Lynne Brasch, a UC Master Gardener of Lake Tahoe Basin, outlined on Apr. 8 practical steps for home gardeners to encourage pollinators and help address their decline. The article highlights the importance of pollinators such as bees, wasps, flies, butterflies, moths and beetles in food production and ecosystem health.
Pollinators are essential because over 80% of flowering plants rely on insects for pollen transfer and about one-third of the foods people consume depend on their work. Bees are considered the main pollinators but other insects also play significant roles. Honey bees are facing severe declines due to pesticides, disease and environmental stress even as cropland expands globally.
Brasch said that gardeners can make a difference by planting a diverse range of native species that flower at different times throughout the growing season. “Your garden can provide a foraging habitat by providing a wide diversity of plants that alternate flowering through the growing season,” she wrote. She recommended selecting flowers with various colors—blue, purple, violet, white and yellow—and choosing both open blooms like asters for smaller bees as well as tube-shaped flowers like lupines or penstemons suited for bumblebees.
Other suggested plants include salvia, yarrow, sulphur buckwheat, alyssum, purple coneflower and California poppy among others. Brasch also encouraged leaving bare ground patches or brush piles for nesting sites and using pesticides cautiously. Gardeners were invited to take the Pollinator Protection Pledge online after preparing their garden spaces.
University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources (UC ANR), which supports programs like Master Gardeners through public contributions according to its official website, promotes sustainable practices aimed at strengthening resilient ecosystems and economic vitality according to its official website. The organization manages Cooperative Extension services across all 58 counties in California according to its official website and utilizes nine research centers representing diverse state ecosystems according to its official website.
UC ANR is recognized for connecting university research with community needs according to its official website, conducting tens of thousands of educational events annually while engaging more than 18,000 volunteers according to its official website. It delivers science-based information through workshops and partnerships supporting environmental stewardship statewide according to its official website.