We often think of planting habitat for pollinators in the springtime. However, there are some things we can do to help feed them through late fall. Natural areas are full of berries, seeds, but flowers stop blooming and the food source for pollinators quickly become scarce.
Maintain a garden that blooms from early spring to late fall. Flowers like sunflowers, marigolds, and zinnias are low maintenance and do an excellent job at feeding bees into the cooler months. After your summer vegetable garden is gone, herbs like lemon balm and basil attract honeybees, bumblebees, butterflies and other pollinators.
If you don’t have a garden, you can seed your grass with clover. “Clovers are creeping pea family plants that produce nectar in large amounts. People from different parts of the world use the plant to control soil erosion on hillsides and riverbanks because they have deeper roots and are strong enough to hold back the soil. The plant is good for animal fodder too and it will grow in most terrains. In fact, it is inexpensive to maintain and attracts honeybees naturally.” Clover is also a great green manure cover crop, so if there’s a portion of your yard you will eventually want to turn into a garden, plant clover in that area to prepare.
Finally, leave some parts of your landscape a little untidy. 90% of bees do not live in hives and require other types of cover. Roughly 70% of solitary bee species nest underground in tunnels and burrows, while the remaining 30% nest aboveground, in holes in logs and stems. During the fall, bees like to nest in weedy spots and hedges. You can even add bee blocks, which can be easily made at home, to provide habitat.
As the leaves change color and the wind gets a chill, keep our pollinator friends in mind. Making a few garden and landscaping changes make all the difference for not just the bees, but for all of us enjoying the fruits – and veggies of their labor.
~ Ada Snodgrass
Thanks. I missed an on-line event on Pollinators in September and was hoping that it was recorded. I just signed up to get emails, my name is Martha S Kelly. You have confirmed that my untidy ways in the veg and flower garden are good for pollinators. I have two garden plots at the Church of the Good Shepherd Community Garden in Hartford. Since I was largely sidelined by a stroke in 2016, I find that gardeners have grown more compulsive, fencing in their plots an clearing, in some cases in September. So I will share your blog and, if there’s a recording, the on-line event, too. Knox organizes Hartford’s Community Gardens.