Pollinator-friendly plants for your containers and gardens

By Annie Sholar

You can design your growing space in a way that creates high-quality pollinator habitat – giving pollinators like bees and butterflies the food and shelter they need.

For bees, high quality habitat contains undisturbed places to nest and an array of flowering trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants that provide nectar and pollen as primary carbohydrate and protein sources throughout the growing season.

For butterflies, high quality habitat contains everything they need to complete their life cycle, including host plants for caterpillars to feed on, flowers with nectar for adults, and places to shelter at night or when it rains, such as tall grasses, trees, and rock piles.

In addition to food and shelter, high quality habitat gives pollinators a place to forage without pesticide exposure.

Plant Native Species

Plants native to the northeast have a long co-evolutionary history with our local flower-visiting creatures, and are best for sustaining populations of native pollinators.

Additionally, some pollinators are specialists. This means that they have evolved with particular plants and need them for their survival, unlike generalists that can get what they require from a wider variety of plants.  For example, the monarch butterfly has a highly specialized relationship with certain plants and cannot survive without them.

Healthy pollinator populations also support other important members of the ecosystem, like the birds that rely on those insects for food.  Read more about how native plants are the foundation of a healthy ecosystem at Grow Native Massachusetts.

The MA Pollinator Network website links out to several resources that provide ideas of different kinds of native species you can plant to support pollinators. Some are even town-specific, so you can be sure you’re planting truly native species.

• Plant List for At-Risk Pollinators, developed Dr. Rob Gegear, Professor of Biology at UMass Dartmouth, to support pollinator species with declining populations

• The Massachusetts Department of Agriculture has developed a list of native pollinator-friendly plants that are commonly found in local nurseries

• Cape Cod Plant List was developed by Pollinator Pathway Cape Cod

• Landscape Interactions has several, location-specific project plans freely available online, including towns in eastern MA, Cape Cod, western MA, and Connecticut.
• More native plant resources are available on the MAPN website. 

Planting for Pollinators without a Yard or Garden

Remove invasive plants 

Invasive species outcompete the native plants, easily taking over an area and creating an effective dead zone.

Additionally, some invasives confuse insects. For example, black swallow wort confuses Monarch butterflies into thinking it’s milkweed, which is the plant they need to lay their eggs on. Whenegg hatch into caterpillars, they eat the plant they are on. If it’s black swallow wort, they are poisoned and die.

Removing invasives and replacing them with native plants is an important part of supporting pollinator habitat.

Another way to support pollinators in your growing space is to “rewild” areas that are currently planted as lawn grass, to add diverse kinds of food and shelter for pollinators.

Reducing Lawn Space

Consider leaving a portion of your lawn unmowed for the full season, if your town or neighborhood allows for it. This creates a more meadow-like environment where insects can thrive.

You can also replace portions of your grass lawn with perennial flowering shrubs or trees, to add biological diversity to your growing space. Kate Brandes has an excellent, freely available e-book called “Native Plants for the Small Yard” that is full of ideas for small pollinator gardens. The Wild Seed Project has an article with ideas for replacing grass in the greenway or strip between a sidewalk and street.

Photo credit: Wild Seed Project

Reducing Mowing

If you’re not able to replant portions of your yard, we recommend limiting your mowing throughout the growing season! You may have heard of No Mow May, which suggests leaving grass unmowed during early Spring to support insect habitat.

While this is a well-intentioned place to start, it’s more beneficial to pollinators to have a protected habitat space throughout the season. Consider mowing your lawn less frequently – every 10-14 days, instead of every week, for the full summer. And, try mowing at a higher level (3 or more inches high) to leave more habitat space for pollinators.

If you’re not in charge of the lawn care schedule at your home, consider adapting this template letter form the Zoological Society of Milwaukee to ask your landlord or management company to consider reducing their mowing frequency. (While the template focuses on No Mow May, you can adjust the language to suggest mowing less frequently throughout the year).

If that won’t work for you, or you don’t have a lawn where you live, consider joining your local pollinator network, or joining the Massachusetts Pollinator Network with NOFA, to join in efforts to support pollinator projects in your community in other ways!

It almost goes without saying, but is worth reiterating nonetheless: NOFA/Mass strongly advocates against the use of chemical pesticides in your growing space.

Broad spectrum pesticides hurt all kinds of insects, including the pollinators you want to attract.

Instead, look for non-toxic alternatives to controlling pests in your garden:

• Use an integrated pest management approach in your own home garden, and seek out pest identification & scouting resources to help you identify bugs.

• Row covers or reemay physically keeps unwanted bugs out of your vegetables, without the use of chemicals, and are an effective way to control bugs

• Companion planting with species that attract pest predators to keep pest populations in check. Dill, parsley, cilantro, fennel, and nasturtium all work well as edible companion plants! Read more on companion planting from UMass Extension.