There is nothing like seeing happy butterflies dancing up and down and all around with joy, native bees clinging to flowers, loving life and beautiful moths and hummingbirds finding your garden to be their treasure. These make a true celebration of life, what a happy summer sight!
Pollinator gardens are a great way to add interest and diversity to your home and the city landscape. These gardens are designed to attract bees, butterflies, moths, flies, beetles, bats, and even hummingbirds.
Why would you want these visitors in your backyard? These animals perform the crucial ecosystem service of pollination–making it possible for our food and flowers to grow! However, many bees and butterflies are habitat-specific, and the loss of habitat that provides sites for overwintering, foraging, for pollen and nectar, or nesting can be detrimental to these species.
Urban spaces like your own yard can be used to bring nature back. When planted with specific native species that attract pollinators and on which they depend, they can provide corridors that connect wildlife habitats. This means that they have somewhere to stop and refuel as they travel through urban spaces on their way to larger sites of refuge. Urban yards can allow declining species to restore their populations, survive and thrive.
Turning your lawn or backyard into a pollinator-friendly area is a great way not only to help bring pollinators back to urban areas, but also to save time and money and decrease your negative impact on the environment. Native plants are very self reliant and most are drought tolerant with very low demands, if any.
Five years ago, we started our own pollinator garden which is where we experiment with many native perennials and shrubs. We examine their behavior, needs, habits, size and contribution to the garden. Based on our observations we can recommend the right plant for any sight and use them to achieve our design goals.
If you too love to watch nature from your window, see butterflies and birds of all kinds enjoy your gardens, let us know and we can create an attractive garden, a piece of Eden right outside your door.
