Pollinator-friendly plants support the local ecosystem

TEXARKANA, Ark. — Local gardeners have been busy as bees planting flowers and other plants to provide food and habitat for creatures that keep the ecosystem thriving.

Miller County Red Dirt Master Gardeners have installed special beds at the County Courthouse and behind Gateway Farmers’ Market to support insects and birds that play the key role of pollinating plants. It’s part of a gardening trend encouraged by responsible horticulture advocates including the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“We’re trying to teach people that you don’t have to have acres and acres of land to benefit pollinators,” Master Gardener Annette Lachowsky said. “Even in your own backyard, you can do a lot.”

The new raised beds at Gateway include milkweed — the favorite of monarch butterflies — and other pollinator-friendly plants such as salvia, honeysuckle, liatris and echinacea. The emphasis is on native varieties.

“The hybrids and the plants that are bred by nursery people, their purpose is not to promote pollinators. Their purpose is a longer bloom time,” Lachowsky said.

Those beds are just the beginning, with more work at Gateway, funded by a $10,000 state grant, to come in the fall. Plans include in-ground planting,

an irrigation system, wheelchair-accessible pathways, and trees and shrubs that pollinators like such as the pawpaw trees favored by zebra swallowtails.

Because most fruit, vegetable and seed crops are pollinated by animals, it is estimated that one out of every three bites of food we eat exists because of birds, bats, bees, butterflies, moths, beetles and other insects, according to the USDA.

“A world without pollinators would be a world without apples, blueberries, strawberries, chocolate, almonds, melons, peaches or pumpkins,” a USDA brochure states, adding that pollinator-friendly planting is especially important as habitat loss, disease, parasites and environmental contaminants have all contributed to the decline of many species.

(For more information online, search for: Arkansas Native Plant Society, Arkansas Game & Fish Commission’s Monarch and Pollinator Conservation, Native Plant Society of Texas or U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s Pollinators of Texas.)

Staff photo by Karl Richter ■ A pollinator plant bed is shown Friday at the Miller County Courthouse in Texarkana, Arkansas. Miller County Master Gardeners planted the bed and others at the Gateway Farmers’ Market to support pollinating insects and other animals.

Staff photo by Karl Richter ■ A bee visits a flower Friday in a pollinator plant bed at the Miller County Courthouse in Texarkana, Arkansas. Pollinator planting at the courthouse and the Gateway Farmers’ Market is part of a trend among gardeners to support the insects and other animals whose pollinating behavior is a key part of a vital ecosystem.