🌻 🌷 🌼 Did you know that an overgrown garden is a pollinator's paradise? . . . 🦋 Enhancing a garden by planting colorful flowers and native plants helps insects in general, both pollinators and non-pollinators. The plants attract aphids, which eat the leaves. Ants eat the aphids. Wasps eat the ants. Birds eat the wasps. Insects, as a whole, are necessary for the cycle of life. . . . 🐝 If you want to attract more pollinators to your garden, then let it grow. Don’t mow the lawn as often, and embrace the weeds. Many native bees specialize on certain species of plants, including dandelions and clovers. The sheer abundance of these plants makes them a favorite stopover for small bees, since they cannot fly as far as the big bees can. Another way to attract pollinators is to take down your bird feeder from time to time. They are more likely to come out of their hiding places if there aren’t as many predators nearby. . . . 🍂 Even if your yard cannot support a lot of native plants, it can still be a place where insects go to hide and overwinter. Shady spots can help protect pollinators from the sun and the heat. When you rake leaves in autumn, be sure to leave at least a small pile in your garden. Bees are not always on top of a flower. Many live beneath the leaf litter and rely on it for protection from the elements while they overwinter.