In case you haven’t been paying attention … pollinators are in trouble. Their decline is to due to a number of factors including loss of habitat, widespread use of pesticides, invasive plants, decreasing biodiversity and climate change.
So what do you do if you’re a concerned gardener? You create a garden/yard with plants, shrubs and trees that are attractive to pollinators.
Eierman’s concept of Pollinator Victory Gardens is similar to the Homegrown National Parks suggested by Doug Tallamy. The basic problem is the same. Most of our leaders and representatives ignore environmental issues so we have to, in true Minuteman style, take up the cause ourselves in our own front, back and side yards.
Eierman’s approach is straightforward. She starts out with the basics of pollination and introduces us to the pollinators (bats, bees, beetles, birds, butterflies, flies, moths and wasps).
Then she tells us how to plan and grow a Pollinator Victory Garden that provides pollinators with the habitat and food they need. The appendices are chock full of information including plant lists for Early-Blooming Native Trees and Shrubs for Bees, Native Flowering Plants for Native Pollinators, Native Flowering Plants for Honey Bees and Native Flowering Plants for Hummingbirds.
Along the way Eierman touches on a broad range of issues: lawn reduction, pesticide use, straight species vs. cultivars and nativars, generalists vs. specialists, pollinator tongue length, plants to avoid, containers, meadows and pollinator pathways … to name just a few.
She provides all the advice and information you’ll need to get started on your own pollinator project.
Impediments to Pollinators
• Large lawns
• Landscapes with few flowers
• Time periods without blooms
• Monocultural plantings
• Non-native plants
• Invasive plants
• Pesticide use
• Lack of nesting sites
• Fragmented habitat
The Pollinator Victory Garden
160 pages, 8.5″ x 10″
Paperback/softback $26.99
Kindle $24.99
ISBN 978-1-63159-750-3
Quarry Books, available at:
• amazon.com
• BarnesandNoble.com
• IndieBound.org
