Pollinator Week: Sunday

What You Can Do

The week is over but the work continues. Grow your own pollinator garden! All you need is a garden or a parking strip or even just some planting containers. Then choose your plants. It helps if they bloom at different times so there are flowers throughout the year.

• Select plants with a long bloom time, bright colors, and diverse flower shapes.

• Learn what visits your garden, and start adding plants that those species favor.

• Support pollinators’ entire life cycle. Provide appropriate host plants for young pollinators to eat.

• Be aware of pesticide use in your community and try to eliminate pesticides and herbicides from your garden.

• Habitat is only helpful if pollinators can reach it. Gardeners can help pollinators by talking to each other and to their communities about creating corridors of pollinator-friendly plants.

For more information and ecoregional planting guides, visit the Pollinator Partnership at http://www.pollinator.org/guides.htm and the Xerces Society at http://www.xerces.org.