Don't hate, pollinate!

by Shauna Ferry

Spring has arrived and it’s time to plan out those gardens! I’m not much of a vegetable grower myself, so I’m leaning more in the direction of a flower garden focused entirely on local pollinators. It’ll be beneficial and aesthetically pleasing. As a dairy farmer and environmental science graduate, I love caring for and learning about living things and our environment. In addition, I have a two-year-old daughter who loves nature and being outside, so I felt this project would be perfect to do with her – she can learn about local pollinators as well as various native plants. Some pollinators in New England include honeybees, bumblebees, hornets, wasps, butterflies, and hummingbirds. Creating gardens for these species is very impactful to our ecosystem.

The first step in creating a pollinator garden is to plan. It’s imperative to know where you’ll place your garden and how much sun that area receives so you can sort out which plants, shrubs, and grasses will fit best. My garden is going on the south side of my home, so it’ll be receiving sun all day. I chose to go with a kidney shape to keep it simple and easy for me to lay out in a drawing on the computer as I chose plants. Reading through various plants was one of my favorite parts of planning this project. I wanted to have a variety of plants that would come and go throughout the spring, summer, and fall. Variety is an important factor in the success of your garden. In addition to variety, you must be sure you fill your garden with native plants. Native perennials are the ideal choice – they should come back healthier and heartier each year.

The Mass Audubon website was a fantastic reference for me and I highly recommend it to anyone just getting started. They have an entire page dedicated to planting a pollinator garden. On this page is a link to the Native Plant Trust, which lets you pick the plant type, color, region, what you’re looking to attract, sun exposure, etc. I chose two types of grasses first: big bluestem and little bluestem. These grasses are great host plants for pollinators and songbirds love them as well. I planned for a total of five grasses – two big and three little – placing them on the outer rim of the garden. Since there is such a huge variety of perennials to choose from, I decided on having a variety of fifteen plants for my first year, having five different plants for each blooming season.

Starting with spring, I chose Sundial Lupine, Starry False Solomons Seal, Early Saxifrage, Red Columbine, and Marsh Marigold. Each of these plant varieties had a small spread (only between 8-12 inches) and averaged heights between 12-24 inches, except for the Saxifrage, which only gets between 4-10 inches.

Summer native perennials were much more abundant and choosing just five was difficult, so I cheated a little bit: I chose milkweed and beebalm in three different varieties. For milkweed I chose butterfly milkweed, purple milkweed, and common milkweed. Butterfly milkweed is orange and vibrant. In beebalm, Marshall’s Delight, Jacob Kline, and Spotted. Bee balm stands tall, with some varieties getting up to four feet! The other three perennials I chose for the summer blooms were Kobold’s Original Gay Feather, Cardinal Flower, and Broad

Leaf Mountain Mint. The Mountain Mint has more subtle flowers, but has a minty fragrance. The leaves are also silvery and light in color.

Last were my fall varieties, and I wanted to continue picking the bolder colors. I chose Tall Larkspur, Grey Goldenrod, Anise Hyssop, Downy Skullcap, and Blue Mist flower. There are several different kinds of Goldenrod, but I liked the thick tight flowers of the gray variety.

The accents within the garden were also important. I'm placing the stump of a cedar tree by the Saxifrage near the grasses; it acts as a small shelter for different species. I’ll also be adding a very shallow bird bath. It’s important to have a water source within your pollinator garden, but ensure that it's shallow enough where a pollinator wont land in it and have no way to get out. Another rule is to never use pesticides in your garden – that’ll defeat the purpose and harm your pollinators.

I learned so many different things I hadn’t known before just researching through native plants. For example, Showy Lady’s Slippers, a very rare native perennial (I’ve never seen one in person), attract bees and other pollinators. Unfortunately they’re very difficult to grow. I think I may try my hand at one and see what happens. Also, the purple pitcher plant can be grown in our area. Pitcher plants are a type of carnivorous plant and I have one in my home, but I never realized they could be grown outside here – so amazing!

Another cool fact: Sunchokes, also known as Jerusalem artichokes, are in the sunflower family and are absolutely beautiful, but the coolest part is that you can consume the tubers, which are very high in several vitamins and can help prevent chronic illness. Beware though – they spread like crazy and can become invasive.

I thoroughly enjoyed planning out my garden and I’m excited to bring it to life. I can’t wait to see all these plants come together and hopefully a plethora of pollinators will enjoy it as much as my daughter and I will. I wish everyone the best of luck with their gardens this year!