As we roll into early May, the temperature will rise. This means more bugs, but on the bright side…it also means more butterflies!! Personally, I think butterflies are some of the greatest insects on earth. They’re very pretty to have around and are helpful to the environment. Since they help us, how can we help them? Turning your backyard into a butterfly-friendly space is an amazing way to help your local pollinators thrive! This also means super helpful backyard bugs such as bees and moths will stick around too. So, how can you turn your backyard into a pollinator paradise?
Surprisingly, it’s pretty simple!
- Have diverse flowering plants in your yard.
The best way to do this is by having flowers and trees of all different shapes, sizes, and colors. It’s as simple as running to your local garden store and picking out 3-4 different-looking plants to put in your yard. It looks nice, smells pleasant, and provides for the pollinators!
- Add plants other than flowering plants.
Having trees, bushes, and other wood-based plants in your yard is extremely helpful for pollinators, especially in the early spring. When most other flowers haven’t bloomed yet, the woody plants are there to provide key nutrients for them. They’re also great homes to rest on for your pollinators, as well as for other animals such as squirrels.
- Avoid using herbicides and insecticides in your yard.
This one is quite simple: herbicides and insecticides kill anything and everything essential to a pollinator garden.
- Don’t mow your lawn as often.
Not only does this help conserve emissions, but it also helps pollinators survive! Grass is known as a monoculture, or a “…cultivation or growth of a single crop or organism especially on agricultural or forest land…” (Merriam-Webster). These types of growth are not very good for pollinators when being cut down. By mowing your lawn every other week, you are providing bees, butterflies, and even small flowers a home to live in!
By completing just one, or all of these steps, you benefit your ecosystem and even the smallest change will have a big impact. Who knows, maybe you’ll even get a cool photo op with little pollinators who help us to keep our world running!
Works Cited:
The 5 Best Ways to Make Your Yard Pollinator Friendly
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