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Creating a pollinator-friendly yard is not only simple, but it is crucial for the survival of the declining pollinator population. By planting various flowers in your yard, you can provide them with a vital food source, and you will enjoy a beautiful and vibrant landscape.
The population is declining, and we, as home gardeners, can help to save them.
Bees and other pollinators are important and necessary for pollination, and by creating a friendly habitat, your vegetable garden yields will increase, and your lawn will be buzzing as a happy pollinator-friendly garden!
In this detailed post, I will provide 6 tips for creating a friendly environment that will attract and provide a safe habitat for bees.
RELATED: Even if you’ve never gardened before, this Vegetable Gardening for Beginners Ultimate Guide is for you! Learn everything you need to know from over 60 resources, all in one place, to be a successful gardener, including improving soil, cover crops, warm and cool season crops, organic amendments, fertilizing, watering, garden pests and diseases and so much more.
The Importance of Bees and Pollinators
Sadly, the importance of bees and other beneficial insects has been taken for granted. Pollinators are necessary to our backyard gardens and food production for the rapidly growing population.
Pollinators such as bees, butterflies, moths, beetles, and bats are credited for providing 35 percent of the world’s food production. One of every three bites of food is eaten by humans, and they facilitate the reproduction of 90 percent of the world’s flowering plants.
Do you realize? Pollinators can live without humans, but humans CANNOT live without pollinators.
This is a bold statement, but I’ve heard it for years and never thought about it much. But this past spring, it came to mind when we were enjoying a watermelon outdoors. Reality hit me when NOTHING happened!
When I was a kid, my dad raised acres and acres of watermelons and cantaloupes, and my summers were spent at the local farmers market selling the crop.
Many evenings, after we returned home, he would cut a melon right down the middle, and we kids would dig in! The only problem with eating them outside was the bees would be swarming within minutes. They were attracted to the sweet sugary smell of the watermelon. Especially the yellow jackets!
But I remembered this statement and decided to do a little experiment.
Pollinator Experiment
Yesterday, on Father’s Day, we were enjoying a watermelon, and I decided to take the rinds outside and leave them lying near the vegetable garden to see what happened. Normally they would be tossed into the compost.
They laid out all afternoon, evening, and overnight, and NOTHING HAPPENED – No Bees! There were a couple of butterflies and various other little insects, but no bees, not even honey bees.
This simple experiment was a great eye-opener! Obviously, something is different from when I was a kid.
What Does Bee Friendly Mean?
With bees in decline, Bee Friendly is a term that has been born to describe a habitat that is safe for bees to live in. A habitat that provides not only food, shelter, and water. But a place where they can forage, build nests, and raise their young.
It’s chemical-free from insecticides and pesticides and provides mainly native flowering plants, trees, and shrubs that have not been drenched with neonicotinoids. It’s an environment that provides plants that provide pollen and nectar to the pollinators. In other words, it’s a safe place for them that provides a good food source. Overall, it’s an environmentally friendly area.
We, as gardeners, can provide pollinator-friendly yards by growing chemical and pesticide-free plant species. This list of the 31 best flowers for pollinators is a great place to get started.
Why Bees Are Disappearing
There are several reasons that are causing them to disappear, but the two largest reasons are loss of habitat and pesticide use.
Loss of Habitat
Urban development is a huge cause. With the sprawl of increased housing and urban growth more than tripling in the last several years, their prairie grasses, wildflower meadows, and native habitats are being destroyed.
Natural areas are being replaced with houses, roads, and sidewalks. The landscape has become a “green lifeless desert” that is only green grass that is kept mown short, treated with herbicides to keep out weeds, such as dandelions and chickweed, and has only evergreen shrubs that border the structures.
When cities and suburban areas are being developed, the land is scraped of its natural provisions that are necessary for providing food and habitat for them to live and survive.
The Use of Pesticides And Herbicides
Commercial farming practices use toxic pesticides designed to kill garden pests, but these chemicals’ toxicity also kills bees and other beneficial insects.
One pesticide, in particular, is the neonicotinoid. This is sprayed on the plants and then ingested by bees, birds, bats, butterflies, moths, and more.
This poison causes the bee’s central nervous system to malfunction, and they experience problems with flight and navigation back to their nests. Their taste sensitivity is reduced, and they slow in activity. All of which impact the production and foraging for the hive to survive.
Not only am I talking about honeybees, but native bees as well.
Other Causes of Decline
- Invasive species like the Varroa Destructor Mite, Asian Hornets, and other parasites
- Climate Change
- Poor Nutrition
How You Can Help
As gardeners and homesteaders, doing these really simple things in your yard can greatly impact their survival. Use any of these 6 bee friendly garden ideas to create a be habitat in your yard.
1. Design a Pollinator Friendly Garden
Designing a bee-friendly garden doesn’t have to be expensive, nor does it have to be large. The Natural Resources Conservation Service suggests a 2-acre plot, but this kind of space is unavailable for many homesteaders, suburbia & apartment dwellers. But we can afford to give them some space. Even if it’s containers on a balcony.
These suggestions are doable in any space.
- When planting flowers, plant in clusters of 5-7 of the same flower so they are easily spotted.
- Plant in the full sun. Bees prefer the warmth of the sun over shady areas.
- Choose flowers that bees are attracted to. Not all plants are good sources for them.
- Grow natives. Avoid non-native ornamental plants. They offer unsuitable food sources compared to natives.
- Minimize herbicides and insecticides – even organic ones. Anything that kills a garden pest also kills beneficial insects.
If you don’t have an area to plant in the ground, containers will work well too. A pollinator garden doesn’t have to be a designated area.
2. Grow Flowers for a Bee Friendly Yard
As mentioned, not all flowers are good sources for bees. For flowers to benefit bees and other pollinators, they must produce pollen and nectar.
Many flowers in garden centers have been altered or hybridized for color and size to last longer, with little regard for pollinators. For example, Chrysanthemums. They don’t produce pollen or nectar and are useless to bees and other pollinators.
Bees need flowers:
- that bloom in spikes. Such as – Blazing Star, Sweet Pepperbush, Golden Rod, and Asters, so that they can flit from flower to flower quickly.
- with large platforms for landing like Echinacea Purpurea (Coneflower), Daisies, and Dandelions to be able to land on easily.
- that are tubular with nectar inside – Trumpet Vine and Foxglove Beardtongue
- in blue, white, purple, and yellow colors. Believe it or not, they can’t see red!
- that are not double-flowered. They have very little nectar or pollen. Plant single-flower blooms only.
3. Think All Seasons – Spring to Fall
When choosing plants, you’ll want to choose flowers, trees, and shrubs that will bloom from March or early spring to October and late fall as a minimum.
Fruit trees and shrubs often start blooming in early spring, so all lawns and landscapes should include these.
Early-Season Blooming Plants
- Trees – cherry, pear, plums, maple, chestnut, apple
- Shrubs – blueberries, raspberries, Northern Spicebush
Mid-Season Blooms
- Flowers – Borage, Marigold, Bee Balm, Purple Coneflower
- Herbs – Oregano, Catmint, Lavender
- Shrubs – Oakleaf Hydrangea, Butterfly Bush, Viburnum
Late-Season Flowers
- Flowers- Golden Rod, Bugbane, Autumn Joy Sedum
- Shrubs – Rose of Sharon, Russian Sage, Culver’s Root
Not all of these suggestions are native, but they are all beneficial to pollinators. This plant list from the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation has many more suggestions, and you can look up native plants by region.
4. Grow Grass Lawns that Attract Bees
No longer does the lawn have to be mowed on a routine. Perfectly trimmed grass lawns are of no benefit to bees in any way. So you can take a break and no longer be on a strict schedule to mow.
Pollinator-friendly lawns include more than grass and are let grow to 3-4 inches tall. Longer and taller grass helps retain moisture, so bees can get down inside the blades to cool.
You’ll no longer use herbicides and fertilizers that so many lawncare providers use. A bee-friendly lawn or yard will also include some beneficial weeds such as white clover, creeping thyme, dandelion, wild violets, deadnettle, chickweed, and red clover. All these flowers provide an attractive food source.
5. Provide a Safe Water Source
Bees need water to survive, just like other animals. They drink water and use it to keep their hives cool, and honey bees use it for making honey.
A safe water feeder should be shallow, 2-3 inches deep, with rocks or marbles in it so the bees are able to land and reach the water without drowning. The water should be kept clean and free of contamination. And it should always have water available.
Bird baths and other shallow dishes make great bee waters. They are able to land and perch on the sides to reach for water.
6. Provide Bee Houses
Another great way to attract bees to your yard is to provide a safe place for them to raise their young. Mason bees are especially attracted to bee houses since they spend most of their time raising their young. An interesting thing to know about mason bees is that they pollinate up to 100 times more than honey bees.
Bee houses are also known as bee hotels or bug hotels. They attract native bees in particular. Native bees are more docile and friendly than honey bees as well.
Native bees such as the leaf cutter, mason bee, and minor bees will help you to enjoy more flowers, better thriving plants, and higher yields in your vegetable garden than the honey bee.
So tell me, are you excited to get started in your yard for creating a safe and bee-friendly yard?
What will you do first?
More Garden Tips
- How to Grow Lettuce
- Spring Garden Checklist – Get a Head Start
- When to Plant Vegetables in Early Spring
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Dianne Hadorn is the owner of Hidden Springs Homestead, nestled in the hills of East Tennessee. A Master Gardener and lifelong homesteader, she teaches families how to grow real food, preserve it with confidence, and depend less on the grocery store. Through her practical, down-to-earth approach, Dianne has become a trusted source for beginners who want to build a sustainable lifestyle and fill their pantries with food they’ve grown themselves.
I, too have been aware of pollinators disappearing at an alarming rate. Each year I have begun to grow more native wildflowers especially for honey bees & butterflies. We stop in awe when we see a ‘skipper’ – I was never aware they existed! And I am working to help feed the hummingbird population, too.
The environment has become toxic due to man’s blindness to the complexity/simplicity of Mother Nature.