I would love to introduce you to Ann Winslow. (Yep, another Ann!) She spent time creating a native pollinator garden in her Colorado yard during the Covid shutdown in 2020.
She wanted to attract more pollinators—like native bees and hummingbirds—to her yard, so she decided to create a garden using native plants.
If you’re new to native plants…
They are plants that have naturally existed in an area for hundreds of years. They weren’t introduced through the European settlers.
Many of the flower plants we find at the garden center can trace their heritage back to places like the East Coast or Europe, where the climate, local insects and wildlife can be quite different.
Native western plants offer high-quality sources of food and shelter for native bees, butterflies, birds and more. These plants and critters have evolved together and sometimes depend on each other.
Ann kindly agreed to let me interview her and share her story—from her tips on creating a native pollinator garden in Colorado, to the lessons she learned, to what she would do differently next time.
Go West Gardener (GWG): Ann, thanks so much for sharing your garden with me today.
Ann Winslow: My pleasure!
GWG: Why did you decide to create your garden?
Ann W: I wanted to attract and support native pollinators.
I’ve read several books by a man named Doug Tallamy that were life changing for me. His recent book, Nature’s Best Hope, is all about how to create environments in our yard that are supportive to pollinators. He suggests looking at our yards as small national parks that can serve as wildlife habitats.
GWG: I’m halfway through that book. It’s eye opening. When did you create your native pollinator garden?
Ann W: Back in 2020 during the summer of the lockdown. It was a crazy time, but it was wonderful therapy to be creating a garden in Colorado.
GWG: So true! I think a lot of us spent time outside in our yards. Have you ever created a pollinator garden before?
I created a waterwise garden at my last house, but no, this was my first time trying anything like this.
GWG: I understand that some of your yard was lawn before you started. How did you go about getting rid of your grass?
Ann W: We hired a local guy who dug it up with shovels.
The garden bed existed from the previous homeowners, but we changed the shape and took out some grass. We also took out the turf grass on our property next to our neighbor’s house.
And my husband and I removed most of the existing shrubs and an overgrown arborvitae.
GWG: How did you go about figuring out which native plants you wanted to include in your garden?
Ann W: I looked for plants that were native to Colorado first. Then, I branched out to plants that were native to our region of the country.
I started with the plants that the Colorado Native Plant Society and the Colorado State University Extension talk about on their websites. I also looked at the City of Boulder and City of Fort Collins websites because they have helpful information for their citizens.
I used Plant Select too.
Plant Select is a non-profit collaboration between Denver Botanic Gardens and Colorado State University. They test and select plants that thrive in the high plains and intermountain west, including native plants.
The main thing I looked for was whether the plant had a simple flower that pollinators could get into. If a flower bloom is too profuse, sometimes the pollinators can’t get in there.
Photo caption: Several of the plants in Ann’s native pollinator garden in Colorado
GWG: What if people don’t have a lot of time to do research on native plants?
Ann W: I got a Garden in a Box from Resource Central for one of my other gardens, and it was a great solution. It’s a pre-planned garden for Colorado, and it comes with a design for your plants. Many of their pre-planned gardens include native plants.
GWG: Did you do anything special to get your garden ready for your plants?
Ann W: The native plants that I planted on the south side of my house like drier conditions. So, the only thing I did was mix about one-third expanded shale into some of the plant holes I was digging. I found the expanded shale at Harlequin’s Gardens in Boulder.
Expanded shale is like a lightweight, porous gravel that can get mixed into the soil [dirt] to help with water drainage and soil oxygen.
I have heavy clay soil. My prairie plants seem to love the clay—I think that may be why my prairie zinnia is doing so well.
But for some of my other plants, they need better drainage and more air around their roots. That’s where the expanded shale helps.
GWG: How did you go about designing your native pollinator garden? Did you hire a landscape designer?
Ann W: No, I didn’t hire a designer. I went online for designs.
I was looking for something similar to what I wanted to do in my garden, which was to extend the bed into a large semi-circle. I looked for similar designs and got some plant ideas from there. I also looked at how they placed plants.
The Colorado Native Plant Society has some simple designs for various regions across Colorado. They have ones for the plains, the foothills, the montane region and more. I looked at their designs for the plains and foothills and worked with those.
The City of Fort Collins had designs online. And Plant Select has garden designs online too.
And I recently saw that Wild Ones Front Range has a native garden design on their website too.
GWG: Knowing what you know now, what would you do differently if you could go back in time?
Ann W: If I could go back, I would take more time with upfront planning.
I’d tell myself to take the time to really get to know my site and what kind of sunlight it gets. Go outside several times per day and at different points in the spring and summer to see how the sunlight is. Be aware of how things may shade the garden, like overhangs from your house or trees that may be 10 feet away.
I thought I knew my sunlight, but I think being more thorough would have been helpful. I have some plants reaching for the sun and others that didn’t make it because they didn’t get enough sun.
GWG: That’s a great tip. What else?
Ann W: I’d also tell myself to buy fewer plants and see how things go.
I think I overbought, and having invested the money, I felt like I needed to get all the plants in the ground. I ended up planting things too close together. The blue flax [flowers] are not as pretty as they could be because the plants are so close together. They’re one large mass. Their lovely shape and ferny look can’t be appreciated.
And I’d pay more attention to how irrigation affects the garden, even if we aren’t directly spraying it with water. Many native plants prefer low water, so you have to be careful with how the irrigation system for your lawn butts up to your garden.
And how does your neighbor’s watering affect your plants? Does their water drift over? We have a few plants that are probably getting more water than they prefer and may not live as long.
GWG: I’ve never thought about how my neighbor’s sprinklers can affect my plants, but I can see how that’s important to consider. On the topic of water, how often do you water?
Ann W: I haven’t watered the entire garden once this season [as of late June 2022], even with the heat and dry periods we’ve had this summer in Colorado.
But I have watered some individual plants—like anything that’s newly planted, the hyssop [Agastache rupestris] so it has plenty of blooms for the hummingbirds, and a native bee balm [Monarda fistulosa] that just showed up.
But even with those plants, I’ve only watered them maybe once a week if we haven’t had a soaking rain.
GWG: Wow, that’s awesome! What about when you first planted your garden?
Ann W: That first summer, I watered the plants by hand just about every day from June to mid-July to help them get established.
After that, I cut back the watering to about twice a week.
GWG: What’s your favorite plant in your native pollinator garden and why?
Ann W: I’d have to say chocolate flower [Berlandiera lyrata]. It’s a profuse bloomer. The pollinators love it. It smells good…
GWG: Like chocolate!
Ann W: Yes!
It’s very hardy, and it spreads.
I also really love the blue flax [Linum lewisii]. You don’t find a lot of flowers that are blue. I like the airiness, and the small bees seem to really like it.
GWG: What are some of the other plants that are thriving in your garden?
Ann W: The prairie zinnia [Zinnia grandiflora] is thriving.
The blue grama grass [Bouteloua gracilis]—it’s given us numerous volunteers.
The KANNAH CREEK buckwheat [Eriogonum umbellatum var. aureum]. It has a beautiful, mounding shape. It has yellow flowers in the spring, and then the foliage turns burgundy in the fall through winter.
The Sunset hyssop [Agastache rupestris]. I’ve seen hummingbirds visiting it.
The hummingbirds also like the Furman’s Red sage [Salvia greggii] and the red yucca [Hesperaloe parviflora].
And the blanket flower [Gaillardia aristata]. It’s a prolific bloomer, and the bees like it. I’ve seen Spotted Towhees [western birds] scratching around it, looking for insects.
GWG: What do you like most about having a native pollinator garden in Colorado?
Ann W: It’s the pollinators. Because it’s alive, it fills my heart with joy. I feel like I’m helping in some tiny way.
We see a lot of variety in the bees visiting the garden. Big bees. A lot of small, native bees. You can see hundreds of insects buzzing around in the late-day sunlight.
And we get those Spotted Towhees [western birds]. That’s been a bonus we didn’t expect.
GWG: What advice do you have for people who’d like to create a native pollinator garden?
Ann W: I’d say do your research.
Talk to people who are knowledgeable about native plants. I think it would have been helpful if someone had said, ‘You have too many plants in here and it’s going to get really crowded. You need to take some plants out.’
You just want to pop all the plants in the ground and say, “Go do your thing!” but it does take some thinking and planning.
GWG: I can relate to that. It’s tempting to want to jump into buying plants, but planning makes things easier later. What other tips do you have?
Ann W: I’d say write down what your plants are and keep track of what you’re learning. You will make mistakes. That’s been hard for me to acknowledge. I’m a perfectionist—I want to get it right from the start.
The magical thing about it is you see what nature does on its own. You find yourself saying, “Wow, I did nothing to that and look what happened.” That’s another reason it may be a good idea to not buy too many plants in the beginning.
GWG: And you mentioned irrigation earlier…
Ann W: Yes, think about your irrigation.
If you want to remove your grass but you have trees, you need to have a drip irrigation system for your trees, so they can still get water. Group your plants together by their water needs.
And talk to your neighbors upfront and tell them what you’re doing.
Initially, the neighbors next door weren’t very excited about what we were doing. You have to turn your sprinkler system off while you’re creating the garden, and our lawn suffered for a little while. But we talked to them and explained what we were doing, and they were okay.
By mid-summer, the lawn was fine.
GWG: What kind of reaction do you get from neighbors now?
Ann W: People stop by and say, “That’s really pretty!”
GWG: I agree with your neighbors, Ann, and it’s cool to see so many types of bees. Thank you for sharing your great tips for creating a native pollinator garden in Colorado.
Ann W: It’s been a pleasure to talk with you about this!
If you love having a garden…
… that’s buzzing with activity (hummingbirds, butterflies, bees or other pollinators) or you want to create a garden with pollinators in mind (many of whom are losing their natural habitat), put native plants on your radar.
You can start from scratch like Ann did.
Or, you can simply work native plants into your garden as you can, especially if you have an existing garden. These plants are surprisingly adaptable to different garden styles.
And if you’d like to learn more about Ann’s yard transformation…
… she wrote a series of articles about her experiences below:
Related topics that may interest you:
- “How do I attract bees and butterflies to my garden?”
- Why bees and butterflies are like puppies and kittens
- Where to buy native plants in Colorado
