GROBigRed - Creating Pollinator Habitat

Kathleen Cue Author

10/11/2024 Added

6 Plays

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Pollinator Gardening: Creating Pollinator Habitat

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[00:00:00.000]So when we're talking about creating pollinator habitat, it's not just a one and done sort of
[00:00:22.960]thing. There's a little bit of thought processes that go into creating a successful one. And so
[00:00:28.560]we're going to go through these tonight to talk about how this is best done. And
[00:00:34.720]it's not simply a matter of meeting more flowers, which is a food source for a lot of our pollinator
[00:00:41.240]friends, but there's water, shelter, nesting sites, and materials that go into it. And then
[00:00:47.700]on our part, some conservation practices that are going to help as well. And so it's really
[00:00:54.520]the idea of if you put all these things into place, if you build it,
[00:00:58.500]they will come. And so we're going to talk about that some more tonight about what we can do.
[00:01:03.860]So what's wrong with this landscape? Well, for one, we've got a monoculture here, a lot of grass,
[00:01:14.040]lots and lots of grass, lots of rocks, lots of impervious surfaces. And really, there's only a
[00:01:21.880]couple of things I could point out that would be something that would benefit pollinators. We've
[00:01:27.180]got this one flowering crabapple tree in the distance here. And then the rocks, I mean,
[00:01:33.560]insects like to sun themselves too. And so this is a place for them to warm themselves.
[00:01:38.600]But really, that's about it. There's not a lot going on as far as benefiting pollinators.
[00:01:46.320]And unfortunately, this is what passes for good design in a lot of places. And really,
[00:01:54.620]what we need is more flowers, right?
[00:01:57.000]And we need that diversity of flowers in order to do them a lot of good.
[00:02:01.880]So this kind of environment is not the way I want anyone to go when we're talking about
[00:02:09.000]helping pollinators.
[00:02:10.220]And there's some really good research that's just come out of Missouri about, you know,
[00:02:16.860]often the question I feel is, well, you know, I live in a apartment or I just have a tiny
[00:02:23.360]little porch, you know, is that too little to do anything?
[00:02:26.980]Is that too many good for pollinators?
[00:02:28.200]And the resounding answer to that bit of research that was out of Missouri is that no area is
[00:02:35.260]too small.
[00:02:35.920]If you have enough for, you know, a pot or two of some flowers, you're contributing to
[00:02:44.400]the collective whole that then becomes part of a neighborhood garden.
[00:02:48.500]And so don't be afraid that if your site you have for a pollinator garden is really small.
[00:02:55.700]All of us would like to have these huge gardens like this on the right, but
[00:02:59.540]if it's a small garden, that's okay too.
[00:03:02.760]And I'd first like to talk a little bit about the large concept here.
[00:03:09.040]It's really about sustainability because we've gotten away from where we're taking care of
[00:03:17.100]things. And as a consequence, you know, insects have fallen into this terrible point we're in
[00:03:25.140]where we really lost some things. So we're not as cognizant of, as we could be of our soils,
[00:03:33.400]our water, the fossil fuels that we need to truck things in great distances or to run our mowers and
[00:03:40.460]string trimmers. Using insecticides and herbicides. I mean, if we don't have to use those things,
[00:03:47.660]then not only does it save us money, but it's better for the environment as a whole.
[00:03:53.480]And then fertilizer.
[00:03:55.120]We all know that fertilizers, when overused, end up in our landfills. And so here we have an image of, you know, what happens when you concentrate water. So all that happened here is further uphill at some source. There was a neighborhood that was installed, and that concentrated the water, and suddenly that water had great erosion capabilities.
[00:04:17.300]And so when we can do more things that help sustain the environment, like putting in rain gardens,
[00:04:24.800]then we're going to be better off overall, as far as helping insects. And when we look at
[00:04:33.180]pollinators, you know, we're looking at up to 80% of all flowering plants benefiting from the fact
[00:04:40.480]that pollinators are moving that pollen around, and 75% of our fruits, nuts, and vegetables. So
[00:04:47.060]we like to eat, right? So those things are important to us, not only from the eating standpoint,
[00:04:54.140]but from a whole ecosystem. You've probably heard before that the measure of an ecosystem is the
[00:05:01.000]health of the insects in that ecosystem, and so pollinators definitely fall in that category.
[00:05:06.060]So how do we get from a point where you have all of these things on the left that are needed,
[00:05:14.180]and we're trying to push them into these sites that I would almost call them
[00:05:18.440]sterile in nature? Because, you know, when you're trimming shrubs this much, you're
[00:05:23.480]trimming off the potential for flowers. You're using lots of evergreens that aren't necessarily
[00:05:30.080]good for pollinators as well. It's just a lot of things that we need to think about in order to
[00:05:37.280]make these sites work. And I'm going to go through some things that you need to know on how to
[00:05:41.780]implement these things. Okay. And so first and foremost, we have to think of the food sources
[00:05:47.560]for them. And choosing the right plant plants is paramount. And within that,
[00:05:53.420]group of food items, and we're talking about both pollen and nectar sources, we need diversity.
[00:06:01.000]What we find is that, and this is some of the research that happened in Nebraska by Natalia
[00:06:08.060]Bjorklund, is that the vast majority of our pollinator insects are generalists when it comes
[00:06:17.740]to nectar sources. But when it comes to pollen sources, they really,
[00:06:23.400]are specialists and those are just needing that one plant or one group of plants to complete their
[00:06:29.960]life cycle. So having those kind of things where we have plants that have sterile flowers, we know
[00:06:37.360]that happens. Those are the kind of plants we want to stay away from. And then also we want plants
[00:06:44.620]that perform well without a lot of inputs. And I'm kind of known for picking on roses because
[00:06:52.460]roses need a lot of inputs in order to make them look good all the time. And so those wouldn't be
[00:06:58.920]something you'd want to showcase a lot of in a pollinator landscape, just because they need so
[00:07:04.520]many inputs for them to continue to do well. And a lot of times we tend to see pollinators mostly
[00:07:11.940]in the late summer, early fall time period, but that doesn't mean that they aren't feeding
[00:07:17.360]other times as well. So we really need things that are in flower in spring, summer,
[00:07:22.360]and fall in order to provide those consistent food sources.
[00:07:25.660]I want to shift our focus just a little bit into the landscape design portion of things.
[00:07:35.820]And so there's two main concepts that I want you to really come away with tonight. One of them
[00:07:43.160]is this big overarching idea that when we're organizing outdoor spaces, we take the cues
[00:07:50.340]that Mother Nature provides when we're designing and organizing those spaces. And it's really about
[00:07:57.060]the natural environment of having an overstory, an understory, and then a ground cover. And that
[00:08:04.160]ground cover could be lawns, it could be meadows. I mean, it's, you know, it could be a clover lawn
[00:08:10.060]for that matter. But those are all the components that we're looking at when we're designing an
[00:08:16.800]outdoor space. And it just so happens that these things,
[00:08:20.320]are really good for pollinators too. Okay. And then one of the other key concepts that I want
[00:08:28.240]you to think about, and this is kind of the micro view of things, is utilizing unity. So that's a
[00:08:36.140]design principle that we can use to put into our landscapes to make them perform better for
[00:08:43.040]pollinators. And it's about grouping the same plants together. So say for instance, you have
[00:08:49.700]three purple coneflower plants that you purchased and you want to put them into the space. It's not
[00:08:56.540]about putting one here, one in the side yard, and one in the backyard. It's really about grouping
[00:09:02.020]those three plants together because it's going to help those pollinator insects from a foraging
[00:09:08.680]perspective. Layering plants is also really important too. Some research about, you know,
[00:09:19.080]the milkweed plants. Insects can be actually confused or not see certain plants. And so having
[00:09:27.860]that clear delineation of one height the plant from another is going to be helpful in helping
[00:09:34.920]them find those plants as well. And then linking the different plants together so there's almost
[00:09:41.200]a continuous array of plants in the landscapes gives them optimal food resources to tackle there.
[00:09:48.700]So those are the two main things that macro macro view of really creating that overstory
[00:09:55.940]understory and that ground plane and I'll elaborate on that in just a little bit and then this other
[00:10:03.360]idea of of unity being achieved through grouping layering and linking things together. Okay so now
[00:10:12.340]let's move on to water. So when we have a water component in our landscapes it can be
[00:10:18.440]any of these features. So for a lot of us you know it's going to be things like bird baths or
[00:10:26.300]a water feature but you know you may be lucky enough that you live next to a creek or a pond
[00:10:32.420]and that's going to be a water source as well. What's really critical for them is that we do
[00:10:38.800]some options as far as allowing the insects to alight on something so that they're able to access
[00:10:48.180]that water without falling in and drowning. So having some pebbles or some large stones or even
[00:10:53.940]a little bit of sand will help insects so that we don't lose them that way. And then puddling.
[00:11:01.200]So butterflies like to puddle. So in an area where water accumulates, a puddle,
[00:11:09.900]as those puddles evaporate there are minerals that are left behind that they need in their diet.
[00:11:17.920]And so they will sponge up those areas of minerals in order to have good health.
[00:11:25.820]And so having a puddling area is helpful as far as a water resource, too.
[00:11:34.740]And then we think of shelter. And one of the things that can really throw insects for a loop is wind,
[00:11:42.780]especially and heaven knows we have lots of wind here, right? And so wind.
[00:11:47.660]And rainfall can really cause them, you know, really blown off course, really push them far from home.
[00:11:56.360]And so protecting insects from the wind and rain is helpful.
[00:12:03.200]And when we think about the structures in our landscape that provide that protection from wind and rain,
[00:12:11.540]I think of trees and shrubs because they're really the bones of the garden. They're that overstory that
[00:12:17.400]I talked about earlier when we're designing landscapes. So having those bones in place,
[00:12:25.200]then from there, that layering develops to develop these other plants that go into the landscape.
[00:12:33.060]And so in this particular image, you see that instead of trees and shrubs,
[00:12:37.560]we actually have a fence that acts as the bones of the garden.
[00:12:43.080]And then there's other components, too, that may be intentional or they may be
[00:12:47.140]accidental that are providing shelter as well, like rock piles and dead plant materials are also good for that.
[00:12:58.760]Then when we're looking at nesting sites, most of the time we're talking about nesting sites and materials that are used for the egg laying process.
[00:13:09.140]So when pollinators, particularly the solitary native bees, are looking for a nesting site,
[00:13:16.880]it depends on which type of bee they are, so about one third of our native bees like to nest in hollow tubes, hollow spaces that are created maybe in the stem of a plant,
[00:13:33.880]or in like Mary Jane's example here, we have lots of wood that has holes drilled in it, so that's one kind of nesting site.
[00:13:46.620]Two thirds of all native pollinators, native flying, native bees are ground nesters, and so they need access to the soil.
[00:13:57.760]And and so there's things that we can do to make sure that that soil is bare.
[00:14:05.160]And I'm not saying that 100 percent of the site needs to be bare soil.
[00:14:09.860]You can do the mulching to suppress weeds and and make the soil a little cooler for plants.
[00:14:16.360]There's nothing wrong with that. At least some areas free of mulch in order to benefit these ground nesting bees.
[00:14:24.940]And one interesting bit of research about that is that it doesn't matter really what kind of inclination that you have on that soil.
[00:14:37.060]I mean, it can be from straight up to completely flat and everything in between works really well for the soil that you leave bare.
[00:14:45.580]So.
[00:14:46.100]Don't be afraid that it can only be flat spaces that you have an area that's free of mulch, it can be all different kinds of levels.
[00:14:54.940]And then ground covers. So this was interesting. And this was, again, a little bit of an aha moment for all of us when Natalia Bjorklund was sharing with us that outside of Plant Sciences Hall, there was a planting of, I believe it
[00:15:15.840]was Grillo sumac, she said, that was kind of a constant hub of activity. She could see ground nesting bees coming and going from the Grillo sumac. But at the same time, she could hear a lot of buzzing going on. So she knew that they were, there were ground nesting bees in that area. And a lot of times when we're using ground covers, we're not necessarily using mulch in those areas. So even though it's technically covered to us, it's
[00:15:45.580]still classified as bare soil because insects can readily get in and out of those areas.
[00:15:51.760]So here's a really great publication on creating a solitary bee hotel. These are things that you
[00:16:02.620]can make yourself and put into the landscape. And I know Kate and Jodi will be talking more
[00:16:09.680]about this a week from tonight, I think. At any rate,
[00:16:15.320]there's a lot that you can get. So you can just do a search, creating a solitary bee hotel,
[00:16:21.700]and then put Nebraska Extension in and it'll pull it right up for you.
[00:16:25.560]But this is another good thing that you can utilize in order to put up pollinator hotels for yourself.
[00:16:31.660]And then there's things that we can do that will make a difference. And wherever we can, we want to reduce
[00:16:45.060]the amount of pesticide that we use in our landscapes. I remember one time that I got a phone call
[00:16:52.340]from a woman who was having problems with these brilliantly colored caterpillars all over her parsley.
[00:16:59.900]And when I shared with her that they were probably the caterpillars of the swallowtail butterfly and how
[00:17:07.520]beautiful that was, she was kind of disgusted and said, oh, I suppose you want me to stop killing them then.
[00:17:14.800]So it's really being knowledgeable that some of these things may not have the high degree
[00:17:21.760]of perfectness that we're used to seeing in landscape plants. It's really about allowing
[00:17:28.020]some of those things to be chewed on a little bit, which the immature stages of a lot of insects
[00:17:33.980]have chewing mouthparts, and so they'll chew away at some of our landscape plants.
[00:17:37.660]It's really about being tolerant of some of those things. So if we don't have plants that
[00:17:44.540]get few insect and disease problems, then it's being tolerant of those few insect and
[00:17:49.820]disease problems they get so that we leave those things alone. And we want to be cognizant that,
[00:17:56.580]you know, everybody knows that, you know, insecticides automatically cause insects
[00:18:01.640]problems, right? But some of these fungicides and herbicides can cause erratic behavior
[00:18:07.920]in some of our bees, and so we want to be aware of that. So really, it's about any kind of
[00:18:14.280]pesticide use, not just insecticide. Spring garden cleanup. So I had talked earlier about
[00:18:22.100]how the hollow stems of some of our landscape plants can be spots where egg laying takes
[00:18:27.760]place. And so really, we shouldn't be cleaning up our garden in the fall of the year. I know
[00:18:33.820]a lot of us like to be tidy gardeners and have everything done and ready to go come
[00:18:38.420]spring. But when we do that, we're making those hollow stems open to
[00:18:44.020]the elements, and those eggs don't survive that. So really, delaying that cleanup until
[00:18:50.440]the spring is going to be make a good difference for the pollinators. No rock mulches. So not
[00:19:00.300]only does rock get in the way of the pollinators trying to lay their eggs in the ground for
[00:19:07.560]like our native ground nesting bees, but it's not good for trees either. So we definitely
[00:19:13.760]stay away from the rock mulches. It's just not a happy environment for them. And where
[00:19:19.480]we can, let's do more things that help with water and being respectful of water. You know,
[00:19:29.260]we're actually seeing it at a point now where our aquifer
[00:19:32.320]are not recharging at the rate that we're using them and so that means at some point you know
[00:19:39.070]drilling wells aren't going to be an option anymore so if we can make sure that that water
[00:19:44.230]gets into rain gardens or goes into rain barrels where we can later utilize that water
[00:19:51.830]makes a lot of sense
[00:19:53.170]so i hope a lot of you have heard of the nebraska pollinator habitat program
[00:20:01.670]it's a wonderful thing this is the application for it and you can actually go to the url is listed
[00:20:11.130]down here http colon slash go dot unl slash pollinators and you'll be able to download the
[00:20:19.450]application and the application is an excellent source of information not only is there a plant
[00:20:26.410]list of spring summer and flowering and fall flowering plants
[00:20:31.030]but there's also a whole section on best management practices some of the things i've talked about
[00:20:36.470]right now
[00:20:48.030]so that in a nutshell is design of a pollinator garden is there are there any questions
[00:21:00.390]in the Q&A box
[00:21:04.150]in the question answer box there's a pretty good question in there
[00:21:10.730]Megan's working with the local high school plant science FFA chapter they want to put on pollinator
[00:21:19.250]garden their goal is to apply for certification it's a county church oh i'm trying to read
[00:21:29.930]they're looking for recommendations for water in the landscape there's no stream pond close by
[00:21:37.210]um even if they could add and you know like a bird bath or something like that and it'd be
[00:21:44.770]somebody's job to go out every so often and dump out the bird bath and put in fresh water that'll
[00:21:51.130]keep the mosquito populations down um add water if it's dried out but having those stones for them
[00:21:58.910]the insects to work on that's a good idea
[00:21:59.910]that's going to be an important component um and in one of the pollinator projects i was involved
[00:22:08.630]with we actually did two bird baths one on the pedestal and one not on the pedestal so that
[00:22:15.930]it would have benefit to birds which some birds are pollinators as well
[00:22:20.730]so having those choices for insects is a good thing too one high and one down low
[00:22:29.890]and then how often should the water be refreshed
[00:22:33.070]48 hours is how long it takes for mosquitoes to develop into from larvae into flying mosquitoes so
[00:22:42.330]um every 40 every two days at least i would dump it out and refresh it yeah there are things that
[00:22:50.050]you could add to it like mosquito dunks but that would be something that i'd want to ask
[00:22:55.230]jody or kate about whether that would be something that would potentially harm pollinators
[00:22:59.870]um the bt i it will not harm pollinators it's it's just for the larva dipterans so the fly larvae
[00:23:12.810]well but it could help or it doesn't hurt or does it dragonfly larvae no dragonflies are not flies
[00:23:21.590]and it won't hurt any pets or anything like that okay awesome so there you have it
[00:23:29.850]there was another question that popped in about some of your favorite plants for pollinators so
[00:23:37.830]looks like kelly is answering do you have any standout favorites kathleen that just
[00:23:44.630]you always want in your garden um i am always amazed at the number of
[00:23:52.250]bees on sedum in the fall of the year it is just chock full and it's not a native plant
[00:23:59.830]but it's just chock full of pollinators buzzing around it so it's pretty impressive that
[00:24:07.530]something uh non-native is you know getting so much attention but i say yay to that so
[00:24:15.350]i know one of my favorites is joe pie weed in the fall just covered with all sorts of insects and
[00:24:25.530]it just has a tendency to pop up in other
[00:24:29.810]species that i don't want it but it's a great plant to have
[00:24:33.770]and a close relative of that is the it's called the hardy adjuratum it's a tovara and that also
[00:24:43.010]is covered in in pollinators um in in late in the season so that's another good one
[00:24:49.810]and i think um you know we all know that the pollinator insects need
[00:24:59.790]plants not only for the flowers that are provided for the nectar and the pollen but also for
[00:25:06.350]the hollow stems that they provide as a potential egg laying site but the other thing is is that like
[00:25:13.830]the the leaf cutter bee makes those round circles and the female uses that to divide
[00:25:20.710]one egg and nectar pollen ball from the next egg and nectar pollen ball so as she's laying
[00:25:29.770]those eggs she likes to divide put a divide in and a lot of our native bees are given their name
[00:25:37.250]based on what that division is from one egg to the next and hence the leaf cutter bee
[00:25:44.710]uses bits of leaves to divide up and then there's also one called the carter bee and carding is an
[00:25:52.910]old-fashioned term for carding wool you know getting those fibers lined up so that you can
[00:25:59.750]work with them in in making them into yarn and so that carter bee gets its name from
[00:26:07.210]getting the fuzz off of some plants so like this senecio here there are bees that will cut the fuzz
[00:26:15.330]off of it and take that to their nesting site and use that as the division from one egg to another
[00:26:22.570]so it's it's not just a matter of the flowers and the hollow stems but other
[00:26:29.730]plant parts as well contributing to their life cycle
[00:26:33.390]one question kathleen um that i know that i commonly get here in omaha is we tell people
[00:26:46.210]not to cut back their plants until spring but what time in the spring would we recommend
[00:26:52.810]cutting that back i never have a good answer i'm just curious if anybody else had the
[00:26:59.710]panel might have a good answer for that yeah jody i would suggest you answer that one
[00:27:06.750]okay which question are we on the one about timing so if you're waiting to cut back the
[00:27:14.510]stems of things in the spring of the year is there one time better than the other
[00:27:19.630]well it depends if you had your stems open like in last summer then they would
[00:27:29.690]be coming out until i mean usually the plant just keeps growing and those stems will just
[00:27:35.610]be covered right so you can leave those there
[00:27:38.110]yeah would you um i mean it's nice to remove those dead stems especially when you're seeing
[00:27:46.590]that new growth from the crown of a lot of our perennials but when we want to make sure that
[00:27:52.670]those pollinators have emerged right yeah if i mean if there's pollinators in them you can cut
[00:27:59.670]and hang them or put them in a place that's not going to get wet or rained on and if anything
[00:28:05.170]emerges then i mean they're still going to be in the garden because you wouldn't want them to
[00:28:09.490]go back in those stems anyway we're talking about that next week when we talk about insects good
[00:28:18.350]okay there's a couple of
[00:28:29.650]other questions um uh kathleen any recommendations for plants and containers for maybe part shade to
[00:28:38.430]sun for pollinators um well there's a lot of them that if they're flowering they're worth trying um
[00:28:47.730]so i know that um our application has lists of plants for shade plants as well um so that's one
[00:28:59.630]um also some of the things that um you know that are a little bit unexpected so like if you have
[00:29:08.690]a flowering house plant um those usually do well in a part shade location um and if they flower for
[00:29:16.250]you so much the better um but they also have that potential for offering something to like the leaf
[00:29:29.610]and there is another question about um we talk a lot about the native plants but they're not
[00:29:36.450]always the easiest to find in the garden center um are there any recommendations where people
[00:29:45.310]could look to find some of these plants um there's i can't say the scientific name of
[00:29:53.250]what sarah is asking for but i didn't know if anybody has any recommendations
[00:29:59.590]yeah so that that is an issue um and and we when we think of our um purchasing dollars as votes
[00:30:14.030]the more we're purchasing those different plants uh or seeds in this case the more votes we're
[00:30:22.090]getting for those growers and nurserymen to continue to offer those plants or those
[00:30:29.570]seeds and so the downside of that is if something's a little more obscure then it
[00:30:36.210]becomes hard to find um i'm a big fan of the amethyst flower brawalia um it's really great
[00:30:45.370]for containers as well in a part sun part shade location is a good substitute for impatience and
[00:30:53.310]especially if you have impatience down a mildew um but yet finding it in six packs right now
[00:30:59.550]i haven't found it anywhere all season long and so the trend is for to go towards the larger
[00:31:08.750]fancier annuals that command higher prices in the single packs um and so looking for and asking
[00:31:18.570]growers and the nursery and the garden centers about you know some of these things it may be
[00:31:25.010]the way to go um just to get more some of these more challenging things
[00:31:29.530]all right are there any other questions i see that some people have um written in the chat
[00:31:45.150]at the q a about some options to find some plants anybody else have any questions for kathleen
[00:31:52.970]and i'm looking at one of these questions on in the chat about um
[00:31:59.510]finding some of these seeds and plants has proven to be an interesting challenge
[00:32:03.990]um agreed absolutely um but we didn't want people to be limited by um what necessarily was readily
[00:32:14.470]found in the trade if that meant you had to do a little more searching then so be it um at the
[00:32:20.750]takama pollinator garden project um there was one milkweed that the only place we could find it was
[00:32:28.610]by joining
[00:32:29.490]a native plant society out of kansas which we did and we were able to get a flat seedlings of this
[00:32:36.350]particular type of of milkweed so um yeah absolutely it's going to be hard to find some
[00:32:43.030]of these things um but just remember what i mentioned about um there's generalists and
[00:32:49.310]specialists and um the vast majority of pollinators um are generalists when it comes to a nectar
[00:32:59.470]source and when it comes to the protein source that pollen they're specialists and so having
[00:33:07.310]that range of options is really critical um and so those landscapes that consist of the same five
[00:33:14.650]plants throughout the landscape are not going to be pollinator habitat it's really about having
[00:33:20.070]those groupings of very diverse plants in the landscape that's going to make a difference for
[00:33:29.450]all right any other questions oh somebody also just chimed in the nebraska statewide
[00:33:38.610]arboretum is a great place for um different plants um so we don't want to forget about our partners
[00:33:45.410]there any other questions
[00:33:59.430]oh there's a couple that just popped up um kathleen do you see them um how mature sure
[00:34:15.150]habitat be before applying for certification right now we have some plants started in the
[00:34:19.870]greenhouse with plans to begin initial planting in a month or so um i'm still at the very beginning
[00:34:27.110]but eager so um
[00:34:29.410]i uh take care of the applications for the pollinator habitat program and i can tell you
[00:34:35.890]we get the whole range uh the whole gamut of people in their establishment phase um
[00:34:42.010]and one of the things that we ask people is to submit photos of their landscapes and so
[00:34:48.970]some of those you can tell the plants are just really really new um but in their excitement
[00:34:55.190]they want to apply to the program and so really as long as you fulfill the
[00:34:59.390]parameters that we set in the program then it it's okay if it's a new garden that's absolutely
[00:35:05.330]fine and if it's still garden that's fine too um you know we know a lot of people out there
[00:35:09.850]probably have a lot of these things going on in their landscape already and so they're a natural
[00:35:14.790]for having their plant their garden certified and it's not about um just getting as many
[00:35:22.510]certifications across the state as possible it's really about starting that conversation so if
[00:35:29.370]get the certification put up the sign in their landscape that becomes a talking point for
[00:35:36.350]neighborhoods for businesses and once we get that conversation going then that is our opportunity to
[00:35:43.330]talk to more people about the benefit of pollinators and what they do for us
[00:35:48.110]and larry put into the question answer he is starting a new wildflower garden this week it
[00:35:59.350]for next spring what is the best best method to cut the previous year's growth back to eight to
[00:36:07.990]ten eight to twelve inches hand shears wheat rocker any type of recommendations or more
[00:36:17.070]set on a low setting setting i know that in a lot of wildflower plantings or prairie plantings
[00:36:26.490]they really require burning every
[00:36:29.130]third of the year
[00:36:29.330]and that may not be practical in in urban landscapes but if you live in a more rural
[00:36:36.250]area you have that option to to burn it every third year that would be the way to go and then
[00:36:41.990]in intervening years you could just mow it down each spring and then something suzanne in the chat
[00:36:51.510]asked a really good question about the old-fashioned plants like the old-fashioned flocks black
[00:36:59.310]suzanne iris are those better for the pollinators versus some of those new row hybrids that are on
[00:37:10.330]the market yeah scott i think that would be one that would be better answered at your program
[00:37:16.550]just from the standpoint of you're going to talk about double flowers versus single flowers right
[00:37:21.570]um so maybe i don't know if you want to tackle any of that right now or if you want to put that off
[00:37:29.290]two weeks away that's fine too uh hey just quickly um they have found that some of the double
[00:37:35.610]flowering plants um insects are tiny they have a tiny mouth they have a tiny tongue and when we add
[00:37:43.490]all those extra flower parts they need to work extra hard to get down to any possible nectar or
[00:37:51.150]pollen and sometimes to get those um extra flower parts the the geneticist or the plant
[00:37:59.270]return those um those stamens those anthers they can become actual flower petals and so some of
[00:38:07.650]that nutrition isn't there so there's also some research coming out from university of maryland
[00:38:15.310]that some of these newer wild cultivars like echinacea you can get a cone flower that is pink
[00:38:22.610]green purple i mean every color of the rainbow nowadays but some of that dna is having an
[00:38:29.250]effect on our native species type so there's a lot of interesting research so sticking to some
[00:38:37.830]of those basic plants that's not a bad thing at all i hope that answers your question Suzanne.
[00:38:59.230]Thank you.
[00:38:59.730]Thank you.
[00:39:00.230]Thank you.
[00:39:01.230]Thank you.
[00:39:03.290]Thank you.

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GROBigRed - Creating Pollinator Habitat

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