7 Simple Ways to Make Your Garden Better for Pollinators, According to an Expert

Pollinators need your help. Bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, and beneficial insects are losing habitat across North America, but you can fight back with a well-planned garden. Mary Phillips, head of Native Plant Habitat Strategy at the National Wildlife Federation, has spent years helping gardeners do exactly that. Even the most well-intentioned gardeners, she says, make mistakes that quietly undermine their efforts. Avoid these common pitfalls, and your garden can support pollinators all season long.

1. Not Planting Enough Native Flowers

If you make only one change to improve your pollinator garden, make it this one. “Native plants are the foundation of pollinator habitat because they have evolved alongside local wildlife over thousands of years,” explains Phillips. Those long-standing relationships make native plants essential sources of food and shelter for native bees, butterflies, and other pollinators, including specialist species that depend on specific plants to survive.

While many garden-center flowers attract some pollinators, native species should form the backbone of any pollinator garden. Phillips recommends striving for landscapes that are “at least 70% native plants to provide the greatest benefit to pollinators and other wildlife.” To find the right plants for your region, she points gardeners to the National Wildlife Federation’s Native Plant Finder, which identifies native species by ZIP code.

2. Choosing Plants That Bloom at the Same Time

A pollinator garden should feed its visitors from early spring through fall, not just during peak summer months. “This is especially important for native bees emerging from overwintering sites in early spring and for migratory butterflies that depend on reliable nectar sources to fuel their journey,” Phillips notes.

The solution is straightforward: select plants with staggered bloom cycles so pollinators can find food throughout the entire growing season. Include a mix of early-, mid-, and late-season bloomers to ensure a continuous supply of nectar and pollen from the first warm days of spring through the last weeks of fall.

3. Using Pesticides

Pesticides pose a greater threat to pollinators than many gardeners realize. Phillips warns that herbicides, fungicides, and rodenticides can harm native bees and other pollinators directly, causing disorientation, weakened immune systems, reproductive failure, and death. Beyond direct contact, she notes, “they can also harm pollinators indirectly by killing the nectar sources they depend on for survival.”

Organic or non-toxic alternatives are worth considering, but Phillips cautions that even organic sprays can be deadly to beneficial insects. The most reliable protection is prevention. As she explains, “a healthy, diverse landscape filled with native plants helps maintain natural ecological balance, which can reduce common garden issues over time.” Avoid applying any chemicals when plants are in bloom, and let a thriving, diverse garden do the work of keeping problems in check.

4. Planting Only One Type of Flower

Pollinators are not all built the same way. Each species has unique feeding adaptations, and its mouthparts largely determine which flowers it can access. As Phillips explains, “some pollinators prefer tubular flowers, such as long-tongued bees or hummingbirds, while others are more attracted to open blooms where nectar and pollen are easily reached.”

A garden planted with only one flower type may feed some visitors well while turning others away entirely. North America supports a remarkable variety of pollinators, from native bees and butterflies to hummingbirds and moths, and a diverse planting scheme is what allows a garden to serve them all. “The more diverse the habitat, the more wildlife it can support,” says Phillips.

5. Forgetting About Host Plants

Many gardeners plant for nectar and stop there, but butterflies and moths also need host plants where they can lay eggs and feed their larvae. As Phillips puts it, “nectar plants feed adult pollinators, but host plants support the larvae of the next generation.”

The relationship between host plants and their insects is often highly specific. Monarch caterpillars, for instance, feed exclusively on milkweed, making it essential for that species to reproduce. Without these larval host plants, pollinators may visit a garden for food but cannot successfully raise their young there. Perennial host plants solve this problem elegantly: they return each year, giving adult species a reliable place to reproduce season after season. As Phillips concludes, “a true pollinator garden provides both nectar sources and host plants.”

6. Keeping the Garden Too Tidy

A perfectly manicured garden may appeal to humans, but pollinators depend on messier spaces to survive. Phillips warns that gardeners who clean up too early in fall or spring can unknowingly destroy pollinators still overwintering in leaves, stems, and plant debris.

“Leaf litter, standing stems, seed heads, and other plant debris provide important places for insects to overwinter, nest, and complete their life cycles,” explains Phillips. She suggests leaving some bare soil for ground-nesting bees, let plant stems stand through winter, and resist clearing every leaf from garden beds. Rather than discarding fallen leaves in autumn, Phillips suggests moving them into flowerbeds, where they shelter wildlife and insulate plants through the cold months ahead. When spring rolls around, timing matters, too. Phillips recommends waiting until temperatures hold consistently above 50°F before beginning any cleanup.

7. Ignoring Water Sources

Pollinators need water just as much as they need flowers. Phillips points out that water is one of the most overlooked elements of pollinator habitat, as essential to survival as food and shelter. Even a small water source, she says, “can make a garden more supportive of pollinators and other wildlife.”

A shallow birdbath, puddling station, or small water feature gives bees and butterflies a safe place to drink. Phillips recommends placing rocks in a birdbath and filling it partway, so the rocks become landing pads where bees and other beneficial insects can drink without drowning. Butterflies benefit from a slightly different setup: a shallow puddle of wet soil, which draws them in with the minerals it contains.