Creating a Pollinator-Friendly YardStephanie Pitts

Importance

Food

Shelter

Preservation

Natives areEasy to Maintain

They’re meant to grow in our environment

Many spread and fill in so you need not buy as many plants

Adds Beauty to Your Yard The plants are beautiful

They attract birds, butterflies, bees and other insects

Pollinator-Friendly vs. Pollinator Unfriendly Yards

A yard with pollinator friendly plants

A well-manicured lawn with few decorative plants

The Yard with Pollinator-friendly plants:

The Pollinator-friendly Yard

Pollinators have only a few basic habitat requirements: a flower-rich foraging area, suitable host plants or nests where they can lay their eggs, and an environment free of pesticides (Xerces, 2011).This yard has a variety of

over 40 pollinator-friendly plants.

During the two month study of the two yards, the pollinator friendly results were as follows:

Thirteen bird varieties found in the yard: American robins, gold finches, house finches, mourning doves, ruby-throated hummingbirds, black-capped chickadees, tufted titmouse, white-breasted nuthatch, gray catbirds, northern cardinals, song sparrows, dark-eyed juncos, and house sparrows.

Butterfly species included: Clouded sulphurs, cabbage whites, American coppers, commas, buckeyes, pearl crescents, little wood satyrs, and monarchs.

Other insects found were several varieties of bees, moths, beetles,and flies.

The Yard with a few decorative plants:

There aren’t any close-ups because after over two months of studying this yard, only the

occasional pollinator was witnessed passing through.

There is essentially nothing for them to eat and minimal space for even a bird to take a break.

No food or plants = No pollinators

Bibliography 

Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Going Native: Biodiversity in Our Own Backyards. Brooklyn, NY,Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Inc., 1994. Print.

Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Hummingbird Gardens: Turning Your Yard Into HummingbirdHeaven. Brooklyn, NY, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Inc., 2007. Print.

BugGuide.net. Iowa State University. n.d. Web. < http://bugguide.net/node/view/15740 >. 27 Sept. 2012.

Burton, Robert. National Audubon Society: Birdfeeder Handbook. New York, NY, DK Publishing, Inc.,2005. Print.

Maescapes.org. Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences Cooperative Extension. n.d. Web. < http://www.maescapes.org > . 27 Sept. 2012.

Stokes, Donald W. and Linda Q. Stokes. Stokes Beginners Guide To Butterflies. New York, NewYork: Little, Brown and Company, 2001. Print.

The Xerces Society Guide. Attracting Native Pollinators. North Adams, MA, Storey Publishing, 2011. Print.