Sustainable Arlington

An Envision Arlington committee & a Mass. Climate Action Network (MCAN) chapter

DOCman - Categories

Folder Gardening for Native Pollinators

Documents

default Soft Landings [gardening under your trees for pollinators - Heather Holm]

Download

Soft landings are diverse native plantings under keystone trees (or any other regionally appropriate native tree). These plantings provide critical shelter and habitat for one or more life cycle stages of moths, butterflies, and beneficial insects.  

Learn more:  https://www.pollinatorsnativeplants.com/softlandings.html -- includes a good handout

default Study: Small Gardens ... Crucial for Bee Conservation...

Download

Study: Small Gardens Are Just As Crucial for Bee Conservation As Big Ones.

Urban gardens are a critical source of food and habitat for pollinators.  January 24, 2022

default What’s Wrong with Leaf Blowers? [Evanston RoundTable, 3.23.2020]

Download

Why "Leaves the leaves"?

  • "When autumn leaves fall, insects recognize their winter home, for “leaf litter” to them is not trash but indispensable habitat. Many species of butterflies, bees, fireflies, moths, ants, ladybugs, beetles, flies, roly polies, snails, earthworms and millipedes all lay their eggs or hunker down for the winter in the leaves, soil surface, or inside the hollow stems of dried out plants, until longer daylight hours and warmer temperatures signal their re-emergence in the spring. Brown leaves may look dead to us, but they are packed with life."
  • "1. Wind speeds of up to 200 miles per hour blast into oblivion all of the insect biodiversity nestled in the leaves and topsoil. 
    • Then we or our landscaping crew haul away the leaves and any remaining life within as if they were garbage. On Nov. 18, 2019, the German government requested that its citizens stop using leaf blowers, saying they are 'fatal to insects in the foliage.'"

default Where Do Pollinators Go In The Winter?

Download

Learn where and how bees and other insects wait out the winter, and how you can support them beyond the growing season. [Xerces Society resource]

default [documentary] My Garden of 1,000 Bees

Download

Filmed in Bristol England, during the pandemic. Close-up footage shows solitary native bees at work throughout the season.

"Taking refuge from the coronavirus pandemic, wildlife filmmaker Martin Dohrn set out to record all the bees he could find in his tiny urban garden in Bristol, England, filming them with one-of-a-kind lenses he forged on his kitchen table. See his surprising discoveries in My Garden of a Thousand Bees, premiering nationwide Wednesday, October 20 at 8 p.m. ET on PBS (check local listings), pbs.org/nature and the PBS Video app.

The documentary, which kicks off Nature’s 40th season on PBS, follows Dohrn during the COVID-19 lockdown of spring and summer 2020, as he becomes bee obsessed and develops relationships with individual bees. Filming more than 60 species of bees, from Britain’s largest bumblebees to scissor bees, which are the size of a mosquito, Dohrn observes how differences in behavior set different species apart from each other. Eventually, he gets so close to the bees, he can identify individuals just by looking at them."