National Pollinator Week has arrived! Now is the perfect time to celebrate hummingbirds, butterflies, bees, beetles, moths, birds, bats, and other pollinators that keep our environment thriving and our gardens blooming. Here are some great ways to act in your own gardens and communities.

Have your habitat registered for Monarch Butterflies

1.      Plant native plants like bee balm, black-eyed Susans, milkweed, clethra, and scores of other plants that have naturally evolved alongside soils, birds, and other animals, and our environment.

My backyard Clethra was a magnet for Swallowtail butterflies

          Annuals can also be used for attracting pollinators. I love Black and Blue Salvia for attracting hummingbirds, lantana for butterflies, and zinnias for bees and other pollinators.

3.     Build a bee hotel. I did not have to do that; I noticed bees living in my firewood stack and in some old fence posts, providing their own ‘construction’ for a hotel.

Our signage identifies pollinator attracting plants, and natives

4.      Avoid pesticides, especially when plants are in bloom. If you must use pesticides, look for safe organic options and always follow the label instructions.

Many pesticides are labeled for pollinator protection

5.           Include a water source in the garden. A shallow dish with pebbles or a birdbath can provide a habitat for healthy pollinators. A small pond is another way to attract pollinators to the garden. 

A new pond and the surrounding landscape will be a wonderful habitat for pollinators

     

K      Gardens can be a little messy. Pollinators use leaf litter and hollow stems for egg laying and nesting.

This Black Swallowtail caterpillar keeps my parsley from growing too large.

For your community:

1.      Host a pollinator garden installation at a local school, park, or business.

Host a butterfly release

2.      Volunteer and learn with local nature groups, including Oregon Ridge Park, Cromwell Valley Park, Cylburn Arboretum, Green Towson Alliance, The Wild Ones of Greater Baltimore, and other nature-affiliated groups. 

3.      Provide seminars to local groups and/or join with local garden centers to reach out to the community. We worked with The Wild Ones of Greater Baltimore and the Baltimore County Master Gardeners to provide several seminars in 2024 and 2025. 

Learn more through books like Bringing Nature Home and Nature’s Best Hope by Doug Tallamy.

Most importantly, enjoy this week and take notice of the many pollinators that help provide us with beauty, food, and an amazing world. 

 

Happy Father's Day

Dad is manning the grill

Father's Day for the gardening Dad means gifts of plants, a nice shovel or trowel, or, most importantly, spending time gardening side by side with his kids. My dad was not a gardener until he got a tractor with a backhoe that he used to dig up the out-of-control forsythia. He helped me plant a tiny nursery of shrubs I would use for some light landscaping jobs. Truth be told, he'd rather have tools to work on his Fords and Alfa Romeos. 

Dad would rather work on his cars

On the other hand, my former father-in-law, Max, spent a lot of his free time in the garden. A German immigrant, he purchased his home in Cockeysville with his wife, Eloise, where they raised two wonderful children, Maria and David. Max passed his passion for gardening to his son, who enjoyed vegetable gardening just as his dad had. David found his way to growing wonderful crops of tomatoes, peppers, beans, and other vegetables and flowers in his gardens. 

David is harvesting early lettuce

One day's tomato harvest

Another dad who relished his time in the garden was my late boss, Bill Foard. His tomato gardens are legendary. He would have me and other Valley View Farms' staff over to see his garden. Billy was very transparent; while he was the most successful farmer-turned-backyard gardener that I'll ever know, he wasn't shy about showing us the challenges he faced in growing perfect tomatoes. He and his daughter, Lisa, spent time canning the tomatoes for their almost-famous Bloody Mary mix, a prized gift to family and friends. Billy brought in buckets of his vine-grown tomatoes to be shared by his Valley View Farms family. 

Billy's garden in mid-July

Bill passed his knowledge of gardens to 
his children and the Valley View Farms family


To all the gardening and non-gardening dads out there, Happy Father's Day!!!