Pollinator gardening
Build a garden that feeds, shelters, and protects pollinators.
A pollinator garden is more than a pretty flower bed. It is a small patch of working habitat: food through the seasons, safe nesting places, clean water, and fewer pesticide risks.
Whether you have a yard, balcony, school garden, park strip, farm edge, or community space, you can make practical changes that help bees, butterflies, flies, beetles, hummingbirds, and other pollinators.
nectar and pollen from spring through fall
bare soil, stems, wood, grasses, and shelter
reduced pesticide exposure
counts that help track pollinator service
Start with habitat, then measure what changes.
The best pollinator gardens combine beauty with function. Plant a sequence of flowers, group plants so pollinators can find them, leave places for bees to nest, and avoid practices that expose pollinators to insecticides and herbicides.
After you improve your garden, submit pollinator counts from the same place over time. Those observations help the Great Sunflower Project understand how pollinator service varies across real gardens, parks, schools, and neighborhoods.
Watch and learn
These PBS Nature videos show how simple observations from many people can support pollinator science and conservation.
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The four foundations of a pollinator garden
Plant for continuous bloom
Pollinators need nectar and pollen across the growing season. Include flowers, shrubs, and trees that bloom in spring, summer, and fall.
- Choose plants suited to your region and soil.
- Use native plants when possible.
- Include different flower shapes and colors.
- Plant in clumps so pollinators can find flowers easily.
Provide nesting and shelter
Many native bees need bare or lightly vegetated ground. Others use dead wood, hollow stems, pithy stems, bunch grasses, leaf litter, or cavities.
- Leave a few sunny patches of bare soil.
- Avoid covering every bed with thick mulch.
- Leave some stems standing through winter.
- Keep small, tidy brush or wood features where appropriate.
Reduce pesticide risk
Pollinator gardens work best when they are safe places to forage and nest. Avoid routine pesticide use and read labels carefully before buying plants or garden products.
- Do not apply insecticides to blooming plants.
- Avoid neonicotinoid products.
- Ask nurseries whether plants were treated with systemic insecticides.
- Use non-chemical pest prevention first.
Add clean water
A shallow dish with stones, marbles, or a rough landing surface can provide drinking water without creating a drowning risk.
- Keep water shallow.
- Refresh it often.
- Place it near flowers but away from heavy foot traffic.
Make room for “messy” habitat
A perfectly tidy garden often removes the very materials pollinators need. A little bare ground, leaf litter, stems, grass clumps, and dead wood can be habitat.
- Leave some leaves under shrubs.
- Delay cutting stems until spring.
- Keep some low-traffic areas undisturbed.
Observe what visits
The final step is watching. Count pollinators on a plant in bloom and submit your observation so your garden becomes part of a larger scientific record.
- Watch for at least five minutes.
- Record what plant you watched.
- Return to the same site through the season.
Use the Habitat Assessment as your garden checklist
- Flowers: How much of your garden is planted with flowering annuals, perennials, shrubs, vegetables, or trees?
- Pollinator-friendly plants: Are the plants useful to bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, flies, beetles, and other pollinators?
- Seasonal bloom: Do you have flowers in spring, summer, and fall?
- Clumps: Are flowers grouped together so pollinators can find them easily?
- Water: Is clean, shallow water available with a safe landing place?
- Ground nesting: Is there some bare or lightly vegetated soil?
- Mulch: Is mulch used thoughtfully, without covering every possible nesting site?
- Stem and wood nesting: Are there pithy stems, dead wood, or other safe nesting materials?
- Pesticides: Are insecticides, herbicides, and neonicotinoids avoided or carefully limited?
- Low-traffic refuge: Are there quiet garden areas where pollinators can forage, nest, and overwinter?
Ready to see how your garden scores?
The Great Sunflower Project Habitat Assessment asks practical questions about what is planted, what nesting habitat is available, whether there is water, and what pesticides are used. Use your results to choose one clear improvement for this season.
A simple plan
- Evaluate: Take the assessment and find your strongest and weakest habitat areas.
- Act: Choose one improvement, such as adding fall bloom, reducing mulch, removing a pesticide, or leaving stems for nesting.
- Measure: Submit pollinator counts and watch how visits change over time.
Recommended resources
These outside resources can help you choose regionally appropriate plants and refine your garden plan.
- Xerces: Pollinator Conservation in Yards and Gardens
- Xerces: How to Make a Pollinator Garden
- Xerces: Habitat Restoration Resources
- Pollinator Partnership: Ecoregional Planting Guides
- Pollinator Partnership: Native Pollinator Garden Recipe Cards
- Pollinator Partnership: 7 Things You Can Do for Pollinators
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The direct habitat assessment link is `/sunflower/habitat`; the public Habitat Challenge page describes it as a short assessment about what is planted, bare ground, water, and pesticide use, followed by actionable suggestions. ([Great Sunflower Project][2]) The assessment fields in the site database also line up with the page structure here: flowers, bloom seasons, clumps, bare ground, mulch, nesting materials, nesting blocks, pesticides, neonicotinoids, herbicides, and water.
[1]: https://xerces.org/pollinator-conservation/yards-and-gardens "Pollinator Conservation in Yards and Gardens | Xerces Society"
[2]: https://www.greatsunflower.org/habitat%20challenge "Great Pollinator Habitat Challenge | The Great Sunflower Project"