL
Carole Brown recently posted..Interview on the Mike Nowak Show
I could sit in my garden and watch the activity of pollinators for hours. Each year I look forward to discovering new ones the more I plant. This book looks wonderful and is now on my wish list. Thank you.
thevioletfern recently posted..Wild Bird Feeding Station
Hi there! I was so excited to come across your site and see so many posts about pollinators! I study native bees and am a big proponent of planting native when possible and having a wildlife-friendly garden. I wanted to add a fun tidbit about native bees: there are more than 4,000 species in the U.S., and most of them nest in the soil! Leaving bare patches in your wildlife garden can be a huge help by providing nesting sites that are increasingly hard to find!
I put up a “bee board” for bees and wasps to nest in. HM