Delay Spring Clean-Up to Protect Native Pollinators

The warm weather is here early this season and your instinct is to get out and clean up your garden and the leftover leaves you missed in the Fall.  While you get ready for Spring there are many native pollinators that are still dormant waiting for a few more weeks when our weather is consistently in the 50s.   This is when native pollinators will take flight and get busy working to build up their colonies.   Sure the honey bees are flying but they have a much different survival methodology than our native pollinators.
​

Native Pollinators are Annuals

If we think of pollinators like our garden plants then it is safe to classify native pollinators as annuals where honeybees can be classified as perennials.  Our native pollinators include bumble bees, mason bees, carpenter bees, and mining bees to name a few.   These bees will spend the warmer months building their nests and raising brood in small hives or communities of other bees.  These native pollinators are important partners in the growing cycle to many of the plants, fruits and vegetables we cherish.   When it gets cooler in the Fall their offspring will look for burrows to spend the Winter and repeat the cycle in the Spring.   Many of these pollinators seek burrows in the stalks of dead plants,  under leaf piles, holes in timber, and the relative warmth of your garden soil where there are many pockets to be protected from the hard cold of the Winter months.
​

Garden CLEAN-UP Tips to Protect Pollinators

If you are cleaning up your garden due so carefully.   Here are some hints that we tell gardeners to follow:

• Leave the large stalks that are still in your garden alone.  The stalk of a sunflower plant is a great example of a plant you may want to hold off on composting until later in the season.
• Focus on areas that are low traffic for native pollinator hibernators.  These will be areas that are mostly shade and very wet.  Most native pollinators that hibernate in the ground will look for sunnier and drier spots.
• Don't wood chip that deadfall tree.   A dead tree with lots of holes in it will likely be home to numerous pollinators including Mason bees and Carpenter bees.  
• Identify native pollinator communities.  At Applecrest Farm in Hampton Falls, there is a massive community of orchard bees that congregate in the same area each Spring and we have been watching them do this for over 10 years now.  This part of the farm has been populated with apple trees for hundreds of years and these pollinators have been helping to pollinate them year after year.
• Garden carefully and if you find a dormant pollinator put it back where you found it.  If you are not sure where it came from find a warm spot in the garden and place the bee under some protective layer of leaves or garden material.  Why the pollinator may appear lethargic or dead is likely in a state of hibernation.
• Wait for a long stretch of days over 50 degrees to start working the garden soil.  Another good time to start is when you see a bumblebee flying.  

We hope these tips can help you start your gardening for 2022 off on the right foot.  Please feel free to contact us if you have any pollinator questions.