Wild About Pollinators

Chris Smith, the community coordinator of Sow True Seed— an Asheville-based company that specializes in open-pollinated, heirloom, and organic seeds—answers gardening questions in each issue of Smoky Mountain Living.

How can I create a good habitat for pollinators? 

I hold the firm belief that while a natural green thumb can come in handy, it is the willingness to get dirty hands that is the superior characteristic of a successful gardener. One quick and simple cheat is to allow an area of your garden to go “wild.” You may discover all sorts of pollinator-friendly plants jumping up. Black-eyed Susans, chicory, buckwheat, violets, and dandelions have all graced my local pollinators (and me) by the painless act of not mowing an area of my garden.

It can of course also be rewarding and beneficial to intentionally establish a pollinator habitat. The monarch butterfly has become the poster child for the need to plant specific species. Through the great work of organizations such as the Xerces Society, many of us now know that monarch butterfly caterpillars require milkweed plants as a food source. So, planting milkweed specifically helps the monarchs.

Sow True Seed offers a flower mix called Southeast Native. It has a great range of wildflowers that will happily become established in our area (including milkweed). There are many other assortments with various roles, from Bee Feed to Beneficial Attractant Mix. One thing you’ll note about wildflower mixes is they often contain perennials and self-seeding annuals. As a reminder: Perennials are plants that will regrow from the same root system, while self-seeding annuals will set seed and regrow the next year. Both terms mean that the wildflowers will become established and may even spread (depending on the surrounding environment).

The next thing you’ll note about wildflower mixes is that the seeds often require stratification. This term indicates the need for a cold, damp experience prior to successful germination. We are basically talking about the seed’s survival instincts to not germinate early and die—instead waiting out the winter until spring weather is favorable.

Stratification can put a lot of people off, but it shouldn’t be intimidating—no green thumb required. In its simplest form, seeds can be sown just before the ground freezes in early winter. This natural method of stratification has served the seeds well for millennia. You should be aware that there are inherent risks, including hungry rodents, rotting, and remembering where you sowed them.

For the wary (or late in getting organized), these natural conditions can be replicated. There are different methods to doing this, but in general mixing your seeds with damp peat moss and placing them in a ziplock bag in the refrigerator for four to eight weeks is effective. This method would lead to planting the seeds as soon as the soil becomes workable in spring.

Sowing the seeds is easy, too. I like to mix the seeds in a bucket with some standard garden soil and then broadcast the seeds in the area I’d like to establish (as if they’d naturally fallen from the flowers). If you are concerned about rodents or birds, you can lightly rake the seeds into the soil to provide some extra protection. 

Many people hope to establish wildflowers in existing “weedy” or overgrown habitat. It is hard to establish wildflowers in these areas because of the already established root networks of the competition. For best success you will want to dig up these plants, or lay down cardboard and mulch to suppress the competing weeds. If you are tackling a large area, try reclaiming small sections at a time. Our packets of wildflower seeds typically cover 20 to 48 square feet, although bulk sizing is available for larger plots. 

Most wildflowers don’t require good quality soil, and native flowers have evolved to be quite happy in our heavier clay-like soils. They will need a little bit of tender loving care (water in dry spells) as they get established, but once established these pollinator habitats will quite happily look after themselves and your pollinators.

Email your gardening questions to ask@sowtrue.com.