by Jeannie Lindheim and Steven Shama
Native perennial flowers provide food and habitat for local birds, butterflies, and bees. Photo by Jeannie Lindheim
How would you feel if you couldn’t eat your favorite fruits and vegetables or see beautiful flowers?
Insect pollinators (e.g., bees, flower-flies, and butterflies) pollinate over 85% of wild flowering plants and over 75% of agricultural crop species. The loss of partial or whole insect communities can have disastrous effects for our food supply and plants.
Simply put, we cannot live without bees and butterflies.
My husband and I have lived in Woodstock for five years and, as most people do, we mowed our lawn for two years. Now we know that it is better for the environment to avoid mowing our lawn, so we made our lawn into a pollinator meadow three years ago.
Our meadow is now a feast for the eyes and for the pollinators! Best of all is that native plants will thrive in our local soil, requiring little fertilization or care.
Bees pollinate our food. Bees help trees bear fruit and keep wildflowers alive. Bees support entire ecosystems we may never see. The air we breathe, the meals we eat, the beauty that surrounds us… it all begins with a tiny act of pollination.
There are several ways to create a pollinator meadow, but we started with the easiest method. We simply stopped mowing our lawn and watched as native plants arrived. Later we added to the volunteer plantings to increase the diversity of flowers and food for pollinators.
You don’t need a whole field to support pollinators. Just a corner will do. Or, if you prefer not to have to mow every week, make your whole property into a pollinator meadow.
Our meadow is vibrant and full of life. Every morning, it’s a treat to walk outside and see what new flowers have appeared and to see butterflies and bees enjoying the meadow. We now have many gorgeous orange, pink, yellow and white wildflowers: aster, fleabane, coltsfoot, red clover, daisy, starwort, common soft brome, fescue (native grass), maiden pink, clover, small-flowered evening primrose, buttercup, goldenrod, common blue aster, lupine, Indian paintbrush, hawkweed, bedstraw, and common self-heal.
One of the very best things we can do for the health of our planet, and for our flower and vegetable gardens, is to plant more pollinator plants to support our insect communities.
Here are some reasons to grow a meadow:
1) Maintaining grass lawns increases greenhouse gasses, pollutes ecosystems, wastes water, and diminishes biodiversity.
2) By not mowing, the longer grass can create more ideal habitats for beneficial insects to live and eat. Not cutting your lawn also allows clover and little violets to flower and be a source of food for bees, butterflies, and other pollinators.
3) Every year across the country, lawns consume nearly 3 trillion gallons of water a year, 200 million gallons of gas (for all that mowing), and 70 million pounds of pesticides.
4) A native perennial bed is a perfect eco-friendly grass alternative, providing food and habitat for local birds, butterflies, and bees. Non-native plants may be inedible to pollinators or may not meet pollination needs, so native plants are best.
If you would like to learn more and see a large lawn turned into a pollinator meadow, we will be hosting an open house to share our pollinator meadow on July 15th, 5:30-6:30 PM at 132 Shurtleff Lane, Woodstock (street parking, do not pull into driveway). We will be joined by Stephanie Reger of Wilde Bee Farm:
Stephanie began propagating plants from seed in 2012 and donating plants and other materials to socially purposed gardens in 2017. She received horticulture training through a variety of sources including courses at the New York Botanical Garden and biodynamic farming courses at the Pfeiffer Center in New York. She now grows over 300 different varieties from seed each year.
Please RSVP to info@wildebeefarm.org. Jeannie will talk about how she started her pollinator meadow and Stephanie and Jeannie will answer any questions you may have. Our rain back-up date is July 17th (5:30-6:30 PM). We hope that you will stop by to see our meadow!