Transforming Your Garden into a Fall Pollinator Garden and Other Tips

Photo Credit: StockSnap, Pixabay

Over the past decade, bee populations have suffered significant losses across the United States. Stopping the losses from occurring and helping bees rebuild their populations is important because bees are major pollinators, pollinating one-third of our crops. As the weather begins to cool in the autumn, bees have about 60 days to stock up on food reserves that will be essential for their survival until spring. If you have a garden, you can create an environment that promotes the success of bees foraging for winter survival.

Many flowers bloom in the peak parts of spring, summer, and fall. However, some plants – such as little bluestem, mealycup sage, goldenrod, and asters – are considered late bloomers, and adding these to your garden is a vital way to support a colony’s final effort to stockpile food for the winter. In addition to helping bees, planting late bloomers can keep your yard look superb throughout every season, saving you time and money on fall landscaping.

While the blooming times of hydrangeas vary because there are many different varieties, several varieties bloom in the autumn. Panicle hydrangeas peak in the autumn and are excellent at attracting pollinators. They work in all garden schemes and can adapt to full or partial shade. You can choose a variety that’s compact or tall and wide so that it fits your garden. The large clusters of white flowers show in the summer and slowly fade to shades or pink or red in the autumn. You can leave the dried beige flowers to give the plant attractiveness in the winter.

Early bloomers are equally as important as late bloomers, and spring-blooming bulbs should be planted in the fall. “Spring brings welcome relief for honeybees with a chance to restock dwindling floral supplies,” says Maria’s Farm Country Kitchen. Autumn is the most favorable time to plant spring bulbs, including daffodils and tulips. Flowering trees – such as willows, maples, and dogwoods – also offer bees some of the earliest opportunities for food.

The pagoda dogwood produces clusters of small white flowers in the spring that are sure to attract bees and other pollinators. They also exude a fragrance for you to enjoy. By late summer, small fruits will appear and turn from green to red to bluish black. While the flowers feed the bees, the tree itself is a host for the larvae of the azure butterfly in the spring. Furthermore, the fruits are an excellent food source for birds in the autumn, and the bright red stems of the fruits remain on the tree to provide an aesthetic appeal. The elegant shape of the tree provides year-round beauty.

The ninebark tree is another flowering tree that produces dense clusters of small pink or white flowers. The flowers change to clusters of red fruit, and eventually the tree will simply bear leaves that change to yellow in the autumn. In the winter, the leaves fall, showcasing the tree’s distinguishing bark that gives the tree its name. The exfoliating outer bark peels in strips that reveal several layers of reddish to light brown inner bark.

Avoiding systemic pesticides helps the bees regardless of the season. Pesticides can contain toxins that don’t just rest on the plants’ surface; these toxins invade the plant’s tissues, eventually invading the nectar and pollen. When bees collect the nectar and pollen, they bring the chemicals back to their nests. Nitroguanidine and neonicotinoids are particularly worrisome, as they have been shown to contribute to colony collapse disorder, which causes bees to abandon their hives over the winter and eventually die.

Bees have been facing declines in their populations for more than a decade, and they desperately need a lending hand from humans. Taking steps to transform your garden into a pollinator-friendly garden this fall will help put a stop to the losses and help bees rebuild their numbers. Whether you plant early or late-blooming plants or make the switch to avoiding pesticides, any effort can make a difference for bees and keep your garden and yard visually appealing all year long.

Submitted by Neighbor Christy Erickson