Residents build gardens and make their lawns more attractive to pollinators

METRO DETROIT — For many years, people around the U.S. have been working together to provide safe ecosystems for bugs, birds and other pollinators right in their backyards, and they continue to encourage others to do the same.

Whether it is dedicating one’s whole lawn to the movement or creating a pollinator garden in one part of the yard, the process can be fulfilling and doable for everyone.

Royal Oak beekeeper and honey business owner Anne Marie Nadolski said to let go of the marketing of perfect lawns.

“Let’s change the narrative, let’s change the framework and how we look at grass,” Nadolski said.

Nadolski recalled a time when dandelions, Dutch clovers, and other native plants were more plentiful.

“I think we have to dial it back to when, when I was a kid, everybody had some Dutch clover in their lawn, they had dandelions, those little violets. We were all the same up and down the blocks,” she said. “Roly pollies were plentiful. Ladybugs, lighting bugs, butterflies. All of the food for our pollinators, the stuff that we are walking on and eradicating, is taking away their food source.”

There are a few options when it comes to creating a more eco-friendly lawn to help pollinators thrive. Nadolski, for example, doesn’t completely abandon keeping her lawn neat; she instead seeds her grass with Dutch clover.

“When I was a new homeowner in my 20s, I worked hard to eradicate Dutch clover. I bought all of the chemicals, I tried my best to get it out of my yard,” she said. “Now I crack myself up because not only do I have clover, I paid money to buy clover and reintroduce it.”

Having clover in the lawn means she can mow when she likes to, but the clovers will continue to grow back and feed the pollinators.

“I don’t care to have a putting green for a lawn, and actually, my lawn looks pretty good,” she said. “But I let that Dutch clover there for the bees and the butterflies, because that’s a great source of nectar and pollen. If you want to look at a perfect lawn, go golfing. A perfect lawn to me is one that provides food, pollen and nectar.”

There is also an option to completely change your current lawn and plant “Fleur de Lawn,” a lawn that features perennial pink and white English daisies and strawberry and Dutch white clover. The clovers naturally feed the lawn with nitrogen, eliminating the need for fertilizer.

Nadolski said that alternatives like clovers or Fleur de Lawn can also help save a few dollars on water and gas, because these types of lawns do not need to be watered or mowed as often.

Another suggestion would be to pick out a space in the yard specifically for pollinators, called a pollinator garden. Pollinator gardens are designed to attract and support pollinators. It is usually planted with a variety of wildflowers, trees and shrubs that provide pollen and nectar.

“It’s important to have plants and shrubs and trees that are native to our local ecosystem,” Royal Oak resident Ann Bueche said. “So, there is a lot of confusion, or this has been a tradition in the gardening industry for 100 years or so, where you have ornamental plants that go by temperature and location and by zones, but the vast majority of what’s sold commercially is either from Asia or Europe. And so little by little, our pollinator-friendly areas have been chipped away over the decades.”

Finding native plants to Michigan is a part of this process. Some native plants include: purple coneflower, black-eyed Susan, wild bergamot, swamp milkweed and wild lupine.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, online at fws.gov, suggests choosing a sunny location for a pollinator garden and checking the soil to see what kind of plants will thrive there.

Bueche said she is in no way a master gardener, but she learned through research, community resources, and trial and error while she was creating her pollinator garden.

“I’m a curious gardener, and a continual practitioner,” she said. “The first tip I would give to a new pollinator gardener is to decrease or discontinue using chemicals; if you are not willing to do that, you are not going to have any success with pollinators. The second thing would be to find a good source for native plants, either through wild ones or a local nursery that specializes  in native plants and native genotypes, not just what they sell to commercial garden centers, and then start small and go from there so you can learn more about native plants.”

For more information on how to build a pollinator garden, visit fws.org, homegrownnationalpark.org or pollinator.org.