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We love hearing the low hum of bees, feeling their subtle movements, as we move about our garden. We admire the focused attention they give to each blossom in their relentless search for nectar and honey.
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Butterflies skim above the shrubs, silently landing on one flower, and then another, as they uncurl their straw-like tongues to sip sunwarmed nectar. They drink intently, their bright wings opening and closing lazily, ready to instantly lift off if startled.
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Our garden hosts hundreds of species. Some we see, others we never notice. I’ll always remember the late summer evening we returned home well after dark. As we pulled into our drive, we were curious about the tiny, glowing animals flying around from flower to flower among our stand of ginger lilies. They looked like tiny fairies. We stopped and watched them flit and hover, sip and rest in a beautifully choreographed nocturnal dance.
Finally, I got out of the car and crept closer to see if I could identify these night time pollinators. They were hummingbirds, enjoying the cool darkness as they gorged on sweet ginger lily nectar.
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Butterfly Ginger Lily
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Gardeners curate their gardens in many ways, for many different purposes. Depending on where we live, we work within the constraints of our space, our climate, our free time, our environment and maybe even our community’s covenants. Most of us remain aware of our neighbors, and what they expect to see when they look across the street at our home.
Which may be why so many homeowners maintain large, well kept lawns and neat foundation plantings. Neighborhoods across the United States strive to ‘keep up appearances’ with neatly clipped front yards. It seems easiest to plant slow growing evergreen shrubs, a few trees, and then hire a lawn care service to take care of it for us.
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But these neatly maintained lawns and low maintenance shrubs do little to support our pollinators and other wildlife. They are sterile, and often toxic. The same chemicals which maintain our lawns pollute the nearby waterways and kill beneficial insects, as well as those we might want to target. Without insects, birds lose their main source of protein and calcium.
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We curate our garden to attract as many species of birds and pollinators as we can. We also welcome turtles, lizards, toads, frogs and the occasional snake. We host rabbits and squirrels, and I know that other mammals, like fox, raccoon and possums roam our community by night. We listen to owls calling to one another across the ravines. Sometimes we’ll see a hawk swoop down to catch a vole or mouse.
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We are surrounded by wildlife. We live in a forest bordering wetlands. And we make a conscious decision to integrate our lives and our garden into this teeming web of life. Bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, dragonflies, song birds, and brightly colored wasps bring movement, life and sometimes living poetry to our garden.
We enjoy feeling their presence around us. We enjoy watching them going about their lives.
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Wherever you live, you can make a decision to do your part to support pollinators and other wildlife, too. The more of us engaged in this effort, the more seamless our efforts become. In other words, our little oasis of safe haven and food for pollinators grows larger as more and more of us wake up, and create habitat in their outdoor spaces, too.
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Here are the main principles to follow. Each of us will interpret these individually in ways appropriate to our own circumstances:
- Abstain from using toxic chemicals outdoors. Especially, don’t use any insecticides on individual plants, in the air, or on our lawns.
- Allow some area to provide shelter to birds and insects. This might be a thicket of shrubs, a brush pile, native trees, a bee hive, or even a Mason bee box.
- Incorporate native trees, shrubs, herbs, grasses and perennials into your planting to directly provide for the needs of wildlife in your area. Many birds and insects have symbiotic relationships with native plants of a particular area. Growing natives attracts and supports more of these species.
- Select and allow flowering plants which will produce nectar over the entire season. If your climate is warm enough, provide nectar year round through your plant selections. Keep in mind that some of the most beneficial ‘nectar plants,’ like clover and many wildflowers, might appear as ‘weeds’ to humans.
- Provide a dependable source of fresh, clean water.
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Did you notice the repeated use of the word, ‘allow’ in these guidelines? ‘Allowing’ is an important guiding principle for wildlife gardeners. We relax a little, and put the needs of the native wildlife ahead of our own preoccupation with neatness and control.
We might allow a few native tree seedlings, self sown, to grow where they appear. We might allow clover and dandelions to colonize patches of our lawn. We might allow a stand of native goldenrod to grow in our perennial border among our carefully chosen hybrids. We might allow vines to sprawl in some part of our landscape, offering food and shelter to many small creatures.
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The more we allow the natural web of life to re-emerge in our curated landscapes, the more diversity we will enjoy. Insects attract birds. Birds drop seeds. Seeds sprout into new plants we hadn’t planned on. New plants attract more pollinators. It is a fascinating process to watch unfold.
How to begin? First, make a commitment to nurture life instead of spreading death. Stop using poisons and pesticides.
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Once your outdoor space is no longer toxic, plant a few of the most important food source plants for the pollinators you hope to attract. Find suggestions for your region at the Xerces Society For Invertebrate Conservation.
If you have the space, begin by planting trees and shrubs. These will give the most ‘bang for your buck’ because they are long lived and produce many, many flowers on each plant. Remember, too, that many herbs, even if they aren’t native to your region, provide copious nectar all summer long.
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If you live in an apartment or condo, you might have room for a hanging basket or a few large containers on your porch or balcony. Include a few nectar rich plants, like Lantana and herbs, in your planting. Any outdoor space, even roofs, walls and balconies, may be enriched and enlivened with careful plant choices.
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As much as I respect those gardeners who champion native plants, I will never advice another gardener to plant only natives. I believe a plant’s function, and how well it meets the gardener’s needs, outweighs its provenance. If we can include some percentage of carefully selected native plants, then we can also choose wisely from the enormous variety of interesting plants on the market today.
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There are many non-native plants available which also provide shelter for birds and insects; nectar rich flowers; and fruit, seeds or berries enjoyed by birds.
Some, like Mahonia aquifolium are native on the West Coast of North America, but not here in Virginia. They still naturalize here and grow easily, providing winter flowers for pollinators and spring berries for our birds. Others, like Lantana cultivars, have a species form native in American tropics; but also many interesting hybrids which grow well in cooler regions.
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Many Mediterranean herbs provide rich sources of nectar, as do common Asian shrubs, like Pyracantha and Camellia.
And there are wildlife friendly native plants, like poison ivy, that most of us would never allow to naturalize in our own garden. However environmentally conscious we may want to be, our garden remains our personal space and must bring us comfort and joy. Gardens are human spaces first; enjoyed, curated and tended by people.
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It adds to our enjoyment of our garden when we invite beauty, in the form of pollinators, into our personal space. We are like stage managers, tending a safe environment, ready for the music and drama these beautiful creatures always bring to it.
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Woodland Gnome 2017
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“He that plants trees loves others besides himself.”
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Thomas Fuller
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Happiness is contagious! Let’s infect one another!
Forest Garden 