On April 29th, Mary Gilkison was the guest speaker at our online group meeting for The Pretty Big Pollinator Project. Ms. Gilkinson is a leader for Green Mountain Sustainable Neighborhood and won a Lakewood Sustainability Award in 2017 for her work with local schools to create recycling programs in the lunchrooms.
Ms. Gilkinson spoke with us about planting for pollinators. She covered what native plants are best for your garden and the most efficient ways to arrange them for the pollinators. Ms. Gilkinson explained that pollinators are four times as likely to visit a native plant than a non-native plant. Ideally, you should put these native plants in clumps of roughly 3 x 3 plants. These groupings decrease the distance pollinators like bees and hummingbirds have to travel to get the amount of pollen they need to stay healthy. It’s also important to plan your garden so you that you have blooms in spring, summer, and fall.
Ms. Gilkinson also talked about providing water sources for bees in your garden. Like humans, bees need water to survive, and giving them a clean water source nearby can ensure they get enough water, especially during hot days. When putting a water source out, you need to make sure that you put rocks, corks, or other items in the water that bees can stand on so they don’t drown while trying to drink.
We enjoyed having Ms. Gilkison visit our group and are grateful for her willingness and enthusiasm in sharing her knowledge with us. She also recommended some useful resources for our project which will be posted soon on our new Resources page on this website.
Great recap! We really enjoyed her talk. We are planting more native plants and made a watering station. Hope others are inspired to action too!