The Start of Our Native Pollinator Garden

Our local library does a summer reading challenge each year with a bunch of different missions, and this year one was to research the pollinator pathway in Connecticut. I was so intrigued by everything I learned and inspired to create our own in our backyard! We decided to do a path along the back of our yard near our veggie garden. We started out with a few plants just to get it going and will add more next year! The hope is that these plants will spread and drop seeds so it will fill out as the years go on.

All of the plants in this garden are native to our area which is an important part in creating a pollinator garden. You can read more about why that is here. We have a wonderful nursery nearby that is aptly called “Native” that has a wonderful collection of native plants, trees and shrubs. It makes it so easy to just go in and pick what I like, knowing everything is native! We also purchased a couple from another local nursery that has a section with native plants.

Here is a great website where you can put in your location and it will list all the native plants in your area.

We built a bee hotel that we hung on a tree in the garden and the boys filled some saucers with rocks and a bit of water as a water source for the pollinators.

If you’re interesting in learning more about the pollinator pathway, visit the pollinator pathway website.

What we planted (common names):

Joe-Pye Weed
Flat Top Aster
False Aster
Garden Phlox
Coneflower
Norther Blazing Star
Fascination Culver’s Root
Golden Rod
Switchgrass
Ox Eye