• Aim to have something in bloom throughout Minnesota’s growing season (April-October). This provides food and shelter for breeding and migrating pollinators.
• Plant native wildflowers that vary in height, with different bloom shapes, sizes and colors.
• Protect and plant native trees, shrubs, grasses and sedges that feed butterfly and moth caterpillars.
• Allow low-growing flowering plants, such as Dutch white clover and wild violet, to remain in your lawn.
• Limit (or eliminate) chemical use.
• Keep leaf litter and perennial plant stems in your landscape, as winter hideaways for pollinators.

Replace all or part of the conventional turf on your property with pollinator habitat, such as:

• Pollinator meadows
• Pollinator lawns
• Rain gardens
• Low maintenance turf
• Shoreline Buffers
• Ground Cover

Lawn alternatives are permitted by city ordinance (845.030) and offer many benefits, including reduced water and chemical use, stormwater infiltration, erosion control and pest reduction. Signage is required during the installation and transition period for sites in view. Contact Natural Resources staff to request a sign.

• Growing landscapes to help bees and other pollinators (University of Minnesota)
• Actions to Help Bees (University of Minnesota)
• Minnesota Pollinator Resources (Minnesota DNR)
• Help monarch butterflies (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)

Chemicals are a common solution to pest and weed problems. But there’s a high price to pay for this approach: Pesticides can inadvertently kill or harm beneficial plants and pollinators.

Ecological pest control – sometimes called integrated pest management – focuses on maintaining a healthy, diverse landscape that is less vulnerable to pests:

• Plant native species, including trees, shrubs, grasses and wildflowers, to host pollinators and other insects in all their life stages.
• Tolerate moderate plant damage by beneficial insects, in return for their invaluable services to our ecosystem.
• Create habitat for insect predators such as songbirds, toads, snakes, bats and dragonflies.
• Learn about pest life cycles in order to control pests during their most vulnerable stage. (For example, adult Japanese beetles can devastate plant foliage. Control the grubs, which live in turf, by watering the lawn less.)
• Try hand-picking or use nonchemical products, like horticultural oils or growth regulators, to manage specific pests on particular plants.
• Apply chemical pesticides only when other strategies have failed. Target problem areas rather than broadcasting chemicals widely.