What Is a Pollinator Garden and How Do I Start One?

A pollinator garden enables nature to flourish as it provides a space for insects, bees, and birds to easily pollinate a wide variety of flowers. Pollinators are insects and birds that are able to fertilize plants and play a key role in maintaining plant biodiversity.

Although pollination occurs naturally, you can play your own part in maintaining nature's wonderful biodiversity by creating your very own pollinator garden. By doing so, you contribute to the survival of precious species whose numbers are slowly declining.

If you’re ready to create your own pollinator garden, here are some important steps that you need to take.

Decide On a Location

If you want your pollinator garden to grow optimally, choosing the right location is important. You should find a natural space that has very limited foot traffic and is accessible to different species.

Your pollinator garden location should be a space that has great sunlight exposure, good soil and shouldn’t be prone to flooding or droughts.

Create a Budget

Pollinator gardens aren’t expensive to create, but they do come at a small cost. You need to budget for the costs of soil, seeds, plants, other materials, and labor costs.

If you need to build a fence around your garden or you need any bird houses, pathways, or electrical devices, this will also need to be factored into your budget.

Choose Your Plants

The next step is one of the most exciting steps in the whole process. You get to pick which plants you want in your pollinator garden.

Consider native plants that will attract as many pollinating species as possible and consider those that thrive in the environment of your location. For example, if you have a garden location that gets lots of sunlight, have two species that enjoy bright, hot weather.

Think about how tall the plants will grow, the time they take to bloom, and their ability to produce pollen. If you want your garden to look beautiful and vibrant, choose a wide variety of different flowers with petals of different colors.

Start Growing

Once you have planted your flowers, it’s important to take good care of them so that they grow and flourish. It may take a few months before your pollinator garden begins to take shape.

Make sure to tend to your garden every day within the first few months and provide each plant with the right resources that it needs to grow properly. Your garden will need a lot of work initially but after a while, you should be able to lean back more and just enjoy it.