If you want to attract invertebrate pollinators – or any pollinators for that matter – you need to think about gardening, landscaping or tree planting holistically. Don’t just think, ‘I’ll put in pretty flowers’. That won’t cut it. Some plants are hybrids and they may not contain honey or nectar. Some plants from other countries may have adapted to pollinators in their own climate, and not suit Australian pollinators. To garden holistically you need to think not only about the needs of humans, but also of flora and fauna.

 

Pollinators need forage – pollen and nectar – year-round. Although some store food over the cooler months, others need it throughout the year. Community gardens (such as James Street Reserve Community Garden), and public parks (such as Centennial Park) currently provide many sources of forage, but so too do residents’ gardens. Public streets and council-run parks provide some forage, but if they predominantly plant one or only a few species of tree (without shrubs or groundcover) finding forage will be an issue. For example if a street is predominantly planted with paperbarks and those only flower in October and February, what do the invertebrate pollinators do in between? Right now my study suggests that they survive on weeds and residents’ gardens in these immediate areas.

To ensure year-round forage let herbs and vegetables flower. Lettuce, rocket and other brassicas are great. Perennial basil is great year-round.

A fantastic – and FREE! – guide called Bee Friendly: A planting guide for European honeybees and Australian native pollinatorsprovides information on garden design, nectary calendars, and much more.

Lists of forage for the northern hemisphere can be found here.

Plants need to be pollinated, and this can happen through wind, insects, birds and bats or self-pollination. Read about the various types of pollination here.

Old variety or heritage plants as opposed to modern hybrids provide more pollen and nectar for invertebrate pollinators. One Crapemyrtle grower WJ Powers, for example, states “Some will be great for pollen, some will kick out enough nectar to interest a hive, but most do neither. No matter the color, your bees look for what offers the best source of hive supplies. If you have a crape that is a bee attractor, the best thing you could do for yourself, is to learn how to take cuttings, or grafts, or suckers and make more trees to serve your hives. If you can do this well, many of us would be happy to buy young trees from you.” Old or heritage varieties of plants can be bought through nurseries such as Daleys or Diggers, or ask your local nursery about which plants attract the most bees.

Look at your plants, and more specifically at plant families, see what type of pollination they need. For example, if you’re growing tomatoes, kiwi fruit, eggplants and chillies, these all require buzz pollination. Blue banded bees provide such services so why not plant blue flowered plants near these plants? They improve yields in Australia by at least 30%. You can find more information on plant families in the tables under each site.

Pollinators need a variety of plants to sustain them. Consider planting shrubs, groundcover, edible plants and herbs. Councils especially need to revise “tree plantings” to include shrubs and groundcovers, and edible plants, herbs and trees. Perennial herbs are amoung the favourite forage plants of invertebrate pollinators, and many self-seed and need very little maintenance. They can be planted along edges of verges, paths, in vertical plantings, on windowsills and on rooftops.

A recent article in the SMHexplains how Australian native plants have evolved to suit native bees’ needs, including colour. Most councils have native plant nurseries. Some councils give away native plants for free to ratepaying residents.

Colour. Bees’ vision is based on Ultraviolet: blue and green. They are thought to prefer blues, whites, and purple flowers, they will also visit red flowers, and other colours. Blue-banded bees are attracted, but not limited, to blue flowers. Their favourite plants are listed on this website, but include cornflowers, perennial basil, lavender and borage. Planting lots of colour will give a strong visual cue to pollinators that their buffet lunch is ready and waiting.

In the inner city competition for space can be fierce. Some invertebrate pollinators make their homes in the ground, others in bricks, others in hives (commercial hives are proliferating around the city). Some inner city gardeners and academics are creating a very simple habitat for solitary bees simply drilling different sized holes into blocks of wood. More elaborate structures include Bee hotels.

Part of creating a liveable habitat for people, flora and fauna is reducing heat. Our cities are hotter than surrounding suburbs due to the heat island effect. Planting trees, shrubs, groundcover in available spaces is absolutely essential if we are to survive in these man-made spaces.

Invertebrate pollinators thrive near water sources – preferably unpolluted. Where natural water sources are available councils and landholders should consider rehabilitating those sources. If no natural or unpolluted water sources are available man-made ponds should be considered. These don’t have to be fancy or elaborate. I leave a flat dish out for my Sugarbag bees. I have learned the hard way that they are terrible swimmers, so sticks, floating corks or water plants are essential in any water source.

What’s soil got to do with pollinators? Plenty. If you have poor soil the only plants that will thrive there are weeds. As you can see from the study this isn’t an issue for pollinators – they love weeds! – but many humans don’t. (Though there is currently a movement of enlightened beings who use weeds to their advantage, medicinally, ecologically, and for food.) If you want more than weeds to grow you need to foster healthy soil.

Mulching city streets is essential for soil health. Living mulch in the form of groundcover is a much underrated, but potentially excellent source of food and habitat for invertebrate pollinators. In Morehead Street (Site 1) there is very little groundcover or mulch and rubbish predominates, inviting many flies, and very few beneficial pollinators.

Inner city businesses throw out tonnes of food every year. While individual residents compost, this may make only a tiny dent in food waste, and increasingly community composting is becoming popular. Things to think about before setting up community compost are covered by Russ Grayson here.

Councils, individuals and businesses need to stop spraying toxic chemicals into the environment. For years the public have been told that certain chemicals do not prevail in the environment, but studies looking at the collapse of bee numbers around the world have found otherwise. For example Neonicotinoids – among the most widely used insecticides in the world – are being limited by the European Commission due to their role in colony collapse disorder. For the Australian position on Neonicotinoids – ‘we’re looking into it’ – see The Australiasian Beekeeper for more details. Pesticides are not the only culprits in the massive world-wide die off of bees, biocides(bio – life, living things, cide – meaning killer of) in general need to be reconsidered.

I realise our society may collapse if we are forced to weed parks with our hands, or if we cannot simply spray a fungicide to kill a fungus on our roses. But there are alternative fungicides and pesticides that target specific pests without effecting the whole ecosystem. A permaculture approach considers the ecology. This takes us back to the first recommendation: before acting think holistically.

The topic of climate change is beyond the scope of this study, however some regional and country-wide approaches are detailed here.

We can however look to different plantings to create more resilient city streets. Garden Drum author Catherine Stewart states that “August to November are very dry months, often added to by gusty, drying winds from the hotter interior”. She suggests that instead “growing winter-deciduous spring flowering trees that struggle in our east-coast warm, dry springs” that we consider planting southern hemisphere trees that “have responded to spring drought stress with a mid-spring rather than winter deciduous adaptation, to prevent critical moisture loss from leaves during drought and to coincide flowering with the arrival of pollinating insects and animals in late spring”.

She states “Planting these trees in east-coast Australia makes so much more sense than investing time and dollars in pretty ‘blossom’ trees. Spring deciduous trees are losing, rather than getting their leaves when those hot dry spring winds arrive and they are also adapted to our intense summer rainfall events and high humidity, unlike many winter deciduous trees, which are very prone to summer fungal diseases.”

Advantages:

·      survive drought, and lower than average rainfall

·      new leaf canopy will arrive in early summer.

She goes on to note lists of spring deciduous and semi-deciduous trees. This list is available here.

Humans need food, shelter and safety. Planting more forage shrubs and groundcover won’t only encourage invertebrate pollinators, it will have a huge effect on human communities. Studies have shown many social benefits of greener spaces:

… people’s use of shared spaces is strongly influenced by the presence of trees: the more trees there are, the more time people spend there and the larger the groups in which they gather(4,5). A further study shows that, partly as a result, vegetation in common spaces strengthens the neighbourhood’s social ties(6). In greener places, people know more of their neighbours, are more likely to help each other and have stronger feelings of belonging. Social isolation is strongly associated with an absence of green spaces(7).

One fascinating paper shows that crime rates are also strongly affected by vegetation. In housing projects in Chicago with equal levels of poverty, taking account of factors such as the size of the buildings and the vacancy rate, there’s a clear association between the absence of greenery and both property crime and violent crime(8).[Monbiot Turning Estates Into Villages]

Food sovereignty and security are essential human needs, but are beyond the scope of this study. To read more go to the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance.

The less rubbish in the environment the greater chance ecologies have to survive and thrive. Areas of the inner city – land, air and water – are notoriously polluted. Remediation needs to be major priority for councils.

Those industries polluting need to be helped to clean up.

Those industries seeking to be more sustainable need to be supported.

Businesses and individuals need to be encouraged to recycle as much as possible, and take would-be pollutants out of the urban environment.

Governments at all levels should encourage green spaces. Local councils for example can give pollinator-friendly plants to residents and businesses and run workshops to teach residents and businesses how to maintain green spaces. The City of Sydney for example runs Green Villages, which promotes green workshops and spaces. Green grants are also available. City of Sydney now also has a Footpath Policy which gives pre-approval to verge gardens – so long as they conform to the rules laid down by the council.

Think vertical

Horizontal surfaces are not the only ones available to city residents. Vertical spaces such as walls and rooftops should be established as green spaces. Indeed more and more city rooftops are being used to establish inner city hives.

A lot of urban surveys forget a critical element of the ecology: insects. City residents, planners, councils and businesses need to think seriously about invertebrate pollinators. Though many view them as pests, they are essential to not only human survival, but the very survival of our flora and fauna and the earth as we know it. We can’t simply allow the important role of pollination to chance, allowing pollinators to rely on weeds that may be in flower, or on monoculture tree plantings in our streets. Climate change may make trees and plants flower at different times, it may extend the time between flowering (as it did in 2013-2014 summer). So to ensure year-round pollination communities must foster a great deal more plant diversity. Governments must extend “tree plans” to planting food crops in streets, herbs in public parks and gardens, and they must encourage the planting of a multitude of plants in private residences. Education about pollination should be widely available. Heritage trees, shrubs and groundcovers should be valued.