Whether you love beautiful flowers or enjoy fruits or vegetables, you need pollinators. While these things can be pollinated by hand, it is an arduous and extremely time consuming process that the world will hopefully never have to do. However, to pollinate, we need bees and butterflies. Many cringe at the thought of bees, but you must know there are good and bad bees. According to the National Resources Defense Council, over ''$15 billion a year in U.S. crops are pollinated by bees, including apples, berries, cantaloupes, cucumbers, alfalfa, and almonds.'' At that much you can imagine how food prices would rise without the little helpers. Currently, the numbers of bees and butterflied are decreasing at almost an alarming rate but you can help them, and yourself, in the process.
For producing better vegetables, fruits, and more prolific flowers at home, the easiest way is to attract pollinators of your own. Have apple or fruit trees that have never produced? Lack of pollinators - and/or proximity of proper cross-pollinating trees - are likely why. Also, by attracting pollinators, you provide them both a haven and food source, thereby helping protect them. The first thing they need is food and water. Even if you have nothing more than a balcony, you can still attract them and benefit from their presence. Water features in your garden or on your patio provide an excellent source of water for them. Even something as small as a saucer filled with water will do for a small area. Butterflies are attracted to the shallow, colorful bird bath in my own backyard. One important thing to remember about butterflies is that they can see red and are attracted to it.
Regardless of what you want them to cross pollinate, attracting them with colorful or sweet scented plants will help. The type of plants best to use for this will vary depending on your region so be sure to double check not only wjat grows best in your area, but what is invasive. As always, invasive, non-native plants are best to stay away from. Some of the plants they are most attracted to are bee balm (this can be invasive so be sure to plant it in a confined area or raised bed that it cannot spread out of), lavender, salvia, butterfly bush (be careful - it is invasive and non-native to most areas. Check for alternatives if this is the case in your region. Lilacs are a good alternative for most areas).
