2024 July 12 Pollinator Sanctuary

This is what we wait for all year long. If you settle your eyes anywhere in the front yard, you can see it is abuzz and aflutter. There are more types of bees than I can count. The cicadas are shaking above and the butterflies are hopping from one flower to the next. It’s a whole experience that one picture or one video won’t capture. 

A Giant Resin Bee pollinates Liatris Spicata.

We welcome all. In natural gardening, it’s important to value all the life forms we bring in. Are there mosquitos? Yes. Do the spiders, minnows and bats eat them? Yes. Will we ever spray a pesticide? No. The natural cycle will take care of overpopulations. We may only lightly intervene by adding more minnows, or adding a bat box if there seem to be more than the regular amount of mosquitos. This is just an example of the many “pests” that belong. 

A male Monarch Butterfly pollinates a Purple Cone Flower (possibly a nativar coneflower) 

If you want butterflies and lightning bugs, you must also honor the spiders and ants and mosquitos.