MODULE 3 Principles and Recipes for Creating Pollinator Friendly Gardens, Hedgerows, Boulevards, Roadsides and Meadows on the South Coast

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1 1 MODULE 3 Principles and Recipes for Creating Pollinator Friendly Gardens, Hedgerows, Boulevards, Roadsides and Meadows on the South Coast Ted (TG) Leischner B.Sc., Pollinator Conservation and Habitat Restoration Specialist, Plan Bee Now!, Duncan, BC Bee decline really does threaten our food and nutrition security and ecosystem health that provides us with what we need to be alive on this planet. The most common reason for their decline is loss of a habitat i.e. a flowerless landscape which is starving bees. There is not enough nectar and pollen to feed them adequately nor a flower diversity that could boost their immune systems to resist their common diseases and parasites. Most persons are not aware that pollinators acquire a wide spectrum of probiotic microbes they need to sustain their health from the flowers that they visit. The spread of exotic invasive species obfuscates this synergism. The Natural Pollination Mechanism on Island Ecosystems Mother Nature s plan for sustainable pollination on the west coast islands is not lackadaisical and not simple and includes fail safe redundancy, a time tested integration of many species of bee pollinators intimately connected to the life cycle of native flowering plants they rely on for sustenance. Vigilant informed pollination ecologists world wide make it clear that relying on one or two species of commercial pollinators is very risky business practise for future sustained food production. We need ALL our bee species on the Island right now and the protected and restored habitat that will sustain them. Pollinator Gardens are a vital part of the infrastructure to keep our beneficial insects in our gardens. The day before the introduction of European honey bees in 1860, there were already over 200 species of bee species and as many flower visiting syrphid fly species living on Vancouver Island that sustained the life cycle of about 1000 native flower plants that provided food for first peoples and wildlife for centuries. That honey bees are a main pollinator of plants for Vancouver Island or the world is a wrong story that needs to be corrected by telling the true pollination story for the west coast islands especially regarding the uncertainties of the impacts of our changing climate where sustain many species of pollinators for future pollination is a better way to minimize risks of weather impacts and maximize pollination. Most of the pollination in the world is done by the 20,000 species of wild bee pollinators that are not honey bees, most living solitary in individual burrows and tunnels over the landscape, not in populous hives. The current rapid expansion of honey bee colonies on Vancouver Island may not be a good thing as a parallel increase in acres of forage for them is not happening. A contrived high density of bees greatly increase the risk of the spread of bee diseases in commercial and wild bees.

2 2 Communication with the Xerces Society Researchers indicate that serious competition for nectar and pollen from honey bees and other introduced commercial bees may put our wild bees at risk since bee pasture is more limited on the Islands than on the mainland, especially during periods of drought. Although our native bees do not make honey that we can take from these bees, they are better adapted in the long term for the pollination of plants than honey bees, foraging longer, more efficiently and faster. The Vision: More, bigger, better, joined-up, diverse, high-quality flower rich habitats (including nesting places and shelter) supporting our [native and commercial] pollinators across the country. 1 National Pollinator Strategy for Bees and Other Pollinators in England The main cause of pollinator decline is habitat loss ie. a flowerless landscape and few below ground nesting sites since most of our native bees nest not in hives but in the ground or cavities under ground e.g. bumblebees. The above objective is possible by simply following the instructions on how to plant them i.e. the principles and recipes for pollinator gardens. 1 Important Note: Becoming flower rich replenishes our dwindling seed inventory in our soils and seed storage structures to grow a flower full landscapes, in the decades to come.

3 3 A Checklist of Principles and Recipes for Creating Pollinator Gardens 1. A sunny and warm site where pollinator activity is greatest and nectar and pollen production to feed pollinators is high. 2. Proper preparation for planting. Clear the area of invasive plant species like Scotch broom, Himalayan Blackberry and super competitive plant species like sod forming agricultural grasses. If this is not done properly you are wasting your time and money. 3. Select flowers that are adapted to the features of the site in terms of climate, soil, water availability and drainage. Most plants for pollinator gardens are adapted to hot dry conditions. See Plants for Pollinators Plant Selection Data Base Websites in the Learning Resources section of this module. Ted s Bee Plant. List I have been compiling a list of plants for pollinator for the west coast for the last 6 years. My list is a work in progress and I would appreciate any information on species that are not yet on the list and should be. My list also gives features of the plant for designing gardens and when it blooms here on the coast. The Word file: BGardenAttributes2016.docx is part of the list of files that was sent to all workshop participants. So I am looking for partnership to complete this project as my resources are limited. 4. Native plants form the backbone on every successful sustainable pollinator garden. Include at least 50% native flowering trees, shrubs, berries and herbaceous annuals and perennials in the designs for pollinator gardens. Because most of our native bees cannot forage more than a few hundred meters, native plants need to be available to small pollinators in every garden. Only honey bees and bumblebees are capable of long distance foraging up to a few kilometers. Since wild habitat close to where we will be producing food in the future is almost gone we will need to supplement nectar and pollen production with native plant stock and tested ornamental flowers as documented by recent research (Frankie 2014, RHS and others). With exception of annuals, native plants take a long time to grow (3-7 years) to a size big enough to survive the rigors of a restoration site. Also note that they do not provide sufficient bloom to provide for all pollinators on the islands for a whole season. For this reason, pollinator habitat restoration projects use heritage ornamental flowering plants because they grow faster, seed and root stock is readily available and commonly are adapted to site conditions that our native plants can grow in, especially hot dry sites. Installing a pollinator garden begins by clearing all plants from the area using black plastic tarps, shallow tillage and effective pulling. It may take a couple seasons to

4 4 completely remove the plants we do not want on the site. One must have the plants needed for your pollinator garden ready to occupy the space quickly with perennials and annuals. 5. Select flowers that reliably produce high amounts of nectar and pollen, verified by the bees and pollination ecologists who have documented species of pollinator coming to each kind of flower over a set time period. In natural systems up to 85% of any give area is occupied by nectar / pollen producing flower species. To bring back the bees we need to design this feature into our gardens and urban neighborhoods and on our farms. Everywhere you go look at a landscape and ask, How much area is actually growing plants that produce nectar and pollen for pollinators and beneficial insects throughout the growing season? There is an urgency to change flowerless landscapes into a flower full landscapes to significantly increase nectar and pollen production over the whole landscape. This is achieved by planting the plants listed as big patches of at least one sq meter in area. Research shows that just a couple plants here and few plants there does not attract or feed pollinators effectively. One or two big patches of a couple kinds of flowers do a better job of feeding ALL the bees and attract and feed bees well. Even one big patch of the same flower is better than diverse single plants. Annuals like lacy phacelia, cosmos, coreopsis, cleome, buckwheat and sunflowers provide quick nectar for bees. Usually they are also excellent green manure plants to build soils as well. Most of them can be seeded at several times in the year to extend or fill in a period of nectar and pollen production to when you need it. Perennial ornamentals, native flowers and trees and berries provide humungus amounts of nectar etc. All Mediterranean woody herbs are super, especially lavender and catmint Frankie Research shows that diversity provides natural probiotic microbes for native pollinators to build their immune system health. 6. Selections must provide a variety of shapes and sizes of flowers to accommodate all sizes of pollinator species that live here. The size range of our island native pollinators ranges from 6 mm to 25mm long. See classroom pollinator collections. All of these insects are all part of the wonderful, powerful pollination mechanism that has been here for thousands of years pollinating 1450 native plant species and now our crops when in close proximity to our gardens and fields. 7. Plant adequate flower diversity to provide a full spectrum of natural probiotic microorganisms to pollinators.

5 5 8. Pollinator gardens must provide bloom all thru the season, spring, summer thru fall with different kinds of flowers to feed pollinators adequately. Different group of pollinators emerge at different parts of each growing season. The tables in the plant lists will guide pollinator garden design to provide adequate nectar from spring thru fall. 9. Sustainable nectar and pollen availability requires routine garden care: a. Deadhead flowers to maintain bloom b. Water garden during times of peak bloom using drip irrigation. High nectar production requires adequate water for the plants. No water = no nectar. The presence of flowers does not mean nectar is being produced as flowering is a plant response to drought. 10. Provide a variety of nesting sites: a. Sparely vegetated meadow patches for ground nesting pollinators. Bunch grasses provided protected open soil in our Garry Oak Ecosystems. b. Nest boxes for wood tunnel nesting bees and wasps and bumblebees. There are dozens of species of these that need to be cared for, not just mason bees. c. Keep wildlife trees and rotting logs and rocks if possible. d. Do not till or use organic mulches in patches where ground nesting bees are nesting. Our small ground nesting pollinators require only small chunks of space to sustain their populations. Invading weeds and moss have to be managed on these patches to keep these bees in our gardens. 11. DO NOT USE PESTICIDES 12. Connect pollinator gardens throughout and between neighborhoods with pollinator friendly parks, boulevards, hedgerows and vacant lot meadows and especially with wild habitat to form sustainable pollinator corridors. Bees co-evolved in situations where they completed their life cycles not too far from the flowers they needed to sustain their populations. Most native bees are not long distance flyers like bumblebees and honey bees. Mason bees are intermediate distance foragers (300m). VMGA CERTIFIED POLLINATOR FRIENDLY POLLINATOR GARDENS. These 12 principles provide the criteria to validate good gardening in the greater Victoria area to create habitat for our pollinators and award these garden spaces as being certified pollinator friendly pollinator gardens. Routine pollinator surveys of these gardens confirms their value to pollinators as will observations of new species attracted to the garden over a series of seasons.

6 6 MODULE 3 LEARNING ACTIVITIES: IN CLASS Activity. Seeing the Principles and Recipes Applied in Pollinator Gardens Twelve principles for creating pollinator gardens will be reviewed and identified in class with a ppt presentation of award winning established pollinator gardens and landscapes on the west coast. OUTSIDE Activities A Map of the HCP Gardens will be helpful doing these activities 1. Evaluating the Horticulture Centre of the Pacific gardens as a Certified Pollinator friendly pollinator landscape. Instructions: Workshop participants will organize into learning teams. Each learning team will walk thru the HCP Gardens and record observations to confirm that the HCP gardens meeting each point of the checklist noting how each garden complies with each item of the Checklist of Principles and Recipes for Creating Pollinator Gardens. presented in this module. We meet back in class to share observations about each garden and conclude the status of HCP as being certified pollinator friendly. 2. Demonstration of how pollinator surveys are done Instructions: At noon please go down to where a 100 meter colored bee bowl trap line has been set up to traps the pollinators at HCP. The instructor has mounted the specimens from the last workshop when a bee bowl trap line was set out on June 25 th, Measuring bee diversity at HCP and the reasons this is important Resource: Streamlined Bee Monitoring Protocol For Assessing Pollinator Habitat Instructions: 1. Assemble teams per Mystery Box Activity. A 200 ft transect has been set in the HCP gardens. Please see HCP Gardens Map which is counting the pollinators along this transect. 2. Instructions on how to do this are given on page of the above resource but the instructor will review these before we do this activity. 3. Record data on the Bee Monitoring Data Sheet for linear transects page 14 for a linear

7 7 planting. Separate copies of this data sheet will be provided to each team. 4. Data analysis: comparing data from one year to the next will show an increase or decrease in the diversity of pollinators coming to the garden used as monitoring tool to measure the health of the HCP gardens. Please Use this Checklist To Evaluate HCP Pollinator Gardens as Certified Pollinator Friendly 1. Site is sunny and warm 2. Proper site prep (no invasives) 3. Site adapted ornamental and native flowers 4. Native plants essential. 5. Plant as 1-50 sq. meter patches (high nectar & pollen per sq m.) 6. Variety of flower shapes and sizes for all bees 7. Adequate plant species diversity to support high pollinator diversity (probiotics?) (9 to 50 species) 8. Full season bloom (Feb Oct) 9. Garden care to promote bee attractive bloom 10. Add native pollinator nesting sites 11. NO PESTICIDES 12. Neighbourhood flower patch connection Note: This checklist only confirms that a pollinator garden will have all the essential parts to help attract a maximum diversity of pollinators. However, only by direct pollinator surveys and bee monitoring measurements will you learn what species come to the garden and in what abundance.

8 8 Resources to Guide Bee Garden (Habitat) Design and Installation on our Canadian West Coast 2016 Pawelek, Jamie, Gordon Frankie, Kate Frey, Sara Leon Guerrero, Mary Schindler California Bee-Friendly Garden Recipes. U of California, Agriculture and Natural Resources. Downloadable at: This is currently the best resource on the internet to guide Creating Pollinators Gardens I could find. Kate Frey and Gretchen LeBuhn The Bee-Friendly Garden: Design an Abundant, Flower- Filled Yard that Nurtures Bees and Supports Biodiversity. Ten Speed Press, Berkeley, CA, 214 pp. First text on west coast bee gardening by an award winning landscape designer and a competent pollinator ecologist running the huge citizen science Great Sunflower Project in San Francisco. Plant lists work for here but have a California bias. We will likely be using some of these northern US plants in the decades to come as our climate warms. Preview at: Biodiversity/dp/ Gordon W. Frankie, Robbin W. Thorp, Rollin E. Coville, Barbara Ertter California Bees and Blooms: A Guide for Gardeners and Naturalists. Heyday Press, CA 299 pp. How attractive each species of plant is to our different native bees is confirmed in this reference. To date it is the only reference that does this. Check out the whole website at Click on News and Events and then Lab Publications for excellent additional information. NEW! Bee Flower Hotspots Map: Provides update on number of native bees found in each garden down the W. Coast of California as part of an ongoing statewide survey of urban native pollinators. Mader, Eric, Matthew Shepherd, Mace Vaughan, Scott Hoffman Black, Gretchen LeBuhn Attracting Native Pollinators-Protecting North America s Bees and Butterflies. Storey Publishing. MA. Part 4. Creating Pollinator Friendly Landscapes. Pp Provides images of possible pollinator habitat in spectrum of common landscapes that we live in, list of plants for different geographies and photos of some of the valuable flowers for pollinators. Matthew Shepherd, Mace Vaughan, Scott Hoffman Black Pollinator Friendly Parks-How to Enhance Parks, Gardens and other Greenspaces for Native Pollinator Insects. The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. Downloadable at:

9 9 The Native Flowering Plant Component for BC West Coast Gardens Garry Oak Ecosystem Recovery Team ( G.O.E.R.T.) Garry Oak Gardener s Handbook. pp. Gardeners Handbook.pdf The best guide to planning, designing and installing native plants in the whole range of growing conditions of our coastal gardens supplemented with information from H.A.T. Habitat Acquisition Trust. (H.A.T.) Gardening with Native Plant Brochure. Ornamental Flowering Plants for Pollinators UC Berkeley Urban Bee Lab website. Gordon Frankie Research Team Be sure to check out the NEW bee flower hotspot maps at A KEY REFERENCE TO GUIDE POLLINATOR GARDEN DESIGN Prof. Dave Goulson s University of Sussex List of UK flowers for bumblebees Bumblebee Conservation Trust s Beekind Tool (UK) Royal Horticultural Society -Perfect for Pollinators website The plants were chosen using the extensive experience, archives and records of RHS entomologists, gardeners and beekeepers in addition to published lists and scientific evidence. The lists are maintained by a team of RHS staff, including horticultural advisors, entomologists and botanists and is reviewed annually. While these lists will continue to evolve and be improved on, they represent some of the best cultivated and wild plants for gardeners to attract a wide range of pollinating insects. RELAVENT TO OUR WEST COAST Daves Garden Plant Files Database Plants for Pollinators Plant Selection Data Base Websites E-flora BC Provides detail site conditions for habitats that each native species has been collecting in BC. These can be compared to site observation of the site proposed for a pollinator garden. Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation-Plant for Pollinators in the Northwest. These lists are a bit off target for our west coast situation. NAPPC Pollinator Partnership Not a good correlation for the southwest coast situation.

10 10 Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. Native Plant Information Network NPIN alias Native Plant Database USDA NRCS Plants Data Base Horticultural Plant Data Bases for the West Coast and BC Kwantlen Polytechnic University Plant Database. Oregon State Univ, Hort. Dept. Landscape Plants Database