Spring Cleanup Time:

Knowing when to start and how to spring clean garden areas is important for the health of your local ecosystem. This is because many pollinators overwinter in the dead material you may want to remove. By waiting to do yard and garden cleanup, and by doing this chore right, you will be saving many bees and butterflies. Spring vs. Fall Always spring clean your garden rather than doing a fall cleanup to protect pollinators and other beneficial insects. Avoiding cleanup of dead plant material in the fall isn’t procrastinating. It is an important way to protect your ecosystem. The material protects insects, promotes the growth of microbes, and ultimately further up the food chain supports birds and other animals. Should I Clean up My Garden Early? There is a very good reason to wait on cleaning your garden – pollinators. Many pollinators, like bees and butterflies, overwinter in dead plant material. They ride out the cold weather there and emerge in spring to do their good work. By removing dead material too early, you risk destroying many of these pollinators. A good rule of thumb is to wait until temperatures are consistently about 50 degrees F. (10 C.). This will help protect habitat in the spring and ensure you have a robust and healthy pollinator population and overall garden ecosystem. Protecting Pollinators at Spring Cleanup Time Regardless of when you begin, knowing how to spring clean garden material in a way that protects your pollinators will allow you to save even more of them. When clearing out old stems, look for bee activity such as ends plugged with mud or plant material. Leave those in place for nesting bees. If you pick out old stems that may have bees nesting, move them to a corner of the garden for a few extra weeks so that bees can emerge. You can leave them on the ground or tie them in bundles to hang from trees or fences.

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Tips To Attract Ladybugs To Your Garden Beneficial Garden Friends By: Heather Rhoades Printer Friendly Version A Ladybug In The Garden Image by Stas-Bejsov Attracting ladybugs is one of the top wishes for many organic gardeners. Ladybugs in the garden will help to eliminate destructive pests like aphids, mites and scale. Getting ladybugs to come to your garden, and more importantly stay in your garden, is easy once you know a few simple facts and tricks. How to Attract Ladybugs to the Garden The number one thing that will help attract ladybugs to your yard is food. Ladybugs eat two things: insect pests and pollen. They need both to survive and when these things are in abundance, ladybugs will happily relocate to your garden. There are several pollen plants that ladybugs like. The blooms on these plants normally have flat flowers (like landing pads) and tend to be white or yellow. Flowers that attract ladybugs are: Angelica

Read more at Gardening Know How: Tips To Attract Ladybugs To Your Garden https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/garden-how-to/beneficial/attract-ladybugs.htm