Growing a Pollinator Garden Habitat in Your Yard or Garden

Written by: Luke Marion

Published on August 29, 2015

Updated on September 1, 2026

When it comes to pollinators, they could not be more vital to the garden! And I’m not just talking about honeybees, but bumblebees, flies, butterflies, ants, and all other pollinators.

A bee pollinating a flower in a pollinator garden.

Why is pollination so important? So many of the fruits and vegetables that we consume on a daily basis are produced with the help of pollinators. If we give pollinating insects a good home in the garden, they will do us a great favor.

So let’s talk about how to make a pollinator garden and the few things you never want to do when trying to attract pollinators into your garden!

Flowers That Attract Pollinators

Seeds of Regret

Don’t plant “shouldabeen” seeds! Those might start out small and harmless, but in the end, they only yield doubt and negativity. Instead, plant “willbe” seeds that grow into strong, optimistic plants, with goals and ambitions rooted in positivity. It’s much better to jump in and just start gardening than to let fear about getting it wrong hold you back!

MIgardener is here to help your “willbe” seeds thrive with top-quality content in the form of weekly videos and tutorials on the MIgardener YouTube channel and free professional gardening advice in blog posts like these:

What Is A Pollinator Garden

A pollinator garden is an outdoor space specifically designed to attract and feed birds, bees, butterflies, and other beneficial pollinators by providing the essential habitat elements these creatures need.

Whether you plan to create a dedicated pollinator garden, or your aim is to attract more beneficial pollinators to your vegetable garden or orchard, the following information will be essential to your success.

Biodiversity Is Key to Attracting Pollinators

The first mistake that most people make is not planting enough biodiversity to attract pollinators. Many gardeners have a favorite plant or flower that they basically monoculture, but you are limiting the pollinators that will be attracted because different pollinators are attracted to different flowers.

Plus, if pollinators come into an area with only one food source, the pollinators will have nothing to eat when that flowering season is done. They must move on.

Instead, you want to have year-round color, or something blooming all growing season long. This gives more time for pollinators to enter and stick around to pollinate other crops.

Plant More!

The second common mistake that I see people making when planting out a pollinator garden is not planting enough. Adding a single flower pot or just a couple flowers in hopes that it will attract pollinators is just wishful thinking.

It will likely get passed over for bigger patches of flowers somewhere else. Instead, you want large blocks of color that can be seen from a distance.

Pollinators are highly opportunistic. The energy that they exert getting from point A to your garden needs to be met with some type of reward. They will always gravitate towards the closest and largest food source possible.

A question I get asked a lot on the MIgardener YouTube channel is, "Why are the plants in my patio (or rooftop) garden not attracting any bees?" Bees simply will not waste their time with just 2 or 3 isolated flowers because it’s not worth their while. I would say you need a bare minimum of 10 pollinator-friendly plants in order to start bringing bees in.

Pollinator Gardens Need a Water Feature

Another big mistake to avoid is not providing a water feature in your pollinator garden! If you do not have a water feature close by, it’s not going to encourage them to stay in your garden.

Pollinators need to drink, just like you and I do. Regardless of the type of insect, the pollinator will often feed and then drink shortly after.

As you saw in the video, I am putting a bird bath right in the center of my pollinator garden. And I am making it a pollinator hydration station by filling it with stones or marbles. This way, bees should be able to drink from the shallow water almost anywhere in the bird bath.

Pollinators, like honeybees and butterflies, will not go to deep water to drink because it is a drowning risk. They will stay around the edges of the bird bath, but that really limits the surface area that they can drink from.

To make a bee drinking station, add stones or marbles to a shallow dish or bird bath. Fill the dish with water only one quarter to one half inch deeper than the top of most of the stones. If you have the tops of some of the stones exposed, even better!

Providing Food In a Pollinator Garden

The final, and I think top, mistake that most gardeners make when planting out a pollinator garden is not providing enough food for the pollinators. Now you may be thinking, “What? They are attracted to and feeding on the flowers.”

There are many flowers that do not provide adequate nutrition for pollinators! A prime example is the butterfly bush. A butterfly bush has a lot of beautiful flowers, but it doesn’t provide the nutritional sustenance that a good pollen-containing flower or nectar-containing flower provides.

Pollinator food sources can be broken down into two categories: proteins and carbohydrates. Pollen is like your protein, while nectar is like your carbohydrate, and you need a good combination of both in a pollinator garden!

There are a lot of flowers that provide both pollen and nectar, and some flowers provide either pollen or nectar, but if you have flowers with poor nutritional content, there is not a lot of reason for pollinators to stick around.

Do your research when choosing the plants for your pollinator garden. Remember, just because a flower is beautiful does not mean it will attract pollinators! Here are a few of the plants that I chose for my pollinator garden:

I hope this helps, and I hope you have success attracting a lot of pollinators to your garden!

Should I add a pollinator house to my pollinator garden?

Yes, a bee house or butterfly house is a wonderful option, and I would recommend adding them to your garden, but they are not necessities. It is enough to simply provide a quality food source with lots of biodiversity and access to water. That will keep pollinators in your garden all summer long!

How do I make my yard a pollinator garden?

You could plant a lawn that has varieties of clover in it. We let the clover in our lawn bloom before mowing to give the bees a chance to have a food source. Also, you can plant pollinator-friendly flowers in borders and pots around the edges and in any landscaping. And don’t forget to add a water feature!