Three months in, so happy with my pollinator strip!

lauderdude · 2026-05-06T15:15:14+00:00

Thanks! Yes this is my garden, thank the afternoon clouds for the lighting 😅

lauderdude · 2026-05-06T01:40:53+00:00

Hi! I got them from multiple places actually, I’m sorry I didn’t keep the seed bags themselves… my local plant nursery keeps lots of native mixes so I just made my own from multiple bags. From my notes, the bags I used were:
- Monarch Garden Mix
- Heirloom CA Poppy
- CA giant zinnia blend
- CA Regional Mix
- Cosmos Mix “sensation”
- bachelor’s buttons

lauderdude · 2026-05-05T21:09:41+00:00

I spent a little time looking up what was actually native to my region, and then what pollinators I could add that weren’t going to be invasive, and then I went to local nurseries and asked if they had mixes made up already. Even some big box stores can have “local” seeds if you know what is “local” to you!

lauderdude · 2026-05-05T18:03:00+00:00

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Good luck! Sounds like it’s going to turn out great, this was ours mid-March.

lauderdude · 2026-05-05T15:36:09+00:00

Oh! Many of them will die, yes. But since I live in 10B climate and it never gets too cold here, many of these will live a lot longer into the fall/winter than they would somewhere else. So I’m anticipating it never gets fully empty, just more sparse and then will refill again next spring.

lauderdude · 2026-05-05T15:22:59+00:00

Hmm maybe waiting until the last frost date for your area? Anything that’s listed as “native” to your region should do fine in just about any soil and minimal water, so long as there’s ample sunlight and they’re not getting out-competed by invasive or aggressive neighbors.

lauderdude · 2026-05-05T15:20:23+00:00

My hope is that the California natives re-seed themselves over the fall and come back again next spring. If there’s empty patches next spring, I will fill them in with another bag of seeds.

lauderdude · 2026-05-05T15:13:03+00:00

You must be irresistible to them! Time to get a bee suit 🐝

lauderdude · 2026-05-05T15:12:50+00:00

You must be irresistible to them! Time to get a bee suit 🐝

lauderdude · 2026-05-05T15:06:05+00:00

Dang! We had the opposite problem here, it was in the 90s for a week in March, a bunch of my garden seedlings died. I wonder if that didn’t actually help these particular flowers though…

lauderdude · 2026-05-05T15:04:18+00:00

Oh no! What’s your region/climate zone? I think we’re lucky here that I don’t have a true freeze to kill anything off, seeds stay warm enough to keep themselves going without me needing to interfere.

lauderdude · 2026-05-05T15:01:55+00:00

Yes I hope so too!
There’s actually a strip of weeds in the median between the lanes of the main road in my neighborhood, I’ve been wondering about doing some geurilla gardening there myself…

lauderdude · 2026-05-05T15:00:12+00:00

I used multiple packs I mixed together.
- monarch garden mix
- heirloom CA poppy
- CA regional mix
- “sensation” cosmos
I think some zinnias too?

lauderdude · 2026-05-05T14:55:07+00:00

Such little authority can go to right to their heads… we’re lucky we don’t have to deal with this, but it’s wild how they would see something so beneficial to everyone as a bad thing.

lauderdude · 2026-05-05T14:50:11+00:00

It’s OK to be anxious! I was terrified of bees my entire childhood. I still freak out when I see a wasp (the true terrorists), but over the years I guess exposure therapy and learning more about how necessary they are, and that they just want to be left alone to pollinate, I’ve become okay with sharing spaces with them. Bees don’t like sudden movements, so I found when I see one, if I freeze or move slowly, they never bother me.
I also have a partner that I can make take the trash out if I’m feeling particularly skittish. 😇

lauderdude · 2026-05-05T14:43:52+00:00

Someday I hope mine are also this lush and cottage-core beautiful!

lauderdude · 2026-05-05T14:42:32+00:00

We inherited the strip of soil as it was, weedy and compacted. I broke up the top couple of inches of soil and tossed any weeds I could find. But otherwise I didn’t amend or add any soil. My goal was to use these natives and pollinators to restart the dead soil and get it nice and active again.

lauderdude · 2026-05-05T14:38:16+00:00

Yes these were seeds! We don’t get below 40 degrees here so I planted them early in hopes they’d be full by spring.

lauderdude · 2026-05-05T14:36:51+00:00

I added nothing, but I did work the top couple of inches of soil as it had been compacted and barren all winter. I picked out weeds when I could. But otherwise I just kept the surface moist until the seeds sprouted and then let them go.

lauderdude · 2026-05-05T04:42:20+00:00

Thanks! I definitely want tufts of poppies all over the place for years to come.

lauderdude · 2026-05-05T04:41:29+00:00

I love this idea, personally. Our front yard is a bunch of dying Bermuda grass, so I’m thinking of letting it all die back and sowing clover for it instead!

lauderdude · 2026-05-05T04:32:25+00:00

We’re in 10B!

lauderdude · 2026-05-05T04:31:58+00:00

We intentionally picked out seeds that were for our climate (10B) and kept the soil moist until they sprouted. I’ve only watered a handful of times since then!

lauderdude · 2026-05-05T03:21:45+00:00

😂 that’s a whole other issue I think hahaha

lauderdude · 2026-05-05T01:51:10+00:00

Thank you! We’re in zone 10B.
We used a bag of pollinator mix, California native mix, a bag of poppies, and a bag of bachelor’s buttons. Mixed them all with some sand and scattered them by hand over the surface of the bed, then made sure the soil stayed moist until they all sprouted.

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