In Virginia and nationwide, June 17-23 is Pollinator Week, a time to celebrate the essential role that pollinators play in supporting natural plant communities and in providing much of the food on our tables.
You can celebrate locally by visiting the pollinator demonstration garden at The Center at Belvedere, maintained by the Piedmont Master Gardeners in collaboration with The Center’s Horticulture Club. The garden can be found at the back of The Center, at 540 Belvedere Boulevard in Charlottesville.
Completed in 2022, the pollinator garden features mostly native perennials and grasses and is designed to provide food, shelter and nesting areas for pollinators throughout the growing season. Right now, you will see bees and butterflies all over the Orange Coneflower (Rudbeckia fulgida). Also blooming is our native Honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens), winding its way up and over two bench trellises.
And be sure to check out the Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa), a host plant for Monarch Butterflies; it’s starting to form seed pods. The entire garden has been certified as a Monarch Waystation by Monarchwatch.org. Please drop by any time, or join the Master Gardeners in the garden on Tuesday mornings.
What You Can Do at Home for Pollinators
If our demonstration garden inspires you to make your own landscape more welcoming to pollinators, take a look at the garden’s plant list here and view the Pollinator Bookmark on the Piedmont Master Gardeners website. You can also follow these recommendations from Virginia’s Extension Master Gardener Program:
- Plant a native plant. Native plants provide food and habitat for native species. Find the right native plant for your landscape using the Department of Conservation and Recreation’s Virginia Native Plant Finder.
- Provide a shallow, muddy puddle where butterflies can get minerals. Fill a shallow dish with soil and a few rocks, place it at ground level, and keep it moist.
- Learn about moths. They are powerhouse pollinators. Survey the nocturnal moths that live in your yard by creating a moth magnet. Simply hang up a white sheet, and when it gets dark, shine a bright light on it.
Also consider implementing an integrated pest management plan in your home garden. Instead of turning to insecticides at the first sign of damage, take the time to evaluate if and when they are truly necessary. You will avoid harming pollinators and other beneficial species.
Demonstrating Best Practices
Our demonstration garden at The Center at Belvedere started as a rose garden, which you will see on a walled terrace above the pollinator garden. Best practices tell us not to plant a monoculture garden because it promotes diseases and unwanted pests. Gone are the days of rose gardens with just roses, requiring the use of synthetic pesticides every two weeks. We committed to caring for the roses organically without using pesticides or any rose products containing neonicotinoids, chemicals that will kill not only pests but also pollinators and beneficial insects.
Thus emerged the idea of establishing a native plant pollinator garden in the adjacent area below the walled terrace. It has successfully helped to bring in the pollinators and beneficial insects and has helped control the unwanted pests. As an added benefit, our sustainable selection of plants produces multi-seasonal interest in this beautiful garden.
Photo by Amy Lowell, Piedmont Master Gardener
