Encourage Pollinators to Visit Your Kitchen Garden
Garden writer, Anne Raver, writes about how she’s encouraging pollinators to be drawn to her Maryland farm in today’s New York Times. Both native bees and honeybees are excellent pollinators, but all pollinators are in decline, due to Colony Collapse Disorder (for honeybees) and lack of habitat (for natives.) David Salman, a horticultural expert quoted in the article, states, “I am excited beyond words about this resurgence in home food production, but the big thing left out of the equation is bringing pollinators into these gardens, particularly in urban areas.”
Raver notes that most home gardens and kitchen gardens contain trees, shrubs, and other plants that are a mix of European, Asian, and American species. Some native bees are “generalists,” drawn to all flowering plants, but many will pollinate only native species. Raver says she has no intention of editing out the European and Asian species on her farm, but will go for diversity instead. One way to attract native pollinators is to mow your grass less often and allow the dandelions, violets, and clover to feed tiny wasps and native bees. Native bees are also attracted to native trees and shrubs as well as flowers such as coneflowers and Rudibeckia. Another great strategy is to let a few of your kitchen garden crops, like cabbage, go to seed. Bulb fennel also attracts pollinators as do blueberry bushes, blackberry and raspberry brambles, wild roses, and non-native herbs such as lavender, mint, basil, marjoram, rosemary, and borage.
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