Encouraging Pollinators

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Everyone should have the opportunity to walk outside on a warm day and be surrounded by beautiful birds, bees, and butterflies. Providing an ecological-friendly habitat is the first step to achieving this goal.
5 of our Native Perennial Wildflowers
Members of our local modern native-type ecosystem. For each plant the varieties, colors, flowering time, sun/shade requirements, and main pollinators are listed.
-Coreopsis- Tickseed: we have 4 varieties, warm colors, blooms June-July, likes full sun, and attracts bees, beneficial wasps, and butterflies
-Echinacea- Coneflower: we have 3 varieties, warm colors and white, blooms July-September, likes full sun, and benefits bees and butterflies
-Heuchera- Coral Bells : 2 varieties of striking green and regal purple leaves all season, flowers in April-June, likes shade (!), great for bees
-Monarda- Bee Balm/ Bergamot  ‘Jacob Cline’ : blooms bright red in June, definitely a full sun plant, and a hummingbird beacon (and bees too)
-Tiarella- Fairy Wands:  We have 2 varieties with watermelon colored leaves all season, flowers April-June, likes the shade, and benefits bees

5 of our Perennial Wildflowers
Not native locally, but functional and non-invasive in the landscape and loved by pollinators.
-Achillea- Yarrow  ‘Colorado’ type: blooms warm colors in June-September, enjoys full sun, and is great for bees and butterflies
-Delphinium- Larkspur ‘Guardian’ type: dazzling blue flowers in June-July, wants full sun, and attracts bees and butterflies
-Leucanthemum- Shasta Daisy: we have 2 varieties, blooms beautiful white with yellow center flowers in June-August, needs full sun, and is friend to bees and butterflies
-Lupinus- Lupine ‘Tutti Frutti’, mix: blooms May-July, enjoys part shade, and will attract your honeybees and bumblebees (save the honeybees!)
-Perovskia- Russian Sage: we have 2 varieties, blooms July-October, needs full sun, and is great for bees and beneficial wasps
Wildlife
It can be so relaxing to sit back and watch wildlife do its thing. Whether you like to observe, photograph, paint, or close your eyes and listen, it’s simply rewarding to be able to have the experience of being in tune with nature.
The food web that you will be able to observe:
-Native pollinators that rely on nectar and pollen - butterflies, hummingbirds, native melittid bees, mason bees, bumble and carpenter bees, bee mimic flies, native pollinating wasps like green sweat wasps and blue-winged wasps
   Bees and wasps often go for fully-open daisylike flowers
 Butterflies pursue a variety of open and tubular flowers
 Hummingbirds & hummingbird moths go for tubular-shaped flowers such as Delphinium & Lupine
 Beetles and flies pollinate early trees. Most trees are wind-pollinated, but tulip poplar and pawpaw rely on them.
-Other insect wildlife like katydids, cicadas, grasshoppers, and crickets rely on leaves and stems for food and habitat
-Songbirds, mantids, damselflies, dragonflies, and garden spiders that will eat unwanted bugs like mosquitoes
-Hawks, falcons, and owls that rely on smaller prey for a complete food web


We will have a workshop on Saturday, April 14th, 2018 from 9:30-10:30 am at the farm. During our workshop, you’ll learn a little bit more about our plants, when to plant, planting methods, and design methods that you can use at home! We will discuss the types of plants to use to support pollinators and other wildlife, some design and planting methods to make planting a snap, and the species in your local ecosystem that will love your gardens. RSVP on facebook if you'd like to come.

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