Pollinator patches in communities (and the wonders of the humble bug)

Join Yaz to find out how to plan your community patch for pollinators...

Well, despite our indecisive summer weather, which has flippety-flopped back and forth between hot sweats and cold showers, there is one thing that we can be certain of; the time to prepare and plant-up pollinator patches draws ever near! Autumn is a perfect time to think about how you can help wildlife through the seasonal cycle. As well as creating places in your communities for creatures to safely sleep the winter away, we can think about creating food and shelter for insects, birds and small mammals for the following spring, summer and beyond.

Pollinator patches are wonderful little (or large) pockets that are rich in floral and nectar resources that provide food and a place to live for many species but, most importantly, bugs! I know some of you are thinking ‘Yaz, I just don’t like bugs, they are icky and I don’t want to make a home for them’. Well, beloved reader, with all due love and respect, I’ve got some tough truths for you.

In the UK, insects have declined by 60% over the last 20 years. This is a scary figure when you think about all the incredibly important roles that bugs play in our lives. They pollinate the plants that give us food, control pests, break down organic matter and give us healthy soils. Besides all of these glorious services they provide for humans, bugs (in all their forms) are essential to the health of ecosystems as a whole.

Meadow area at Perdiswell Park, with a path on the right. — Meadow area at Perdiswell Park by Becca Bratt

An ecosystem is a complex biological community or network of plants, animals and other organisms, their environment and all of the interactions and interplay that occur between them. Think of our ecosystem as a house. Insects, plants, fungi, bacteria and other microorganisms make up the foundations. Birds, mammals, reptiles and other animals make up the walls and floors and us, humans, are the roof. This may seem a rather anthropocentric (human-centred) way of looking at the world but it represents our ability to exert immense pressure on the organisms and biological systems around us, in the same way that the roof exerts pressure on the walls and foundations. It also represents our reliance on our ecosystem and the importance of its overall health for the survival of our species; without strong foundations and walls, the roof will collapse.

If you want nutritious food to eat and a healthy planet to live on, we must take care of the little things, like insects, plants, fungi and microorganisms. In turn, they''ll take care of the big stuff (including us). So, now that we’ve explored the importance of, and need for, action, let’s take a nosey at what that action looks like.

You can start by taking a few simple steps: stop using pesticides (weedkiller/herbicide/bug spray/insecticide), plant native shrubs and trees and create a pollinator patch. Pollinator patches primarily contain grasses and wildflowers but adding spring-flowering bulbs will also create early-season pollen and nectar pitstops for bold bumblebees that are braving the chilly spring mornings. If you would like to plant your own pollinator patch, here’s how:

Step 1 - pick your pollinator patch

During September pick your dedicated pollinator patch, it can be as big or small as your greenspace (or garden) allows. Marking it out with posts or big stones can help with ongoing management but isn’t essential. If the area already has grass or a lawn, cut this as short as you possibly can, making sure to remove and compost the cuttings elsewhere.

Top tip: wildflowers do better in poor soils as they don’t have to compete with more dominant grasses and other plants that thrive in rich soils. You don’t need to enrich your pollinator patch and, ideally, it should be away from a compost heap so that the decomposition of organic matter doesn’t add extra nutrients to your patch.

Step 2- prepare your ground

Now use a rake to scrape (scarify) the ground to create bare soil, aim for at least 50% bare soil but you don’t need to scarify the whole area. When scarifying try to avoid desirable species already present in your patch like primrose, oxeye daisy, etc.

Step 3 - time to plant!

It's time to add native wildflower seeds, which can be done in one of three ways:

Wildflower seed mix: many online retailers, such as Emorsgate, Landlife and British Flora, sell a native wildflower seed mix. It’s best to buy a perennial mix so that you don’t need to re-sow every autumn. If you're looking for a bright and showy patch then you can add in an annuals mix (native) as a bonus but remember that they may not come back in subsequent years without being re-seeded.
Green hay: this method is often cheaper than buying a seed mix but can be tricky to get hold of. If you can find a landowner/manager with a species-rich hay meadow, you can ask them if you can take (or buy) some of their green hay. You’ll then spread (strew) this over your patch and as it dries the seeds will drop onto the scarified ground. The more local your source of green hay the better as the plants will be better adapted to local conditions.
Wildflower turf: this is the most expensive method and is generally only used if you miss the optimum seed-sowing window. You can buy turf from specialist suppliers who sow and grow wildflowers in it instead of amenity-value grass species. The benefit of using turf is that within a few weeks you’ll (more or less) have an instant meadow. However, intensive care (ground prep and watering) is required before, and for the first few weeks after, laying. The downside, besides cost, is that the plants will not be as well adapted to your local conditions.
Top tip: it's not essential to add a wildflower seed mix. If you're on a budget and are prepared to wait a little longer, sensitive ongoing management will create a more diverse mix of floral species and grasses. This is arguably a more ecologically-sound method n the sense that you’ll end up with a mix of species that are better adapted to the local area and microclimates. You can do a trial run of allowing your patch to grow through spring and summer with no cut (and without sowing any seed) to see what pops up. Just cut it short again in late August, remove the cuttings and repeat each year.

At the same time as sowing your wildflower seed, you can plant spring-flowering bulbs like native bluebells, native daffodils, lesser celandines, snake's-head fritillaries (likes damp ground), wild garlic, snowdrops and wood anemones.

Top tip: plant bulbs in clumps or swathes of 10-15 for a more natural look, at a depth of roughly three times the height of the bulb.

Step 4 - caring for your pollinator patch

You’ll now need to commit to a sensitive ongoing management regime. In late August, after your patch has flowered, set seed and ‘gone over’, cut the patch down to the ground and take the cuttings off to be composted elsewhere. You can leave the patch to go through the same cycle over the next year without any intervention, simply cut again next August. The exception to this might be if we have a particularly damp and mild spring and the grasses have waged war on your wildflowers. If the grass has had a particularly good spring and is growing like billy-o, you can do a late-March cut/mow to knock them back a bit and give the wildflowers a head-start.

Top tip: If you have particularly dominant grasses, sowing yellow rattle seeds in subsequent years can help redress the balance between grasses and herbs (wildflowers) as it parasitises grasses.
Top tip: Over time you might find that other insects, such as grasshoppers and crickets, move into your patch. Once it's established, and if you've got space, you might like to leave a small area uncut each year to help them complete their lifecycle.

Overall, the pollinator patch creation process is a fairly straightforward one; create bare ground, sow seeds (and bulbs if desired), cut once per year at the end of summer and remove cuttings. What isn’t straightforward is what your patch will look like! The weather, local microclimates, soil type and condition will all influence what does or doesn’t thrive in your patch. It’s important to be patient, nature moves at her own speed. Ongoing sensitive management will ensure that your patch gets better and better with time.