Attracting Pollinators

If the weeds in my yard do nothing else, they attract pollinators. Today I noticed several honey bees enjoying the fully flowered clover in my back yard.

I was in the process of mowing down all of the weeds that has sprouted up during the rain. I spent most of the afternoon wishing that I had some chickens to just eat them all up, but alas, I do not. I noticed a honeybee. A real live honeybee. I was so excited and I couldn't figure out why. Then I realized that I hadn't seen a honeybee in a very long time!

The little bee flew around me, and then dipped low near to the lawn mower and landed on a clover flower. It crawled all over it just like I remember them doing when I was a kid and they seemed much more plentiful. Then it flew low to the ground and landed on another clover flower and did the same thing. After that it buzzed away.

I thought of clover honey and how tasty it is. I started to look at the clover in a whole different way. I decided to leave a strip of the clover close to my porch and moved the mower away from it. For the rest of the day I noticed several different little bugs stopped by the flowers. I even saw a few more honeybees.

I'm sure there are more attractive ways to get pollinators into your garden, but I'm working with what I've got!