We sometimes have to give up a little something in our gardens in order to help further generations. In my case, further generations mean two things. My children and their children and further generations of pollinators.

My daughter recently has taken an interest in growing herbs. She had included parsley, dill and fennel in her herb garden. Recently, she found out that a very interesting insect was taking advantage of her desire to raise herbs. Black Swallowtail caterpillars. They moved in and were eating all of her dill plants!

In the past, all of my children have found, raised and released Monarch caterpillars. I know of several other families that took their summers to use their gardens as a living laboratory, which also included raising Monarch caterpillars. My children have not seen the Black Swallowtail caterpillars in the garden for some time.

We need to sometimes sacrifice a few things in order for further generations to have the ability to use a garden as a living laboratory too. In my daughter’s case, she decided to sacrifice the dill for the caterpillars. We are letting the caterpillars do their thing so we can enjoy them later when they become the beautiful butterflies. We have another generation of people who will be able to enjoy the beautiful butterflies and other pollinators because I have turned half of my lawn into a pollinator lawn using a grant from BWSR.

It takes time to take a piece of lawn and make it into a magnet for pollinating insects. The first couple of years it takes a little extra time to work on keeping the weeds under control but eventually, a pollinator garden will take over the spot with all sorts of native flowers and native grasses.

It is just as important to have assorted grasses in the seed mix because some species need them to lay their eggs. In particular, the Dakota Skipper Butterfly uses Little Bluestem grass as a caterpillar to forage.

If having a wild or naturalized garden in your yard is not for you, you can also plant a butterfly garden. Monarch butterflies are now on the endangered species list. It is time for as many of us as possible to allow certain plants to grow in our gardens, our fields or ditches. Monarchs need milkweed to survive. If you have never smelled a milkweed plant in full bloom, you are missing some of the best fragrances you will have ever had to experience in our home gardens.

Annuals, perennials, native plants and grasses all can be grown in our home gardens. We can manage them in a formal setting to letting them grow wild in our gardens. The most important plants that we can grow are those that are favored by pollinators.

Annuals include sunflowers such as the dwarf sunflowers, Salvia, black-eyed Susans, sneezeweed, zinnia and Butter Daisy plants. Native plants can include Lupine, Blazing Star, Coneflowers, Cup plant. Native grasses include side oats gramma, Canada wildrye, Indian grass and Switchgrass.

Trees and shrubs that pollinators will depend on include: Wild roses such as the Nearly Wild Rose, Lilacs, Serviceberry, Chokeberry, Hazelnut, Nannyberry, Mock Orange Shrubs, Arctic Willow, and Spirea. Weeping willow, Red Maples, Showy Mountain Ash, or Yellowwood are also some great choices.

For more information about gardening or how to become a Master Gardener (sign up for classes is soon!, please email me at dejaegherefarm@gmail.com