Pollinators: Creating Pollinator Habitat in Urban Gardens

categories: About Pollinators Pollinators

revision date: 2022-12-15 12:00

Brown-belted bumblebee queen.
Brown-belted bumblebee queen (Bombus griseocollis) foraging on blanketflower
Photo by: D. James

Biology

Home gardens whether in urban or isolated areas can offer an important refuge and resource for pollinators. However, the use of pesticides must be avoided if your home garden pollinator oasis is to thrive and become sustainable. Hopefully, your neighbors will also not use pesticides which will help prevent contamination problems in your garden from aerial drift and toxin movement via run-off. Unless freedom from pesticide contamination is assured, you will have difficulties in sustaining pollinator visits and residency in your garden.

Careful selection of native and non-native plants that offer maximum benefits and are attractive to pollinators, can substantially benefit local pollinator populations even in densely populated urban areas. Many online and literature resources are available to help you design and plan your pollinator garden which you should approach as a long-term and sustainable project. It is important to become familiar with the native and ornamental flowering plants that do well in your area, as well as the pollinator fauna you are likely to attract. You can then do some research and match up the plants with potential pollinators. Since pollinators have different needs during different life cycle stages, creating diversity will make your pollinator garden more appealing. For example, the greater variety of plants you have the more pollinators the garden will attract. Diverse plantings are also more likely to attract beneficial insects and birds, as opposed to harmful pests.

Plant flowers that bloom throughout the seasons to accommodate different preferences, as well as to provide pollen and nectar sources during different life cycle stages. The size, shape, and color of flowering plants all influence what types of pollinating insects will visit, so planting a diversity of flowers will attract a diversity of pollinators. Many of our small native bees prefer to forage on small flowers such as yarrow (Achillea spp.) while large and stronger bumblebees work their way inside larger flowers such as wild indigo (Baptisia spp.) that are difficult for other bees to access. Planting a variety of flower shapes and sizes will ensure all pollinators are well fed. Some moths and butterflies also use plants in our gardens as host plants for their caterpillars. The monarch butterfly feeds on the nectar of many kinds of flowers but will only lay eggs on milkweed plants (Asclepias spp.). In turn, milkweed flowers are a valued source of nectar and pollen by a wide diversity of pollinators.

Native plants should always be a priority when creating pollinator habitat. While ornamental, non-native plants can provide much complementarity, especially in prolonging the bloom season, native plants are better adapted to the environment and will have long-term associations with pollinators and other wildlife. Providing native flower-rich habitat in your ‘space’ is the most significant action you can take to support pollinators. Details on the best plant species to use for pollinators can be found in other publications some of which are listed at the end of this section. However, native wildflowers like Asters, Beebalm, Blanketflower, Blazing star, Hyssop, Goldenrod, milkweed, coneflower, wild buckwheat, Salvia and Sunflower are on all lists, along with flowering native bushes and trees like Rabbitbrush, Oceanspray, Wild rose, Wild lilac and Willow.

Apart from food resources, plants also offer egg-laying, nesting and overwintering opportunities for pollinators. Leafcutter bees search for leaves from specific plants to cut pieces from to line their brood cells. Other bees will forage for nest-building materials; Mason bees search for damp soil from which they gather balls of mud to carry back to their nests. Many solitary bees are tunnel or cavity nesters, using hollow stems or abandoned beetle borer holes. Others are solitary ground nesters creating nests in bare or sparsely vegetated soil. When creating a pollinator garden it is important to provide access to nesting as well as food resources.