Every week should be pollinator week

National Pollinator week was June 19-25, 2017…

but, hey, every week should be pollinator week in our gardens.  http://www.pollinator.org/guides  provides a terrific plant finder to ensure you are supporting our pollinators year round.  For example, in our climate zone 8, the following make good and drought tolerant choices to attract the right bugs each month coming up:    

    

Hellebore in rare January sunshine

A few plant choices to keep blooms going all year:

July – Gaura, Eryngium ‘Sapphire Blue’

Aug – Coreopsis ‘Moonlight’

Sept – Penstemon Campanulatus ‘Garnet’

Oct – single Rudbeckias and Asters

Nov – Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’

Dec – Fatsia Japonica, Hammemelis (witchhazel)

Jan – Hellebores and Mahonia x media ‘Charity’ 

It’s not too late to sow and transplant veggies.  According to Steve Solomon’s Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades, you can still sow cucumbers, summer squash, melons, snap beans, beets, carrots, lettuce, broccoli, fall and winter cabbage, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower and scallions in June and transplant seedlings of peppers, eggplant and melon. 

Tips from Corvallis Evening Garden Club:

Put off pruning evergreens until early December to have greens for holiday décor

If you let your lawn go dormant in summer (good for water conservation) avoid walking on it till it greens up—it can turn to dust and not recover

Don’t forget water for wildlife!  A simple large plant saucer or other shallow bowl on a stump will attract birds, bees and other insects.  Change it often to discourage mosquitoes and prevent disease among birds.

Try a conversation starter plant by the sidewalk…

Voodoo Lily – Drucunculus Vulgaris

Beware the aroma - this flower is pollinated by flies and smells like something that would attract them.  It's exotic beauty makes it worth the occasional whiff, though.