Garden Plants and Design

It’s Trivia Night, woohoo! See you at Calvert Brewing Company from 7 pm - 9 pm. Get to know PX3 members, have a great craft brew, win prizes with your keen trivia skills. PX3 Trivia will consist of three categories: Maryland Native Bees, the Honey Bee, & Your Garden Potential. Join us and test your knowledge, learn fun facts and have some really good beer. Thanks to Calvert Brewing Company for partnering with us for this fun event!

When planning for pollinators in the garden, we recommend starting with what you love. We want to help connect communities through gardening and time outdoors in healthy green spaces to enhance the positive interactions with any size space. And when it comes to pollinators, some of our favorite homegrown fruits and veggies grow better when food, water, and shelter are available to the insects spreading the pollen around.

By providing pollinating insects with resources beyond flowers, you can provide critical year round habitat. Use locally gathered branches and tree trunks to define garden beds and paths; these soft, decomposing pieces of wood can keep a queen bumble bee from freezing during the winter. For butterflies, the caterpillar host plant is the most important food you can provide. The Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center website can match your plants to the butterflies they host, visit www.wildflower.org to learn what plants to grow for your favorite lepidopterans. From a few strategically chosen potted plants on a balcony, to a pollinator strip along the edge of a large crop field; there are plants and designs to provide benefits for all types of gardens.

Garden design should always include variety. Creating an aesthetically pleasing space with four season appeal is also good for our beneficial insect friends. Pollinators also need nectar options during the whole growing season, so a variety of flower types that can provide nectar from spring through fall will keep them well fed. In addition, shelter options such as bunch grasses and evergreens can provide life-saving refuge during wind and rain storms. Remember, start simply with something you love; a favorite food, or favorite pollinator, and build your garden design ideas from there. Have fun! And PX3 is here to help too!