Animal Lovers Web Forum

We almost missed national Pollinator Week!

I did not even know that there even is a national pollinator week.  I am glad there is one and there should be one.
Pollinators deserve all the recognition they can get.

https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&...KeQbJ-FGiA


https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&...HNwDTYN_Qw


https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&...iy8gd7nMeA

Considering how important pollinators are to our ecosystems a week doesn't seem long enough. We need more time to get the message out there that pollinators are life giving and have the power to sustain the ecosystems they inhabit.

I am working to make my garden and every garden I am involved in a pollinator safe zone and a pollinator friendly zone. I avoid big showy flowers with no food value and choose the more natural ones that provide food for the pollinators.

I didn't know that either, I hope I'm doing enough with my garden to help.

Even letting a weed grow in some area will help.
Bees love those little flowers. I let a weed grow this year, and it had the most spectacular display of tiny pink flowers that were really beautiful when viewed up close. Bees were on it all the time! When it finished flowering and the seeds were shedding, I pulled it out. Some seeds will be in the ground for next season.
It actually looked lovely, growing like a tiny shrub. But the plant itself smelled horrible when I was pulling it!

It was Herb Robert (picture and info here):
http://www.downgardenservices.org.uk/herbrob.htm

It has wonderful medicinal properties apparently, though I have never used it....so far.

I don't know that plant. They must not be established in my area.  I am sure the bees thank you.

I have forget-me-not that seeds each year, foxglove, black-eyed susans and lots of mint plants. All of these provide pollen and nectar. I have flowering shrubs like elder berry, mountain ash, Saskatoon berries and shrub verbena. The flowers sustain the bees and the berries sustain the birds.  I have milkweed plants for the monarch butterflies.

It has taken years to get them all established. It is worth it now because there is food for the bees from the beginning of spring until late fall.  I have gradually added plants as I find them. Helping pollinators is an attitude and a decision. You choose to help them and then you make choices based on that decision.