🌸 Want Your Garden to be a Pollinator Hotspot?

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If you want more melons, squash, and cucumbers this year, the secret isn't just soil and sun.

It's flowers. 🌻

Here's a good rule of thumb I use in my own garden: for every 3 vegetable plants, plant at least 1 flower.

Some veggies rely on pollinators to produce fruit. But veggie blooms alone often aren't enough to catch their attention, especially early in the season before your vegetables even start flowering.

Think of flowers as the billboard. Their bright colors and strong scent are basically advertising "food here!" to any pollinator flying by. Once they land in your garden for the flowers, they'll naturally visit your vegetable blooms too.

𝗗𝗶𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗙𝗹𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿𝘀, 𝗗𝗶𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗩𝗶𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀

Not all pollinators are drawn to the same things, so a mix of flowers brings a mix of helpers:

🐝 Bees love purple, blue, and yellow flowers like lavender, bee balm, hyssop, and sunflowers

🦋 Butterflies go for clustered or flat, open blooms in red, orange, and pink, like zinnias, lantana, and coneflowers, because they give them a place to land

🐦 Hummingbirds are drawn to tubular, red or orange flowers like salvia, California fuchsia, and trumpet vine

🌙 Moths prefer pale or white flowers that open in the evening, like moonflower or evening primrose, since they're active at night

Planting a variety means you're rolling out the welcome mat for more than just bees.

𝗗𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝗙𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗪𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿

Pollinators need water just like we do, and having a source right in your garden makes a huge difference. A bird bath or small fountain works great.

If there's no water nearby, pollinators have to leave your garden to find some elsewhere, which means less time pollinating your plants. But if you've got water right there, they can take a quick drink, rest for a second, and get right back to work.

However, bees and other small pollinators can actually drown in open water. So, toss a few flat stones, rocks, marbles, or corks into the bird bath or fountain so they have something to land on while they drink. A shallow dish with pebbles works just as well if you don't have a bird bath.

𝗔 𝗙𝗲𝘄 𝗠𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗧𝗶𝗽𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗮 𝗣𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿-𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗹𝘆 𝗚𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗻

🌻 Plant in clusters, not scattered singles. A cluster of 3-5 of the same flower is much easier for pollinators to spot than one flower here and there

🪻 Go native when you can. Native flowers are already adapted to your local pollinators and usually need less water and care than non-native varieties

🌷 Skip the pesticides, especially anything labeled as a systemic insecticide (a chemical the plant absorbs into its tissue, including the pollen and nectar). These can harm or kill the very pollinators you're trying to attract

🌼 Aim to have something blooming all season. If your flowers all bloom at once in June and then nothing, pollinators will move on. Stagger early, mid, and late season bloomers so there's always something for them

🍂 Leave a little messy corner. A patch a few dead plant stems left standing over winter gives native bees a place to nest. Most native bees don't live in hives, they nest alone in the ground or in hollow stems

And lastly, here's a fun fact for you: about 1 out of every 3 bites of food we eat exists because of pollinators.

Have you added a water source to your garden yet, or is this the push you needed? Drop a photo of your pollinator setup if you have one! 🐝

P.S. This post was inspired by one of our lovely Academy members and has also been adapted into a module inside the Prepare phase of the 4-Phase Framework ✨

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🌸 Want Your Garden to be a Pollinator Hotspot?