When planting this spring, think of plants to help with the pollinators.

image from publicdomainpictures.com 

The sun is up in a clear, blue sky.  It is going to warm up to 40F(4C) but right now at 8:30 AM it is cold out.  With all the snow, warming up will take a little longer. Just know that each day it will get warmer and believe it or not 70F(20C) on Saturday.  I will be busy keeping all plants well-watered and somewhat cool in the greenhouse.  Hopefully this is our last winter storm of this magnitude for this winter season.  See how the end of March comes out.  Stay warm, stay safe.
 
Australia family and friends for Thursday March 19 will have a high of 70F(20C).  To me, that sounds like a nice fall day for them.  ENJOY and stay safe. 
 
Here are some ideas for creating a pollinator garden.  Even if you don’t make a whole bed of these, the plants listed could be used in your gardens or containers.  I hope to have a handout on these plants, and also on the plants themselves so you know what the pollinators enjoy.
Pollinators are not just bees.   A pollinator is anything that helps move pollen from one part of a flower to another. This movement fertilizes a plant, helping make seeds, fruits, and new plants. Some plants can pollinate themselves, and others use wind or water to move their pollen. But many plants need help from insects and animals like bees, butterflies, birds, bats, and even some small mammals.
 
Pollinators visit flowers to find food, shelter, and nest-building materials. Some pollinators, like bees, collect pollen on purpose. Others, like butterflies or birds, move pollen by accident as they move. As they drink nectar or land on flowers, pollen sticks to their bodies and gets carried to the next flower they visit. Give some thought to add these plants to your gardens. 
 
How to Create a Pollinator Garden: Easy Steps and Best Plants for Beginners
Written By:  Lauren Landers
You don’t need experience—or a big yard—to create a pollinator garden. Just a few well-chosen plants, a bit of know-how, and a quick and easy DIY project or two can transform your garden into a pollinator paradise that’s irresistible to bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, and more.
Here are just a few of my favorite must-have pollinator plants, but you can find many more plants that draw in bees, hummingbirds, and other wildlife!
Annuals
Zinnias
Cosmos
Nasturtiums
Sunflowers
Sweet Alyssum
Basil
Dill
Lantana
 
perennials
 Milkweed
Coneflowers
Joe Pye Weed
Cardinal Flower
Yarrow
Blazing Star
Alliums
Thyme
Asters
Goldenrod
 
Shrubs
Buttonbush
Serviceberry
Chokeberry
Summer Sweet
Purple Flower Raspberry
Blueberries
Winterberry
New Jersey Tea
Fast Facts
A true pollinator garden is more than flowers; it prioritizes mainly native plants that actually feed local pollinators—a mix of nectar- and pollen-rich blooms. It also provides continuous, season-long food and safe shelter.
Beyond bees and butterflies, many other insects pollinate plants, including beetles, moths, wasps, and ants.
Honeybees live in hives, but they’re actually native to Europe. Most native North American bees are solitary and live in the ground, plant stems, or old leaf litter.
A single bumblebee can pollinate around 6,000 flowers each day!
What Is a Pollinator Garden?
Pollinator gardens are spaces specifically designed to meet the needs and preferences of pollinators. These spaces can vary in size and design, but they typically include a variety of food and sheltering plants that pollinators love and may also offer other pollinator resources, such as water. Pollinator gardens are also generally kept free of pesticides to ensure that any pollinators that visit stay safe.
While pollinator gardens have been growing in popularity for years, they are becoming increasingly more important for pollinator survival. Today, pollinator populations are declining due to habitat loss, climate change, and other stressors. But by offering food, shelter, and nesting sites, pollinator gardens can help to counteract habitat fragmentation and serve as waystations for migrating monarch butterflies and hummingbirds.
Planning a Pollinator Garden
Pollinator gardens can be as diverse as the plants you grow in them, but if you want these spaces to be as attractive to pollinators as possible, there are a few simple guidelines to keep in mind.
Different pollinators are attracted to different types of flowers, so it’s a good idea to include a range of plants with different flower shapes, colors, and bloom times. Bees tend to be attracted to blue, purple, yellow, and white blooms, while hummingbirds favor orange and red flowers that are long and tubular. Butterflies, on the other hand, usually flock to flowers with wide, flat blooms, which make easy landing pads and accommodate their wider wingspan.
Although you can find many plants that appeal to pollinators, looking for plants that are native to your area is wise. Native plants are 4 times more attractive to pollinators than non-native species, but including some non-native ornamentals in your planting design is perfectly fine.
Layout
Pollinator gardens can range in size from extensive flowerbeds planted with a wide variety of flowers to a few porch pots or window boxes filled with plants that pollinators love. The only limit is your imagination and the amount of space you have for plants.
When planting for pollinators, I like to grow at least three of the same types of plants together in proximity. This technique, known as “drift” planting, makes flowers easier for pollinators to spot and feed from, but it also gives gardens and planters a more natural look. I’ll also stack taller plants toward the rear of my beds and shorter flowers closer to the sides to ensure all the plants I grow get enough light.
If you don’t want to grow a fully dedicated pollinator garden, you can also simply slip a few pollinator-friendly plants into your established flowerbeds or veggie garden. This will make these spaces more appealing to pollinators without requiring a full garden overhaul.
How to Create a Pollinator Garden
The amount of prep work you’ll need to do before starting a pollinator garden will vary depending on the status of your current garden space. If you’ve already been growing annuals and perennials in your beds, you may just want to refresh the soil with a layer of compost before planting. However, suppose you’re starting a brand-new bed and your soil is lacking to begin with. In that case, you may want to conduct a soil test, add a layer of compost or other amendments, or potentially even build and fill a few raised beds if you have poorly draining soil or your garden is naturally rocky.
Getting on top of weeds before you start planting is also wise and can make future gardening much easier. You can do this by hand-pulling them or by smothering weeds with cardboard or tarps for a few weeks before you intend to plant.
Location
Pollinator beds can be placed in either sunny or shady areas. However, the amount of light your beds receive will determine the types of plants you’ll be able to grow. Pollinator-friendly rain gardens can even be located in poorly draining spots that stay wet year-round as long as you choose water-tolerant plants to grow in them.
Aside from light access and soil, pollinator gardens should also be positioned away from busy roadways, if possible, and far from areas regularly treated with pesticides. It’s also a good idea to place them in slightly sheltered spots, as windy locations can make it harder for pollinators to fly about and feed.
Plants That Attract Pollinators
Native plants are, by far, the best picks for pollinators, but many non-native perennials, shrubs, annuals, and flowering herbs are also highly attractive to pollinators. For best results, try including a range of plants with different flowering times to ensure pollinators have a ready source of pollen and nectar no matter when they visit. You may also want to include host plants, like milkweed or dill, which are important food sources for developing monarch and swallowtail caterpillars.
Maintenance
Pollinator gardens will need to be watered and weeded just like any standard garden, although beds planted with native plants will often require minimal watering once established. I like to freshen up my beds by adding an annual layer of compost over the soil in fall, followed by a layer of mulch. This replenishes the soil slowly and allows me to avoid using any fertilizer.
Because pollinator gardens are intended for pollinators, it’s important to keep these spaces free from pesticides. For natural pest control, I rely primarily on barriers like row covers, hand-picking, and companion planting. However, if you do need to use pesticides in your beds, stick to organic products, apply only targeted applications, and never use them on plants that monarch caterpillars feed on, such as milkweed.
Tips
Starting a pollinator garden with the right plants is important. But there are other ways to make your space even more appealing to pollinators. If you want to see more hummingbirds, bees, and butterflies, here are a few more tricks to try:
Add feeders. Installing a hummingbird feeder and regularly refreshing it with a good cleaning and fresh nectar will help attract even more hummingbirds. While you’re at it, you may also want to make a simple butterfly feeder by laying out a pie pan filled with cut-up fruit, such as apples, oranges, and bananas.
Include a water feature. Deep birdbaths can prove hazardous to small pollinators. You can work around this by adding clean pebbles to one side of your birdbath so pollinators can scramble out, or by installing a solar-powered fountain in your birdbath or a misting attachment to your garden hose.
Leave the leaves. Many pollinators overwinter in old leaf litter, so it’s best to leave autumn leaves in your flowerbeds through winter. Once spring temperatures are consistently above 50°F, it’s safe to start raking!
Make a bee house. Most pollinating bees are solitary (honeybees are non-native to agriculture). These bees live alone, not in hives. Bee hotels are places for solitary bees to make their nests. They can be purchased at garden centers or made at home from the stems of hollow plants.
Taken from https://www.almanac.com/how-create-pollinator-garden
Till next time this is Becky Litterer, Becky’s Greenhouse, Dougherty Iowa [email protected]  641-794-3337  cell 641-903-9365  Beckysgreenhouse.com  Facebook Becky Kerndt Litterer or Becky’s Greenhouse