After you prune your raspberries, leave the stalks in a pile near your raspberry patch, so that any bees nesting in the stems can still easily access and pollinate your raspberries!

As the sun starts shining it is oh so tempting to get out and rake our remaining leaves and tidy up our flower beds! But before you pick up that rake or shovel, please, please take a deep breath and think of all the critters nestled inside stalks and snuggled under blankets of leaves.

When we think of pollinators, we often only think about planting flowers for them to feed on during the summer. While floral food sources are vitally important, it is also critical to support pollinators’ survival through the spring season, until those first blooms pop. We can do this by creating year-round habitat. In this weeks blog, I have summarized ten steps recommended by the Xerces Society (which is my go-to resource for all things pollinators!) that you can take to help native pollinators survive and thrive in your backyards and gardens all year round (number 10 is an addition of my own).

Please consider implementing any or all of these 10 steps at your home and/or your community garden, and spread the word so that together we can start rethinking our urban landscapes and bringing back pollinators!

1. Save the stems

Plants act as food sources of pollen and nectar for insects. They also provide seeds and fruits for birds and other wildlife. Plants also serve as habitat for about 30% of all native bees, cavity nesting native wasps (they aren't the mean ones, don't worry!), stem-boring moths, some spiders, and the eggs of other beneficial garden insects.

Raspberry canes provide excellent habitat for small carpenter bees, who emerge in the spring and feed their baby bees raspberry pollen, while pollinating your raspberries (a win-win for everyone!) Other bees such as small yellow-faced bees nest in small hollow stemmed plants, such as bee balm or roses. Larger bees like leaf-cutter bees prefer to nest in larger stemmed plants such as native thistles. To learn more about native shrub and wildflower species to plant in Montana please check out these charts of Montana Native Plants for Pollinator Friendly Plantings.

If piles feel too messy, there are ways to both have your piles and have tidiness, too! Here’s a video on how to create a bug snug, which is neat and tidy for us, and protective and helpful for bugs!

There’s a fantastic diagram the Xerces Society has created on the basics of stem habitat for your yard. Check it out here!

2. Leave the leaves

Your leaves are a cozy blanket for a whole slew of beneficial insects and plants! Leaving a thin layer of leaves on lawns provides organic matter and nutrients that has shown to benefit both gardens and lawns. If it's absolutely not possible for you to leave leaves in your lawns, move them to your flower beds or garden to use as a mulch. 70% of all native bees nest underground, as well as the vast majority of butterfly and moth species. In addition to these critical pollinators, lace bugs, snails, worms, beetles, millipedes, mites, spiders and other invertebrates rely on leaves to survive the winter and in turn provide food for small mammals, turtles, birds, and amphibians. Ideally, you can leave a thin layer of leaves permanently and they will decompose on their own and provide benefits to all matter of critters (and nutrients for your soil, too!). If you can't leave your leaves, wait until the day time temps are consistently above fifty degrees before raking them up so that you allow all of the above mentioned critters to wake up from winter, depart, and survive.

Because many of the trees that drop leaves are non-native to Montana, it is even more important to leave pine needles on the ground, as Montana bee species are adapted to nesting habitats near these types of trees. Many gardeners shy away from using pine needles in the garden, because of their acidity. Please don’t be fooled by this myth! It is completely fine to use pine needles as a top dressing or mulch in your garden, as long as you are not actively chopping them up and/or turning them into your soil. Pine needles decompose so slowly that they will not significantly impact the PH of your soil. As insects help them to decompose, they neutralize the acidic nature of the needles making them great sources of organic matter in your garden!

3. Redefine the “perfect” lawn

Try to think of lawns from a pollinator’s perspective, and act accordingly. Ideally, no lawn is the best lawn, but that often isn't practical. If you can gradually start replacing your lawn with bunch grasses, wildflowers, or native perennials that is an excellent start. The best places to buy native plants in Missoula are Great Bear Native Plants in Hamilton (which are also sold at Caras Nursery and Ace Fancy Plants), Piplo Native Plants, and High Country Gardens (online only). Some other small steps you can take are leaving patches of bare ground for solitary bees to nest in, reducing mowing, setting your mower blades on the highest setting off the ground, or eliminating mowing entirely in certain patches, especially if you have any flowers blooming in the spring! Another crucial step is not applying chemical fertilizers, herbicides, and insecticides in your lawn. Dandelions and clover are good sources of food for pollinators, so let them grow!

Check out this Washington post article about steps you can take to convert your yard to a pollinator friendly space.

In Missoula, we are lucky to have a new and exciting flowering bee lawn project that is just starting. Check out this website to learn more and sign up to convert your own lawn into a flowering lawn.

A flower patch at River Road farm provides year round habitat for all kinds of insects, small mammals, and birds.

4. Rethink how you use mulch and weed fabric

Again, a pollinator's perspective should inform how you use mulch. Because the majority of pollinators nest underground, it is important to use a thin layer of compost, leaf litter, pine needles, or plant debris (broken up stalks from vegetables and wildflowers), rather than wood mulch. Using mulch that is loose and light allows insects to be protected but not smothered or unable to access their nests. Thick mulch should only be used if you need to insulate winter growing veggies, or on your walking pathways. Avoid heavy weed fabric or plastic which will block nesting sites and smother ground dwelling insects. Don’t forget—bare ground is also great pollinator habitat, so don’t feel the need to fill every space of your garden or lawn with plants or mulch.

5. Save a snag and “plant” a log

Dead snags and fallen logs act as habitat for a wide diversity of wildlife such as woodpeckers, owls, and insects. Beneficial beetles burrow in deadwood and create chambers that are later used by cavity nesting bees such as mason and leaf-cutter bees. If possible and safe, leave dead standing trees alone. If it isn't safe, cut down the tree and leave the log where it is, or relocate it to another spot that is either out of the way or can be used as a natural edging feature or a bench. If you don't have any snags or logs in your yard, consider moving one from close by, but don't use any fallen wood that has known issues with disease or pests.

Pollinator wonderland! At the River Road farm there are several brush piles and rock piles that provide habitat for pollinators. They are located along the fence and out of the way.

6. Build a brush pile

Brush piles provide shelter, hibernation sites, and ground nesting sites for bees (especially bumble bees!) , butterflies, beetles and other beneficial insects. Consider finding a space in your yard and garden that is tucked away and start piling plant stalks and brush. For a more thorough explanation of the steps to create a brush pile check out page 8 of the Xerces guide. If you are worried about the aesthetics of your pile, consider hiding it in a corner or behind a shrub, or simply putting up a pollinator friendly habitat sign to explain the pile to neighbors or passerby.

7. Build a rock pile or rock wall

Again, think from a pollinator perspective. The more nooks and crannies in your rock piles or walls, the more places for bees and beetles to hide and nest. Planting perennial wildflowers and bunchgrasses around the rock pile or wall will create even more nesting habitat for your pollinator friends.

8. Provide a safe water source

Bird baths are for bees too! Providing a shallow, pesticide free water source is crucial for native bees and wasps, who collect water to make mud for nests, or soften the ground to dig nesting sites. Bird baths or bowls with stones inside them provide safe landing pads where your fuzzy friends can collect water. Dirty water is fine, just clean it out every once and a while so it doesn't become a breeding ground for mosquitos.

9. Install a habitat sign

All of these steps are great, but unfortunately in our society, many are seen as messy or unsightly by neighbors and passerby. Consider creating a sign that labels your yard or garden as "pollinator habitat" to educate the public and spread the word. Your sign might even inspire others to do the same, and will at least begin the crucial conversation of changing our landscapes.

10. Observe and spread the word

All of these steps serve as excellent opportunities to learn the stories of pollinators through observation. Learning and spreading the stories of pollinators is not only crucial to our survival, but it's also fun and rewarding! Observe your yard or garden during all seasons and try to find different kinds of insects doing different things. Even if you don't know what they are, notice differences in colors, sizes, shapes, and behaviors. For instance, after you prune off the tops of your stems in spring, you might watch a bee visit multiple stems and then settle on a home. Examine that stem and see what makes it the perfect nest, and then try to replicate it. Similar observations can be made using rock piles, logs, bare ground, and leaf litter. Learn from the pollinators, and if you want to participate in some cool citizen science, you can fill out this survey to record bee nesting activities in your backyard.

Also, check out these amazing brochures created by local artist and naturalist Nancy Seiler to learn more about attracting pollinators and the different pollinators you may find in your garden.

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