Pollinator Gardening

Updated 1/2024

Pollinators are critical to a healthy environment and many native species are in jeopardy. Learn what you can do at home to create healthy pollinator habitats for native bees and butterflies in in your own yard. This class topic is part of the Pollinator priority of the Master Gardener program. 

If you enjoyed this class, please join us for another. Current and upcoming classes are posted on our website. 

Class Handouts

• Slide Presentation (Slide print-out)

• Participant Class Handout

Related Handouts

• Pollinator Landscape Audit (University of Minnesota Extension)

• Helping Kids Overcome Their Fear of Bugs (Get the Kids Outside)

• Gardening for Butterflies and Pollinators (Iowa State University Extension and Outreach)

• Plant a Pollinator Pocket (Illinois State University Extension and Outreach)

• Planting for Pollinators: Guiding Principles and Design Concepts for Residential Pollinator Habitat (MN Board of Water and Soil Resources)

• Create a Habitat for Stem-Nesting Native Bees (Heather Holm)

• Plants Favored By Rusty Patched Bumble Bee

Online Resources

PRO-TIP: Google “site:edu garden insects” (or site:gov) for research-based advice

• U of M Extension Program Flowers for Pollinators 

• Master Gardener Flowers For Pollinators Blog 

• Right Plant Right Place (Julie Weisenhorn, University of Minnesota Extension)

• U of MN Bee Lab

• Pollinator Resources (MN Department of Natural Resources)

• Native Plant Nurseries (MN Department of Natural Resources)

• Lawns to Legumes Project (MN Board of Water and Soil Resources)

• Root Systems of Prairie Plants (Illinois State University Extension and Outreach)