Six Reasons to Love Pollinator Gardens
One of the most common – and the most fun – projects we take on for clients is designing and planting pollinator gardens. There’s no big trick – most flowering plants attract bees, butterflies and other pollinator species, so if you plant lots of beautiful perennials and shrubs that flower at different times of year, you’re off to a great start.
Pollinator gardens offer benefits for the people who own them, for the communities we live in, and for the species we share our environment with. To be successful they require an appropriate selection of perennials and shrubs and some heavy lifting to prepare and plant the gardens. Here are the 6 reasons I think they’re well worth the effort.
Happy planting –
Michael Chudy,
General Manager
1. They’re Beautiful
Pollinator gardens are almost always my favourite gardens in the neighbourhood. They burst to life in a succession of bold colours – some for only a few days or weeks, and others for months on end. Their fleeting nature is part of what makes them so magical – a reminder that nothing is permanent, but that beauty is everywhere.
2. They’re Low Maintenance
Most pollinator species require very little maintenance for success – they typically require pruning just once or twice a year, to deadhead or shape them after blooming, and in some cases to prune them back hard in the fall or spring. They also require very little weeding once established, especially when mulch is topped up between plants every year or two.
3. They Attract Bees & Butterflies
Without a doubt, the defining characteristic of a good pollinator garden is that it attracts and benefits pollinator species. A good pollinator garden is abuzz with life – bees and butterflies, and the many other signs of nature that come with them. Above is a video of a single hyssop growing in my back yard – as my kids and I filmed the video, we managed to count 34 individual monarch butterflies on just that one plant.
4. They’re Water-Friendly
We choose perennials and shrubs for our pollinator gardens that will thrive in the location without supplemental watering. It’s true that new plantings always require watering until their roots establish, and in cases of severe drought, we do recommend some watering to help plants survive. But in most cases, the pollinator gardens we plant do their best with the water than occurs naturally in your garden. This saves on maintenance, but has an even bigger benefit for our environment.
5. They Improve with Age
One of the best things about a pollinator garden is that they only improve with age. With a minimum of care – topping up mulch every year or two, deadheading, and pulling the odd weed – pollinator plantings will grow to densely fill in the space available to them, crowding out weeds and covering swaths of your front or back yard with a profusion of colourful blooms.
6. They’re Cost Effective
It comes as a surprise to many clients how cost effective a pollinator planting can be. A pollinator garden installation to replace a front lawn typically costs about twice as much as sodding, but dramatically reduces maintenance costs and requirements. In the long term, a well-designed pollinator garden is an excellent long term investment that saves money and benefits you and your community.
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