To me, a garden without chirping, buzzing, and movement may be beautiful to look upon but boring. Beneficial insects add interest, beauty, and excitement while providing us with many services we may not even recognize. They not only pollinate our plants, but they also keep pests in check, work to keep our soil healthy, and provide sustenance for songbirds, especially their nestlings.

Many gardeners do not appreciate how critical the very early and late seasons are to these very important garden helpers. On an early morning last September, I walked out onto my deck to overlook my gardens. Everything seemed very quiet. Then, I noticed one of my coneflowers bobbing up and down. I walked up the hill for a closer look and found two Goldfinches, now in their faded winter colors, enjoying the seeds from the drying seed heads. Near them, I spotted two little flickers (tiny butterflies) enjoying the blooms of a large, fall blooming Abelia shrub. Even at this time of the year, when many people think their gardening season is over, there is a lot of life happening out there. Here are my hints for a successful pollinator garden.

• Eliminate the Pesticides - When you attract enough beneficials, they will take care of the pests. Even organic pesticides kill.
• Put it in the Sun - Many pollinator insects need to warm up in the sun before they can fly.
• Add Plant Natives - Most native plants are a host for some beneficial insect, and some are host to many. More native plants increase ecological diversity. Beneficial insects keep the pests in check.
• Include Specific Host Plants for Butterflies - Every butterfly species has specific plants where they lay their eggs. For example, Milkweed for Monarchs, Carrot Family plants for Black Swallowtails, Violets for Fritillaries, and Asters for the Pearl Crescents, just to name a few.
• Plan for a Succession of Blooms to Last from Earliest Spring until the Ground Freezes - With a big enough diversity of plants, something should always be in bloom throughout the season. Insects, especially bees, are desperate for food immediately upon emerging from hibernation in the early spring. The same is true in the late fall when they stock up for the winter. You can google sources on the internet to find out which plants bloom at the extreme ends of the growing season. There are many.
• Include as Much Plant Diversity in Your Garden as Possible - Most beneficial insects require a specific family of plants. We average gardeners cannot possibly know what every insect needs, so just offer as much plant variety as you possibly can to please as many as possible. Also, the more plants you have, the fewer weeds you need to pull.
• Don’t Forget Water Features - Birdbaths are too deep for butterflies and hummingbirds. Include shallow bowls with misters for the hummers and wet sand for the butterflies. Along with water sources, large rocks for warming in the sun are appreciated by many pollinators. Birds need water to clean their feathers or they cannot fly. This is true in the winter as well as the summer. Birdbath heaters work well for them. Please do not turn the birdbaths over for the winter.
• Include Annuals and Ground Covers - Annual flowers provide good pollen and nectar and offer it steadily for weeks or months without interruption. Wildlife gardeners are often advised to leave some bare ground in the garden for wild bees to burrow in to lay their eggs, but what they really need is undisturbed soil. Groundcovers will weave between your plants shading the ground to eliminate the need for mulch and protecting the soil from the disturbance of weeding and hoeing which the bees appreciate.
• Deadhead and Prune Correctly to Promote More Blooms - Preventing annuals and some perennials from producing seed will force them to keep making more blooms. This is achieved by the simple act of deadheading. Some judicious pruning will encourage a denser shrub with more blooms.
• Site Plants Correctly - Pay attention to whether a plant wants full sun or a little shade. Make sure that it is located where it has the best chance of meeting its water needs. If good air circulation is important to the plant, give it a little more space than most.
• Leave Some Native Perennials Stand for the Birds Throughout the Winter and Don’t Rake Your Garden Floor Clean - The chief winter food source for over-wintering songbirds is the insect eggs and insects themselves that they find while rummaging through the leaves and plant clippings on the floor of the garden. They also enjoy eating the seeds left on the seedheads of coneflowers, rudbeckias, and other native plants in the pollinator garden. Native bees use hollow stems in which to lay their eggs. Beneficial insects will make their home where their needs are met. If the garden is neatly cut to the ground with the soil raked clean or mulched, they will move on.

Here are just a few top pollinator-attracting plants that are easy to include in your garden:

For Bees: Early Crocus, Early flowering fruit trees, Penstemon, Milkweed, Mountain Mint, Sedum, Caryopteris, Goldenrod, Asters.

For Butterflies: Zinnia, Tithonia ‘Torch', Tall Garden Phlox, Verbena Bonariensis, Coneflowers.

For Hummingbirds: Red Salvia, Black and Blue Salvia, Canna lilies, Tithonia, Native Honeysuckle, Eastern Red Columbine.

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