Help Protect and Increase Our Pollinators!

Consider Planting Perennials, Annuals, Herbs, Vines, Trees and Shrubs that are Known to be Beneficial.
Follow these simple steps to create a pollinator-friendly landscape around your home or workplace:
  1. Use a wide variety of plants that bloom from early spring into late fall.  Help pollinators find and use them by planting them in groups, rather than single plants.  Include Native plants.  They are adapted to our climate, soil and native pollinators.  Remember that night-blooming flowers will support moths and bats!
  2. Avoid modern hybrid flowers, especially those with "doubled" flowers. Plant breeders often leave out the pollen nectar and fragrance from the blossoms trying to creating the "perfect" bloom.
  3. Eliminate pesticides whenever possible.  If you must use pesticide, use the least-toxic possible.  Remember, THE LABEL IS THE LAW!  Read labels "carefully" before purchasing, as many are especially dangerous to bees.  Spray at night when bees and other pollinators are not active.
  4. Include larval host plants in your landscape. If you want colorful butterflies, grow plants for their caterpillars.  Caterpillars will EAT them, so place them where leaf damage can be tolerated.  Plant a butterfly garden!
  5. Create a damp salt lick for butterflies and bees. Use a drip hose or place your bird bath on bare soil to create a damp area.  Mix a small bit of sea salt or wood ashes into the mud.
  6. Spare that limb! By leaving dead trees, or at least an occasional dead limb, you provide essential nesting sites for native bees. You can also build a 'bee condo' by drilling holes, of varying diameter, about 3 to 5 inches deep, in a piece of scrap lumber mounted to a post or under eaves.
  7. You can add to nectar resources by providing a hummingbird feeder.  To make nectar, mix four parts water to one part sugar. It's best to heat up the mixture to dissolve all the sugar granules then allow it to cool before putting it into the feeder. Boiling it helps to retard the growth of bacteria and mold.  Never use artificial sweeteners.  There is no food value in them.  Never use honey.  Honey rapidly ferments and also cultures a deadly bacterium.  Never use red dyes.  While there is no absolute proof that these dyes are harmful, it is worth noting that there is also no research stating they are SAFE.  Either use a RED feeder or place something red on your feeder.  Clean your feeder at least twice a week, with hot soapy water, to keep it mold free.
  8. Butterflies need resources other than nectar.  For a special hummingbird treat, try putting out an opened banana on a plate. The fruit should attract fruit flies, and hummingbirds love to eat fruit flies. A side benefit to this is that you may also attract a wide variety of butterflies, as well. 

UCMGVA Teaching Garden:  A Certified Wildlife Habitat

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Our garden is a Certified Wildlife Habitat and we take it very seriously.  We have both host and nectar plants for insects, as well as, several preferred by our feathered friends.   Currently (summer 2013), the butterfly population is amazing!  Their larvae have chewed their way through parsley, dill, fennel, Dutchman's Pipe, milkweed and we are always very careful to check for chrysalis when deadheading, digging, etc.

We have never advertised our Teaching Garden as a 'pollinator garden'.  It is a happy circumstance that it is!
It is also a home for natives, plants that grow well in our region, various amphibians, lizards, snakes and furry four legged types.

OUR GARDEN IS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC ... Come visit us!  
We are located behind the Union County Extension Agricultural Center, 3230 Presson Rd., Monroe, NC

*See Below for Suggested Beneficial Plants That Aid Pollinators: