Grow a Pollinator Garden with Seeds

There are many attractive flowering annuals and perennials to grow from seed in your landscape. You can start seeds indoors before the season, or sow directly in the garden soil. If you’re a small space gardener, keep in mind that many of these plants thrive in containers.

When planning your pollinator garden, choose flowers and herbs with yellow, red, orange or blue petals and a fresh, mild sweet scent. Pollinating insects love plants with flat flower heads or blooms that grow in clusters.

Grow these pollinator favorite flowers from seed:

• Agastache
• Calendula
• Cleome
• Coneflower
• Cosmos
• Echinacea (coneflower)
• Gaillardia (blanket flower)
• Marigold
• Nasturtium
• Nicotiana (flowering tobacco)
• Penstemon
• Rudbeckia (brown-eyed Susan)
• Salvia
• Sunflower
• Tithonia (Mexican Sunflower)
• Verbena
• Zinnia

Grow these pollinator favorite herbs from seed:

• Basil
• Borage
• Chives
• Cilantro
• Dill
• Mint
• Oregano

Tip: There are many popular herbs like lavender that attract pollinators, but they can be challenging to grow from seed. Lavender is best grown from propagated seedlings.

You can get a jump on the spring season when you start seeds indoors in late winter. Get some seed starting trays and seed mix and plant up trays for your garden. Transplant the seedlings when the ground warms in spring and all danger of frost is passed. See the frost date calendar for the average last freeze date for your location.

You can also direct sow seeds, like marigolds and zinnias after the last frost in spring. Be sure to pick a full sun site, at least six to eight hours each day. You can plant flowers and herbs in a raised garden bed or containers. Choose good quality organic soil and amendments and keep the seeds watered while they germinate.

Steps to direct sow seeds in your garden:

• Select a full sun site and clear the soil of any weeds or debris.
• You can amend soil with compost or garden soil.
• Rule of thumb for sowing seeds is to cover with soil that's about three times the size of the seed. Very small seeds need to be lightly pressed into the soil and covered with a small amount of soil. Larger seeds can be pressed into the soil with your thumb. Check recommendations on soil packet for the type of seed you're planting.
• Gently water the newly planted seeds. You can even use a mister to protect very small seeds.
• Check newly planted seeds each day for the first 10 to 14 days and gently water as needed.
• When seeds show their second leaves, called "true leaves," they're on their way.

Tip: Some seeds may require thinning, which is culling out weaker seedlings that will take nutrients away from otherwise healthy plants. To thin seedlings, just pluck out extras and discard them in your compost pile.

Once established, give seedlings a 2-inch layer of mulch to keep down weeds and hold in moisture. Mulch with wood chips, pine straw or other organic mulches.

Keep your pollinator garden watered well. In summer, flowers will need about an inch of water a week, either from rainfall or irrigation.

For planters, water with a garden hose with a watering wand attachment. You can also use a watering can. In larger gardens, use drip irrigation, soaker hoses or other timed irrigation systems.

Boost blooms in your pollinator garden by using an all-purpose organic fertilizer mixed at half-strength.

Many flowers, like zinnias, need to be cut, pinched or pruned during the growing season. This actually encourages more blooms. So go ahead and cut the flowers and herbs for bouquets, that’s what they’re meant for.

Growing a pollinator garden from seed is just the beginning. Try these tips for creating a pollinator friendly yard:

• Reduce or eliminate pesticide use from your landscape. And if you live in close proximity to other gardeners who spray, you may want to talk with them and explain the benefits of promoting pollinator habitats.
• You may enjoy creating a pollinator habitat so much, you’ll reduce your lawn and increase the pollinator plants.
  
• Let your neighbors and visitors know that your landscape supports pollinators with a decorative sign that says “pollinator friendly.” If you have children at home, let your little artists create a sign that you can post by your garden entrance.