A handful of years ago, I decided to extend the garden and add a section specifically for growing culinary herbs. For this, I built a half dozen 6×6 raised beds out of cedar, complete with irrigation. These were planted with about 20 varieties of common herbs: mints (since removed to separate containers!), thymes, parsley, chives, chamomile, cilantro/coriander, dill, horseradish, basil, oregano, sage, fennel, sorrel and others. They all grew well and flourished without much thought or care, and small amounts were used in the kitchen, but mostly they were just left to grow and not given much attention.
Sometime around the middle of August all the herbs were blooming and starting to go to seed and suddenly the amazing happened. Hundreds of pollinators appeared seemingly out of nowhere, and the boxes were buzzing with a variety of bees, some wasps, and insects that looked more like some kind of flies. Our honeybees were also in the middle of this convention. It was an astounding, mesmerizing, and joyful sight! Some of these visitors had always been present in the garden over the summer, but just a few here and there, and I had never seen anything like this before.
The sight of all these pollinators really got my attention, and I started to wonder where they all were coming from and what would happen if I planted specifically to bring more of them into the garden. Having driven from western Washington to Montana a few summers before, a round trip of 1000 miles through the middle of eastern Washington with all its grain, corn, hops, sugar beets, and orchards, and not having had a single bug go splat on the windshield, seeing all these pollinators in the back yard was quite surprising and exciting.
a round trip of 1000 miles through the middle of eastern Washington with all its grain, corn, hops, sugar beets, and orchards, and not having had a single bug go splat on the windshield
So, I decided to give planting for pollinators a try. I don’t pretend to have a lot of knowledge on this subject; I just like to try things. In keeping with this spirit, this article will lay out a few simple principles, provide a look at my current plan, and focus mostly on actions any of us can take. Then I will share some observations and photos of the results.
by no-one