By, Carol Fisher Linn
Spring has arrived in our part of the world. She’s unpredictable – the sunny days tempt us to work outdoors – don’t!
Among other things I lay claim to, I am a gardener. For years, I couldn’t wait for the first nice spring day to grab my handy winter boots and coat and lined garden gloves to go out to do battle with last winter’s leaves, weeds, and residue. I know better now.
If my winter coat and boots are in regular use, I now know that my previous haste killed off my beloved bees and other pollinators who were not quite through over-wintering. The intermittent fifty-sixty-even-seventy-degree days may have looked like spring had sprung, but the nights in teens and low twenties told a different tale.
I mentioned putting on my handy coat and boots. When preparing to do war with the winter residue, there are three questions we should ask ourselves: 1) Have I put away the snow shovel, mittens, and winter coats? If you are still wearing woolen socks and long underwear it is simply too early. 2) Would you plant tomatoes now? We gardeners know that we don’t plant tomatoes until evening temps are continuously in the 50’s. When it’s time to plant tomatoes, pollinators will have left their cozy, protective nests. 3) If you can’t remember any of these suggestions, ask yourself, have I paid my taxes? In northern states, mid-April is the very earliest you should consider cutting back perennials and clearing garden debris. It’s still too early for the bees (they emerge late May) so the longer you can give them, the better.
Why worry about pollinators anyway? We live in unending wild, greenspace. Surely there is enough room for these guys in the fields and forests without messing with our spring cleanup schedules, right? Here’s what the USDA tells us: You may have heard that bees are disappearing, and bats are dying. These and other animal pollinators face many challenges in the modern world. Habitat loss, disease, parasites, and environmental contaminants have all contributed to the decline of many species of pollinators. Pollinators that can’t find the right quantity or quality of food (nectar and pollen from blooming plants within flight range) don’t survive. Right now, there simply aren’t enough pollinator-friendly plantings to support pollinators. Learn more here about how USDA is helping pollinators.
So what’s the big deal? Again, from the USDA: Pollinators like honeybees, butterflies, birds, bats and other animals pollinate crops like apples, bananas, blueberries, strawberries, melon, peaches, potatoes, vanilla, almonds, coffee and chocolate. Three-fourths of the world’s flowering plants and about 35 percent of the world’s food crops depend on animal pollinators to reproduce. That’s one out of every three bites of food you eat.
I was privileged to have an informative conversation with local (retired) bee-guy, Bob Brachmann. He reminded me that bees are the busiest, but credit also goes to moths whom he says get no respect, butterflies, birds, bats, lots of insects including the hated fly (well, at least that gave me some insight as to why God created them) and he even wonders if mosquitoes don’t play a role in the pollination of our vital plants. After all, during a flower visit, a pollinator can accidentally brush against the flower’s reproductive parts and deposit pollen as they pop from one flower to the next. The plant uses the pollen to produce a fruit or a seed. So, if the fly or insect doesn’t get a chance to visit the flower, it cannot produce a fruit or seed, and with many plants, that’s the only way they get pollen. Also, something I have never given any thought to, Bob said he had to relocate hives if they were too close to the ubiquitous cornfields. It’s the pesticides and fungicides that the corn seed is covered with that harms the bees and other pollinators. It tuns out, even when farmers operate with the best environmental practices, they cannot avoid this. Now, that brings up a whole different conversation, doesn’t it?
So, don’t get into too much of a hurry to clean up the yard. On the next fake-spring-sunny day, grab a cool drink or glass of wine, find a warm sunny spot, and read a gardening catalog/ book about gardening or keep knitting that scarf you’ve been working on all winter. Imagine your patch of earth and think about setting aside one portion to leave wild, creating a perennial habitat. Mother Earth will love you for it.