A Few Guidelines for Spring Clean Up

Go gently with your garden clean up until the weather stays warm in the 50 degree range Fahrenheit.  If you cut back and clear, try to leave some of the dry leaves, hollow stems, and branches stacked neatly standing in a sunny corner so that pollinators can hatch.

Find out more about pollinator planting and pollinating creatures.  Click on this link to find a wonderful pdf booklet with extensive resources. Bee Basics North America.  The end of this booklet gives specific recommendations like the following abridged list:

What You Can Do

• Plant a pollinator garden. Some gardeners are fearful of being stung by bees and would rather they were not in their gardens. Most native bees are quite different from honey bees and yellow jackets (which are not pollinators) as they rarely sting gardeners and if they do, the sting tends to be mild. In fact, there are some bees, such as the Andrenid bees, that are incapable of stinging humans because their stingers are too small and weak to penetrate their skin.
  
• Avoid pesticides or choose non-chemical solutions to insect problems. 
  
• Provide a source of pesticide-free water and mud. 
• Plant native plants from your ecoregion. 
•  Allow some small wildflowers to become part of your lawn. 
  
• Provide nesting habitats for bees.