Being wooed by the pollinator garden
A pollinator garden wasn’t on my radar the first year I gardened but it should have been! Read on to see how to be wooed by your pollinator garden.
Not only does it add beauty to your garden which will make you want to spend time out there, it will make the pollinators very happy – and we all need that (no bees = no food). If you want to create food independence (I talk about that here,) you want to create the snazziest place in town for those bees!
One of my absolute favorite teachers (you can find her here) is Jess from Roots and Refuge farm. She always talks about how her garden woos her. Isn’t that romantic? I’m not really a fluffy word kind of girl but this idea just touched my soul. Creating a space to produce as much food as possible but also a place of beauty that draws you in.
So I decided to make sure I added some flowers to my garden plan this year. I wanted to be wooed too! What I didn’t think about was how incredibly important having a pollinator garden was – more important than wooing me!
It’s critical to strive to create a garden with balance. Being laser focused on growing food is very important and remains on the top of the list but consider other factors when planning.
- Strive to add flowers that will attract all types of pollinators (bees, butterflies, even hummingbirds!)
- Check out what are native to your area and add them into your plan.
- Designate part of the garden to just bring you joy, because that will keep you motivated to get out there.
- Have fun with it by creating spaces of all one color, or a whimsical fairy garden for the kids.
I ended up dedicating almost an entire 6 foot bed which was actually by accident but I’m so glad I did because my garden produced an enormous amount of food for such a small square footage. Planting a pollinator garden created a healthy habitat for all the pollinators which also benefits the ecosystem.
Note: make sure you know how large they will grow!
Visualizing sizes and space isn’t my strong suit. So even though I read the seed package, I still didn’t realize I would have such a huge space taken up in my garden. Take the time to read the package and maybe even measure the areas you are considering for your pollinator garden.
Now that you have a plan and an idea of what you want, you can have some fun deciding on the varieties you will plant. I have a few favorite seed companies so I went to their websites and read up on what varieties of flowers attract pollinators. The possibilities are endless and this was my favorite part! I ended up going with this and packet of zinnias from The Dollar Store!
Next spring I am considering smaller gardens scattered throughout that are monochromatic!
One more fantastic byproduct of your wonderful pollinator garden is the flowers you can cut and bring inside. Isn’t this yellow bouquet from mid October gorgeous?
