ONE TO grow on
How to create a pollinator-friendly sustainable garden
It’s that time of year when crocus are popping and birds are chirping, sure signs that spring is here. ● Excitement is in the air, especially for homeowners eager to get back into their gardens after a long winter indoors. Here are tips to increase your odds of having a healthy, environmentally sustainable garden from April to October – and one that contributes to pollination, a natural process that we humans rely on to keep our food chain viable. ● Mark Richardson, horticulture director at the New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill in Boylston, Massachusetts, shares ways to boost your garden’s capacity to serve the needs of pollinators like bees and birds that carry pollen from your garden to plots in your neighbors’ yards, as well as farms far away.
Plant perennials
One garden at Tower Hill appeared to be asleep in winter, as many of its decayed plants were a muted color, but there is tons of life going on here. Richardson noted the area is dry from nearby trees that cast shade. If your garden is similarly dry and shaded, Richardson recommends Pennsylvania sedge as a good option for these conditions. So is the autumn fern.
Remember not to fully cut perennial stalks when they show their age and become a dull brown or tan as summer turns to fall, Richardson said, because they’re a perfect spot for pollinators to lay their eggs.
Leave the leaves
When deciduous trees cover our yards with leaves every fall, many of us think it’s time to break out the rake, bag them up and haul the bags off to the local collection site. Some call the landscaper to clean up the mess.
Instead, run the mower over some of the leaves to create a layer of mulch that blankets the yard. The carpet promotes microbial activity and healthy soil, and pollinators will love you because they can live under the mulch in the winter.
Don’t use pesticides
The chemicals kill insects that harm gardens, but Richardson said they also destroy species that help gardens grow, including pollinators.
Meanwhile, many of us are familiar with “No Mow May,” the catchy phrase that means no lawn mowing in May to encourage spring plants and flowers, like dandelions and violets, to sprout up. They provide ground cover that bees and other pollinators enjoy.
“Slow Mow Summer” is catching on, when mowing biweekly or monthly in the summer months helps pollinators thrive.
Keep those logs
Along with the urge to remove fallen leaves, many of us have a desire to cart away trees and large limbs that cascade to the ground during the harsh winter months. Resist that urge and cut the trees into logs. Put them in a tidy pile in the yard to form what Richardson called a “log wall.” The decaying logs are the perfect home for mason bees, a pollinator, to lay their eggs.
Golden rule: Limit carbon
Anything you can do to limit the amount of carbon in the atmosphere is a golden rule in gardening, said Richardson. So don’t use potting soil with peat, because peat’s partially decayed vegetation and organic matter releases carbon and damages critical habitats. Instead, use potting soil that contains compost and organic matter, liked crushed coconut shells.
In the same vein, consider using locally sourced compost to boost soil health and limit carbon impacts. Tower Hill uses nutrient-rich goat manure from a nearby farm.
No gas: go with electricity
Replace leaf and lawn mowers and string trimmers with equipment that runs on electricity. Performance improvements mean these replacements can more than do the job, said Richardson, and they’re better for the environment because of zero carbon emissions. Plus, they’re healthier for us because we’re not breathing the noxious fumes.
“For sustainability, you can’t do more than getting rid of (gas-powered) leaf blowers, lawn mowers and string trimmers,” Richardson said.