Who lives in our gardens?

Jill Severn

Many of us are working to be better stewards of the natural world as we garden, and often our first focus has been to pay more attention to bees, who, we quickly discover, are complicated. There are lots of species, and they need different plants at different times of the year.

Even after two or three years of trying to get smart about bees, I still feel like a beginner. I’m a long way from being able to tell all the many species of bees apart.

But I do know a bumblebee when I see one.

That’s why I asked my email friend Nancy Partlow, who has studied pollinators for many years, what a big lone bumblebee, flying low around my backyard, might have been looking for. The only flowers blooming there now are daffodils and grape hyacinths.

Here’s her response:

“I just looked online and there are several pictures of bumble bees using grape hyacinth, so it could be that the bumble bee you saw wasn't looking for food but was a queen searching for a nest site.  If it was flying low over the ground acting like it was searching for something, it was probably trying to find a rodent hole to build a nest in.”

She also had suggestions for plants that bumblebees would like in the spring: “Early blooming plants that queen bumble bees use for nectar and pollen are crocus, heath, Pieris japonica (AKA andromeda, which is in bloom right now), hyacinth, Oregon grape, salmonberry, thimbleberry, and vine maple.” 

She added that pussy willows are also important food plants for bumblebees, and sent along a link to her sister Janet’s lyrical brief essay about a willow nourishing bumblebees, butterflies, hummingbirds – and her spirit, after a dark and difficult winter. (Reading Janet’s essay is likely to make you want to plant a willow right away. If you do, be prepared to be amazed by how fast they grow.)

Nancy also sent along a link to a site explaining a simple way to make nest sites for bumblebees, in case you are (happily) free of rodent holes in your yard.

Concern for bees is just the beginning of our shift in thinking of our gardens as home to many species besides us. This is a Very Big Deal for the British, where famous gardens like Great Dixter have done biodiversity audits to identify all the species of wildlife their plants support.

Some think that we should only grow native plants to better support native critters, but the Great Dixter audit found plenty of biodiversity even in the majority of its non-native plantings.

That’s comforting, because most of us are never going to be purists who go completely native or entirely lawn-less. We are too fond of our crocuses, daffodils, tulips and tomato plants. And our kids need a bit of lawn for doing cartwheels, which we’d rather they didn’t do in the vegetable garden.

We may, however, reduce the size of our lawns to make more room for more plants that feed the pollinators, including the many plants that also feed us. We may let our grass grow taller, and overseed it with bee-feeding clover that will bloom below the lawnmower blade if it’s set high.

We can also acknowledge that only a handful of the insects and spiders in our gardens are harmful, and a hundred or more are beneficial.

And honestly, we can relax about all of this. It’s easy enough to leave some messy spaces undisturbed in the midst of the plants we tend, and to mix natives with the plants we’ve loved too long to give up. It’s easy to see which flowers bees use, even if we’re not sure what species they are. It’s easier still to just tolerate a few chewed leaves and to wash aphids off with soapy water rather than dousing them with pesticides. And though it isn’t exactly easy, it’s at least fun to learn about and enjoy more of our gardens’ less conspicuous residents.

We just need to think of our yards as habitat not just for humans, but for a whole and thriving community of creatures great and small.

Jill Severn writes from her home in Olympia, where she grows vegetables, flowers, and a small flock of chickens. She loves conversation among gardeners. Start one by emailing her at  jill@theJOLTnews.com