A Pollinator-Friendly Garden

Article by Pat Zander

Pollinator Attraction

My husband and I have always tried to attract birds to our garden. That meant planting shrubs
and perennials that would be sources of food and shelter, and minimizing the use of pesticides
that might harm.

Then we got a hive of honey bees and found that many of the same principles apply. In
particular, bees need a good and consistent source of pollen and nectar-rich flowers during the
warm season. And being very careful with pesticides is even more critical. As they feed, they
are moving pollen around and fertilizing the flowers. The majority of our food crops need these
busy little critters to accomplish this for them before they can produce seeds or fruit.

At one time, I thought there was nothing more entertaining in the garden than watching a
couple of robins bathe in the fountain. However, watching a bee wiggle her way into a tubular
flower and then wiggle back out, covered with pollen, is right up there too. It is a huge bonus
that I am now more aware of all the other pollinators that come our way. With awareness
comes appreciation. I’ve seen three different species of bumblebees “working” the same
patch of flowers, a tiny bee the size of an ant navigating a Hydrangea bloom, and the delicate
scalloping leafcutter bees make on a rose leaf.

Some Familiar Easy to Grow Favourites

Early Spring:
Crocus | Glory of the Snow | Pasque Flowers |  Snowdrops |  Tulips | Hazelnut | Pussywillows

Late Spring:
Allium |  Lilac | Saskatoons | Elderberry | Blossoming Berries |  Blossoming Fruit Trees and Shrubs | Oregon grape

Summer:
Beebalm |  Catmint |  Coneflower |  Dill | Fennel | Globe Thistle | Hyssop |  Jupiter’s Beard | 
Lavender |  Lambs Ears | Mint | Russian Sage | Salvia; | Snapdragons |  Veronica |  Yarrow | Butterfly Bush | Ninebark | Rose of Sharon

Late Summer into Fall:
Autumn Joy Sedum | Sunflowers |  Bluebeard (Caryopteris) | Russian Sage

I have mentioned only the plants in our garden which I know to be pollinator favourites. There
are hundreds more. A quick search on the internet will provide lists of appropriate choices;
borderfreebees.com is a good one. Also, do check out the plant list and images on OXA’s Pollinator Garden in the UnH2O Demonstration Garden on this site. 

It is also worth noting that native plants are the most appropriate for feeding native insect
species. Bonus that they are really easy on the water.

Living in the Okanagan where fruit growing is an important industry, gives us even more reason
to encourage healthy populations of pollinators.

Oh, and if you happen to have a few dandelions in your lawn, you are serving bee candy. Now
there’s an excuse to avoid hours on your knees digging them out.

GARDENING WITH NATURE

Article by Sigrie Kendrick

Think outside the box when prepping for winter

As gardeners, let’s remember to switch up the traditional garden tasks and think in a different direction: perhaps a more environmentally friendly one, that also provides us with more winter garden interest.

For instance, fall is the time of year when ornamental grasses shine. Many are in bloom and at the peak of their beauty.

What poet within us wouldn’t be charmed by the gentle way their graceful seed heads sway in the breeze and dance on the long stalks they’ve been growing all season? Grasses really add movement to your garden—unless you chop them down prematurely.

I recently had the opportunity to consider the importance ornamental grasses hold in our gardens as I cut down literally hundreds of Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’, commonly known as Feather Reed grass, at a client’s property.

So often clients want their grasses razed to the ground before the onset of winter as they
perceive the standing grasses to be “messy” rather than graceful.

Often, land care providers such as landscapers are all too happy to oblige as that means one less task facing them in the spring.

Instead of this perverse desire to tidy in the fall why not take into consideration all the benefits of leaving ornamental grasses over the winter?

What about ecology?

From an ecological standpoint there also are many reasons to leave your ornamental grasses and your perennials standing over the winter. They provide needed habitat for birds and a myriad of other wildlife, as well as for beneficial insects to overwinter.

The seed heads of ornamental grasses and also annuals and perennials which have gone to seed, provide food for birds, who have to forage widely during the colder months, just to survive. They also provide great erosion prevention and slope stability, especially where wildfire has run through the previous season.

The time to shear your ornamental grasses is when you begin to see new growth at the base sometime in spring. Then, don’t toss out the cut grass. Instead, find a spot in your yard where it will be out of your way, but will provide valuable habitat for beneficial insects.

Perennials can also be pruned in early spring, when new growth begins to be visible, while annuals can be pulled out as soon as the ground softens in late winter or early spring.

Remember too that the fallen leaves from deciduous trees should also be left where they fall, rather than being neatly raked up and composted elsewhere in the fall. Those rotting leaves are like gold to a gardener and they provide habitat for insects and wildlife while they decompose over winter.

They also suppress weed growth and protect the roots of perennials over winter and what’s left can be gently dug into the soil come spring.

So, leave the leaves, don’t mow down the grasses and allow perennials and annuals to go to seed (unless they tend to be invasive!)

Gardening with Nature

Article by Sigrie Kendrick

Keep vital pollinators thriving with your plant choices

Pollinators have great access to food during the summer months when there is a buffet of flowers
blooming on every corner and in every meadow—but what about food for them in early spring and late
fall?

We need to make plant choices for our landscapes that are focused on extending the seasonal banquet
table for these vital little critters by choosing pollinator-friendly plants that provide food for them on the
shoulders of summer.

That should include both native and non-native xeric plants which will require little supplemental irrigation
once established, so we’re not wasting any of our precious resource, water.

It’s estimated that 90 percent of flowering plants need pollinators such as bees and butterflies to
reproduce. That includes a third of the food we eat, such as nuts, fruit, vegetables, and herbs that require
insect pollination.

As we pave over wild lands and build on meadows, we destroy natural habitat and food for pollinators, so
it’s essential that we pay more attention to planting food sources to keep these little insects alive and
thriving and reverse the current trend of their decline.

Recently the Okanagan Xeriscape Association collaborated with Kelowna Rotary Clubs on the creation
of two pollinator gardens located at Sarsons Beach Park, 4398 Hobson Rd. and Cameron Park, 2345
Richter St. in Kelowna.

These gardens have been a year in the making and it was fantastic to finally get shovels in the ground as
OXA, Rotary, and Kelowna’s Parks Department worked together to design and ultimately plant up these
spaces.

Both were designed to have both early and late-blooming perennials to support longer access to food for
pollinators.

Early bloomers in the gardens are the shrub Amelanchier alnifolia, commonly known as Saskatoon berry,
Corsican violets and the native Penstemon fruiticosus or Shrubby Penstemon.

We also included several Achillea millefolium, known commonly as Yarrow, as studies from Simon Fraser
University have shown that this perennial, which is native to the Okanagan, is by far the most appealing
to the largest number of pollinators.

Achillea millefolium will be visited by Hairy Belly Bees, Sweat Bees, Mining Bees, Butterflies, Flies,
Wasps, and Beetles.

With prompt removal of the blooms, we should get 3 bloom periods from the Achillea millefolium as well
as the Nepeta racemosa that we planted. It’s a standout pollinator perennial.

Blooming later in the season, Asclepias speciosa, Showy Milkweed, will support Monarch butterflies as
this perennial is a host plant for females to lay their eggs.

The exceptionally long-blooming Colorado Gold Gazania and Coronado Red Hyssop will round out the
season, blooming until frost.

All of the plants selected were purchased from responsible growers as many nursery plants have been
treated with toxic insecticides, known as neo-nicotinoids, which are harmful to pollinators.

Pollinator Corridor

Rotary Clubs of Kelowna have partnered with Rotary Clubs across the B.C. Interior to establish a
pollinator corridor stretching from Clearwater to Osoyoos to support the growth in populations of bees,
butterflies and other pollinators in our valley.

Visit these public gardens to see the bee-friendly gardens in person and consider planting a pollinator
garden in your own backyard to provide support for these little heroes, who are suffering from the
effects of pollution and climate change.

Sigrie Kendrick is a Master Gardener and Executive-Director of the Okanagan Xeriscape Association. She can be reached at 778-363-8360 or by email at exec_dir@okanaganxeriscape.org.

Gardening with Nature

Article by Sigrie Kendrick

Plant spring bulbs now for xeriscape colour later

In addition to perennials, fall is the ideal time to get a jump on next year’s garden by planting bulbs to provide a pop of colour in the spring garden.

A xeriscape flower that many people don’t think of is the spring-flowering bulbs such as narcissis, crocus, tulips and scillas.

Drought-tolerant or technically, drought-avoidant bulbs, bloom before the heat of the summer season and benefit from dry conditions once they have finished blooming.

Since our mandate is to help educate people about ways to conserve water used on the landscape, promoting spring bulbs is right up there with hiking for a fun fall activity, in my books.

Two of my favourites

One of the earliest bulbs to appear in spring is Winter Aconite (Eranthis Hyemalis) which pokes its cheery yellow head up as early as late February, often in the same time frame as snowdrops, although it is not as common.

It is well worth searching out this bulb as it will naturalize in your garden and in time allow you to share some bulbs with your friends.

It seems that few gardens in the Okanagan are untouched by marauding deer, so homeowners are always on the lookout for plants those pesky animals tend to shun. Another great bulb for the spring garden is the Turkestan onion (Allium karatievense), a member of the onion family. That means it is ‘stinky’ to deer, although not to us, and as such it’s usually not on the menu for our four-legged friends.

The Narcissus Family

Another bulb deer tend to go by without nibbling is the narcissus family.

These can provide up to six weeks of bloom with a selection of early, mid, and late-flowering varieties, plus they are readily sourced at nurseries or big box stores.

One of the varietals that we planted recently in the OXA UnH2O Xeriscape Demonstration Garden on Gordon Drive, is the absolutely-stunning Narcissus poeticus, which is, ironically, one of the oldest daffodils to be cultivated, dating back to ancient times.

I’m enamoured with its simple shape and pure white petals, so different from the brassy yellow we usually associate with daffodils.

No matter what you decide to plant this fall, the anticipation of a colourful array of spring flowers from your fall bulb planting will help you through the dark winter days to come.

Galanthus nivalis

Early Summer Maintenance Tips

Care

Early spring-blooming evergreen plants such as Phlox, Aubretia (rock cress), Alyssum, and Iberis (perennial candytuft) can be cut back to new growth to encourage fresh new compact growth. Cutting them later removes next year’s flower buds.

All compact early bloomers such as Armeria (thrift) and Dianthus ‘Tiny Rubies’ can have the dead flowers sheared off down to the foliage.

Larger plants whose foliage becomes messy after bloom, such as oriental poppies and Geranium ‘Johnson’s Blue’, can be cut back to the new growth.

Deadhead German Iris. These tough, drought-tolerant plants can be divided almost anytime. After dividing, cut back foliage to one half and leave the top of the rhizome exposed to the air.

Deadhead peonies down into the foliage.

Deadhead anything that tends to self-seed as soon as flowers finish – e.g. – blue fescue grass and Cerastium (snow-in-summer). This will avoid the extra work of removing unwanted seedlings. Cerastium clumps should also be reduced by half. Dig out roots all the way around the plant to keep them from invading other plants.

To encourage re-blooming, keep dead flowers cut off repeat bloomers such as Achillea (yarrow), Salvia, Rudbeckia, Echinacea, Coreopsis, and Gaillardia.
Cut above the next bud or if there are no more buds cut the stem below surrounding foliage to avoid creating a ‘porcupine’ look of cut stems.

Lamium can be sheared back to new growth to promote a summer flush of new foliage and blooms and to reduce seeding.

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