🚫 Be Careful With Pesticides
A garden intended for pollinators should be managed with wildlife in mind.
Where practical, avoid unnecessary pesticide use.
Instead, consider approaches such as:
- Choosing plants suited to your growing conditions
- Encouraging natural predators
- Removing severely damaged plants when necessary
- Hand-picking pests from plants
- Accepting some insect damage as part of a healthy ecosystem
- Using physical barriers when appropriate
A few chewed leaves don’t necessarily mean something has gone wrong.
In a wildlife-friendly garden, insects are part of the garden—not automatically a problem to eliminate.
Always follow the label and local guidance if a pesticide is genuinely necessary.
🍂 Leave a Little Mess
A perfectly tidy garden isn’t always the best habitat.
Dead leaves, fallen stems, seed heads, and small amounts of natural debris can provide shelter and overwintering places for insects and other wildlife.
Instead of cleaning everything up immediately in autumn, consider leaving some plant material in place until spring where practical.
You can also leave a small area of bare soil for ground-nesting insects if your site and local conditions allow.
Think of it as giving nature a little room to work.
A garden doesn’t have to look perfectly manicured to be valuable.
🐛 Remember the Caterpillars
If you see caterpillars eating your plants, don’t automatically reach for the spray bottle.
Caterpillars are an important part of the life cycle of butterflies and moths.
They also provide food for birds and other wildlife.
Some butterfly and moth species depend on particular host plants for their caterpillars. This is another reason native plants can be so important.
A garden filled with flowers may attract adult butterflies.
A garden with appropriate host plants can help support them through another stage of their life cycle.
