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Growing plants to help bees and other pollinators

How to create a pollinator-friendly landscape

  • Focus on a "healthy" environment, not a perfect landscape.

  • Choose plants that provide food and habitat for pollinators.
  • Plant a bee lawn. Replace lawn areas that are difficult to mow with shrubs and flowers.
  • Adopt best practices in landscape maintenance to improve plant health and eliminate the need for pesticides.
  • See our list of recommended trees and shrubs for pollinators.

How pollinator-friendly is your yard and garden right now?

It only takes 5 minutes to complete this survey to find out how your backyard measures up on plants, habitat and gardening practices that help bees and other beneficial insects.

Bumble bee feeding on pink, feathery flowers of Joe Pye weed.

Pollinators help plants that bring us food and other resources. By carrying pollen from one plant to another, pollinators fertilize plants and allow them to make fruit or seeds. Pollinator health is critical to our food system and the diversity of life across the world.

Bees are one of the most well-known pollinators, but there are a variety of other pollinators including ants, flies, beetles, birds and more!

Each of us can contribute to pollinator friendly environments.

  • Plant flowers with pollen and nectar.
  • Create habitat and nesting sites for pollinators.
  • Eliminate the use of pesticides that are dangerous to pollinators.

Resources to help pollinators

Make your yard friendly for pollinators year round

Is your garden and yard pollinator friendly ALL year 'round? Extension Educator Julie Weisenhorn shows you how to adjust your fall cleanup routine to help pollinators through the fall and winter. Make your landscape home to native pollinators. It's smart gardening!

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Pollinator videos

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Bee Campus

The University of Minnesota Twin Cities is an official USA Bee Campus

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Reviewed in 2020

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