Adding a few perennial pollinators to your vegetable garden border can really get your garden buzzing. There are so many reasons these flowers made this list. But lush, easily accessible nectar and pollen sources paired with beauty and easy growth were baseline qualifiers.

These plants bring in pollinators, they add beauty to the garden, and all plants listed here are Minnesota native (unless you ask the DNR, then Yarrow is still in the ‘undecided’ category), unless noted so they are quite literally at home in your garden.  But really, pollinators are looking to get nectar and anything you plant will help them. There are just a few that do really well here in the Midwest that I want to share.

At this point in the season, we can see where our gardens have some holes. We likely know where we want to fill in or add another layer of color or texture. This is a great time to add perennial pollinators to your mix!

Milkweeds –
Asclepias syriaca

These plants hold a special place in any pollinator lover’s heart because of their direct symbiotic relationship with Minnesota’s struggling State Insect, the Monarch butterfly! I love the common milkweeds shape and form in my garden, which may explain why I let it compete with my potatoes, and the flowers are spectacular! Weed is part of the name But, with the milkweed comes the monarchs.

Both hunting for eggs and caterpillars and watching them grow in the garden and bringing them inside to raise is part of our routine. Swamp Milkweed is more often suggested for garden use as it is slightly less invasive and the monarchs love them just as much. Our plants just showed up once I started digging our garden beds- so I figure they’re supposed to be there! Here’s an earlier post all about Raising Monarchs with my kids.

Meadow Blazing Star – Liatris Ligulistylis

My Meadow Blazing Star creates this magical draw for ALL the butterflies and bumbles in August, but the Monarchs hold rein here! My boys patiently wait for the monarchs to gather so they can walk underneath them and just “BEE” with them.

“It blooms primarily in August, just when the Monarchs are preparing for their long migration south; a synchronization that has evolved over hundreds of years, and a good example of how native plants and pollinators are deeply dependent on one another.” – From the Prairie Moon Nursery website.

Blue Giant Hyssop – Agastache Foeniculum

Agastache was such a revelation to me. I’d heard of Anise Hyssop, giant Blue Hyssop, Lavender hyssop, but never seen it ‘doing its thing’ until a walk through a friend’s garden and WOW! This pollinator MAGNET is at home in the perennial border, the herb and veggie garden, and the prairie. She’s a true multi-tasker, attracting bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds (I’ve had hummingbird moths visit ours as well!) with its long bracts of flowers. Its leaves make a delicious licorice tea that soothes throats—if you can bear to take away blooms from the insects… A very hardy Minnesota Native, it even boasts deer resistance!

I seeded mine and the plants were off and running first year. I’ve been getting tall flowy stalks of blooms since the second year. The free flowing form and solid later summer nectar make this a natural addition.

Bee Balm – Wild Bergamot – Monarda Fistulosa

With a name like Bee Balm it has to be good. Well, all the pollinators certainly agree this is one of their favorites. I have a large swath of native bee balm next to the path leading to my vegetable garden, and I dubbed it the pollinator runway (see photo below). All kinds of pollinators are drawn to these beauties—including the hawk moth!

These plants will take over an area, so be ready to pull out the babies that will pop up from underground runners. I rarely throw any plants away, though, usually just tucking them into a spot a little further away or back, adding to my pollinator radius. They have a shorter bloom time than the hybridized varieties of monarda—but some of the hybrids don’t have viable nectar sources for pollinators, which kind of defeats the purpose, right! I’ve got a list of verified pollinator-friendly stores towards the end of this story.

Yarrow – Achillea Millefolium

MN Native and besides bringing in the bees, it also accumulates nutrients, great for growing under fruit trees. It also has those special umbel-shaped flowers which attract so many beneficial aphid eating insects (lacewings to parasitoid wasps). You can also use it as a tea and compress for inflammation. The flowers come in an array of colors, the most common being white, ranging to bright yellows to pinks. Blooms June to September.

Comfrey – Symphytum *Non Native*

This may be a lesser known perennial, but it is making a fast and furious comeback due to its widespread use in permaculture gardens. The sweet little umbels of blue, then purple, then fading to white bell-shaped flowers emerge from a large (mine is over 4 feet tall and 3 feet wide) plant that attracts bees by the hoards. The leaves contain a chemical that jumpstarts composting when added to the compost heap that are most potent if clipped before the blooms open. It is an easy plant to tend that grows almost anywhere, with little disease and no pest issues. It is also used as an anti-inflammatory. Comfrey is toxic if ingested, so even though I have used it on myself I can’t recommend it here. Non-native from Europe and Asia.

Perennial Pollinators I’m Adding this Summer

Smooth Blue / Sky Blue Aster – Symphyotrichum / oolentangiense

Native to dry fields and open woods these aster take over in the late summer, blooming August through October. I’m adding these to extend my pollinator season a little further. I got a variety that’s close to this froma  frien’d raing garen gone crazy, but I’ll grab a few of the Sky Blues this summer.

Who’s Missing?

Where’s the Coneflower (echinacea)?? Well, while I do see tons of pollinators on mine, I think of these as more of a bird flower—as the finches go nuts for the seeds every fall. They are a beautiful multi-tasking plant too.

Where’s the Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa)? This is also a great perennial pollinator plant and, honestly, I just had to draw the line somewhere.

Where’s the False Indigo (Baptisia)? This is not often mentioned as a pollinator plant, but with this LARGE plant and all its blooms, it brings in the bumbles like mad.

Perennial Pollinators WITHOUT Neonicotinoids

Here’s a short list of my favorite places to buy local, chemical-free plants for pollinators:

White Bear Lake
Seed Library

Prairie Moon Nursery

Prairie
Restoration

There have been tomes written about pollinators and helping plant habitat. My favorite valuable pollinator sites are the Xerxes Society and our local Pollinator Friendly Alliance.

If you’re interested in digging deeper into your native flowers, check out our local chapter of  Wild Ones native garden club.

As I was collecting my thoughts on these plants, I kept noticing that many of the perennials that the pollinators are also loved by humans. I get such a kick thinking about flowers + bees + humans all evolving together to be mutually beneficial on this beautiful earth! Let’s see if we can’t be as beneficial as our pollinators someday.

What Are Your Favorite Perennial Pollinators?

Everyone has their own list of favorites flowers… our tastes grow from of a generous friend giving you a plant, memories of grandma’s garden, or maybe you were inspired by a photo on Instagram or in a magazine… I’d love to know, what are your favorites and why? Are you adding any flowers to your vegetable patch this season?

Dig In!
Michelle

The post Perennial Pollinator Plants appeared first on Forks in the Dirt.

It doesn’t take rocket science to understand why we love flowers. I mean just look at these beauties! They are Nature’s purest form of eye candy!

If you’re looking for an overall guide to Companion Planting, I’ve got you covered too, with this Free 5 page Guide!

Flower Power

As I’ve grown up (well, a little anyways) and understand more of the science behind why flowers naturally create a more balanced garden, I’ve fallen head over heels all over again. They are essential for organic vegetable gardening. Plus my gardens are more colorful, fruitful and ALIVE because of these growing works of art. I mean who wouldn’t want to get a chance to work with beautiful nature to grow more and bigger veggies!

While planning and plotting a fresh new local garden (I’m loving my design + consult sessions!) I kept hearing myself going on and on about the importance of saving space for flowers in the garden. Turns out I’m pretty jazzed about the power of pollinators and beneficial insects in the vegetable garden. So, I figured if it was that important to gush about one on one, it was probably worth a deeper dive here

All About the Annuals

I talk more about using flowers in companion planting and garden planning in the blog post Garden Dreams to Garden Goals. But honestly, just bringing in the nectar sources from any of these flowers will make your garden hum – literally! The flowers listed here can all be started by seed. I tend to direct sow them into the garden soil (follow soil temperature guidelines on seed packet) because I run out of room under my grow lights. But you can start any of the plants listed indoors to get an early bloom- aka nectar source going. And, please- take all these ideas with a pinch of salt (or garden lime- who has the tequila), because what works for one garden(er) won’t necessarily work for another. And therein lies the ephemeral magic of gardening!

Calendula

Variety: Calendula Resina, Seed Savers Exchange

This flower IS sunshine reflected. I’d grow this plant for its bright blooms alone, but the powerful medicinal properties make it (dare I say) my favorite beneficial garden flower. Calendula was one of the first flowers I grew for its herbal properties. It has taught me so much, so of course it holds a special place in my big old flower loving heart. Calendula also attracts the good guys such as ladybugs, lacewings and hoverflies that help control aphids, thrips and other destructive pests. Easy to start from seed, I have direct sown in mid-May and gotten bumper crops of petals late in the season. If you want earlier harvests start seeds indoors, though I’ve heard they are a bit tricky to transplant. I grow a swath of these among my rhubarb in the veggie patch and in another sunny corner of the yard to ensure I have enough of the powerful petals to make some of my soothing calendula salve. They seem to be deer and rabbit safe. They do tend to reseed, so plant where you’re OK with them continuing to pop up.

Cosmos

Variety: Sonata Mix

These are true show stoppers and can easily take over a LARGE portion of the garden. They run tall, 5-6 feet, and a packet of seeds can cover a good 4 square feet. That being said, I’ll always have some of these beauties in my gardens, because- well, just look at them! The color and simple yet full petal design combined with being drought tolerant makes them a keeper! They also play their part in happy garden insect play- attracting the bright green/metallic long-legged fly, (shown on white Cosmos) hover flies, bees, parasitic wasps, butterflies and even bird. The chickadees and hummingbirds frequented mine last Summer. Those beneficial bugs and birds nibble the pests (aphids, squash beetles etc) that prefer to eat my veggies.

Marigold

Varieties: French Marigold (Tagetes patula)
Mexican Marigolds (Tagetes minuta) + Lemon Gem (Tagetes tenufolia)

I’ll admit there was a time I thought I was too cool for the old school marigold. But when you plant true varieties (not the puffed up hybrids please!) they attract all the right insects and are so easy to collect seeds from, you’ll never want for color again! My favorites just might be from the White Bear Lake Seed Library (read more about the WBL Seed Library HERE). I planted these in both my home garden and the YMCA Community Gardens last Summer and they were marvelous! The kids especially loved their vibrant colors and collecting all those seeds (there’s a reason everyone had them in their gardens for centuries). Technically they produce a substance called alpha-terthienyl, a chemical that suppresses nasty nematodes and cabbage worms. Some botanists think the smell conceals other vegetable odors too, keeping more bugs further away from your precious crops! Marigolds keep my tomatoes, peppers and eggplants happy by keeping away some bad bugs!

Zinnia

Variety Pictured: Magellan Mix from Jung Seed

Zinnias deter cucumber beetles and tomato worms. They attract predatory wasps and hover flies, which eat insects that would otherwise destroy garden plants. Zinnias attract hummingbirds, which eat whiteflies before those flies can damage tomatoes, cucumbers and potatoes. They manage to do all that while bringing a striking color pop to the garden border. The colors look like you amped up the ‘color saturation’ filter every time. They *can form tidy little rows of color blasts- depending on the variety you chose. Heights range from 12 inches to 5 feet, and every color under the sun. Which also means there will be a zinnia you’ll fall for And they keep blooming into the fall here in Minnesota. A pollinator favorite, these zingers brighten the veggie patch with their own colors and their colorful visitors.

Sweet Alyssum

Full disclosure, I’ve meant to plant this for years, but somehow last year was the first time it made it into my gardens. Tucked in along the rows of potatoes. They were pretty much teeny tiny powerhouses of pure plant magic. And as I started writing this, I realize that I once again forgot to order them… Good thing Gardens always give you another season

Garden Growth

The concept that I can work with nature, using plant’s natural chemical reactions has captured my imagination and keeps me exploring! The practice of using trap crops (plants that draw insects to them rather than nearby vegetable plants) and companion planting (using certain plants to mutually benefit each other’s growth) is fascinating. I practice the basics both in how I plant my veggies and which flowers I plant where. But I never get too hung up on specifics, I figure it has to look good to me as much as the bugs

As I mentioned earlier, there are as many ways to garden as there are gardens. And soil is a living breathing, changing medium to work with, different even a few feet over let alone in a different town or state. But we can sway things in our favor- and make our gardens more colorful lively places at the same time by bringing in a mix of proven flower power.

I’m continuing to learn new and better combinations, varieties and uses for these multi-tasking beauties.

For an easy way to ID some of the common insect visitors, check out the very visual Good Bug/Bad Bug book. Written by Jessica Walliser, I will attest that kids and adults alike enjoy being identifying bugs using this book! She also has a great podcast episode with Garden Expert, Joe Lamp’l on The Joe Gardener Show. So cool to get a glimpse of just how much is going on in our gardens!!

Everyone has their own list of favorites flowers. Maybe developed because of a friend giving you a plant, memories of grandma’s garden, or even an Instagram photo…  so tell me, what are your favorites and why??? Are you adding any flowers to your vegetable patch this season?

I’m working on a perennial pollinator guide next, so many flowers to chose from!

Ready to Dig In and get planting!
Michelle

The post Companion Planting Flowers for Your Vegetable Garden appeared first on Forks in the Dirt.