Editor’s note: This is a continuation of a series of articles on low cost gardening. See Tip#1 on planning; Tip #2 on Soil; Tip # 3 on Compost; Tip # 4 Tools; Tip # 5 Containers; Tip #6 Seeds.
Jane Mack
Lots of people took up gardening during the pandemic. It’s a great activity that connects us to the land, and provides food, shade and beauty in our lives. It can also be a shocking money drain. If you’ve got the budget, you can afford the time-saving products and devices within your means. If you don’t have the budget, don’t give up! There are a lot of ways to garden with very low or no expenditure of funds.
A lot of what I’m sharing here is information I’ve gleaned from obsessive watching of You-Tube videos, reading lots of articles and plant studies, and my own successes and failures. I am not an expert gardener — far from it! Just sharing what I’ve learned.
Here’s hoping these tips help.
Tip #7: Pollinators
Your plants have flowers with male or female parts. The male parts produce pollen, which gets transferred to the female parts and fertilizes them, to create and produce fruits or vegetables. Some plants have both male and female parts in their flowers, but others don’t. Your plants will thrive with an active world of pollinators. These include the wind, and bees, butterflies, and birds. In the Marianas, fruit bats also act as pollinators! Each can play a role in your garden, depending on what you’re growing.
So it’s a good idea to try to attract these beneficial pollinators to your yard or balcony or whatever garden area you’re using. While it helps to have sufficient space and air circulation around plants, one of the best ways to ensure pollination of your garden is to grow other plants that attract birds, butterflies, bees and insects. Flowers and flowering shrubs are a good choice.
The CNMI is alive with beautiful, flowering plants, shrubs, and trees. Even the weeds can be useful and helpful pollinator attractions. You can research all the various flowers and learn what they attract, or you can just build up some bright flowers in your garden. Different kinds of flowers attract different kinds of pollinators, so it’s helpful to choose flowers with different shape, size, and structure as well as color.
For some inspiration to up your pollinator game, I encourage you to watch some gardening videos:
- Epic Gardening channel: 11 Must Grow Pollinator Garden Plants
In this video, I planted a pollinator strip at the edge of my front yard edible garden as an attractant and have already noticed increased activity in the veggie garden.
- 10X Your Vegetable Harvest – Attract the Best Pollinators to Your Garden
In this video we will talk about the ways to attract the best pollinators to your garden to increase your harvests 10 fold.
One of the often repeated bits of advice is to grow native plants. This helps with productivity and success. It helps with pollinators, too.
Cheap and easy. Many flowers and shrubs produce seeds. Some can be grown from cuttings. If you have friends or family with flowers, flowering shrubs, or flowering trees, consider asking them about their plants, and get a sense if they can share with you.
There are also some reasons you may not be seeing pollinators at your garden. Here’s a good discussion:
- 5 Reasons Pollinators Aren’t Visiting Your Garden
We look to pollinators for our success in the garden, and when we don’t see them we panic. In this episode I will cover 5 reasons pollinators aren’t visiting your garden.
I love all of the flowers that grow here, from bougainvillea to hibiscus, plumeria, red ginger, bird of paradise, begonia, and poinsettia and everything else! I also like the wild flowers, like cadena de amor and popcorn plant, flea bane and lantana, but these can be invasive and may not be what you want to grow! I can say, however, from the experience I have with these in my yard that bees, butterflies, and birds will come to these as well. But if you want to grow some other cover crops in larger areas, you can try things recommended for American Samoa, like sunn hemp, buckwheat, and cowpeas. Avocado, mango, and hibiscus are also helpful both in attracting pollinators and acting as a windbreak, if you have too much wind! See, generally, “Habitat Planting for Pollinators Pacific Islands Area” by the Xerces Society, USDA and National Resources Conservation Service (pdf download available on the web).
Another way to attract bird pollinators is to have shelter and water for them. So just being where you have trees where birds can nest is helpful; or having shrubs because some species prefer lower bushes and some shelter under low growth. Standing water is something we generally avoid or try to prevent in the Marianas because it can be a breeding ground for mosquitoes, but having a bird bath or water fountain can work well as an attraction. The trick is to have running water, or maintain a standing water pool with a daily wash of a weak vinegar/water solution.
Video:
- UC Marin Master Gardeners channel: How to Attract Birds to Your Backyard
Learn how to attract and keep birds in your Marin backyard by creating a safe habitat that provides food and shelter that birds need. Lifelong birder UC Marin Master Gardener Bob Mauceli presents tips on how to create a safe, healthy environment for birds using native plants and ways to safely provide supplemental water and food for birds.
In summary, it’s important to grow a variety of plants and flowers, especially native plants; don’t use pesticides; and try to provide habitat that is friendly to pollinators.
Lastly, don’t forget the wind, which can be an effective pollinator for certain plants. Consider if your garden plants are benefitting from our tropical breezes. You may need to prune back some trees or bushes that block the wind. You may want to space further apart and trim your garden plants to allow for better air circulation. If you got too much wind, you can plant pollinator friendly trees and shrubs as a windbreak.
When you’re making your garden plan (Tip #1), be sure to include attractants or other specifications for pollinators.
Good luck and happy gardening.
