Pollinators and beneficial bugs are your best gardening friends, and they too need a little helping hand to survive the cold and harsh months of winter – especially in cold climates! Yes, beetles, bees, ladybirds and even moths will need shelters to hide, food and water over the long months when the Sun is low and temperatures drop below freezing, and as you know, good (organic) gardening is not only about plants and flowers, or crops… It is very much about maintaining a healthy ecosystem, even if you only have a small garden.
Keep your pollinators and beneficial insects safe, warm and well-watered and fed in late fall and winter, and they will come back strong and lively to help you in spring, when you need them to fertilize flowers, and to keep noxious bugs in check!
And here are w tips for you!
Tip 1 – Leave Fallen Leaves on Your Lawn or Land – Like a Warm Blanket for Insects to Face Winter!
The first thing you could do to keep insects and pollinators safe and warm during winter is literally nothing! Yes, you can simply leave all the foliage that has dropped from trees, shrubs and other plants on your land, and especially in your lawn…
These leaves will keep them warm of course, but they will also provide safe corridors where they can move, even under the snow!
Tip 2 – Leave a Pile of Leaves or Use Them to Mulch Flower Beds and Borders to Protect Pollinators and Beneficial Insects If You Need Compost
“Ok,” you may say, “but this leaves my garden in a mess, and then I need foliage for composting!” And I can see your point… So, please go ahead, collect most of the foliage you have in your garden, but save some to make a heap or more in a sheltered corner of your garden, it will be enough to keep beneficial insects and pollinators warm in winter, especially if it is near a food and water source.
Alternatively, you can use fallen leaves to mulch flower beds and borders, so, saving money and tiny little lives at the same time – like saving two pigeons with one stone…
And this leads me to the next point!
Tip 3 – Mulch Will Protect Pollinators and Beneficial Insects from the Cold of Winter!
Here again, you will get two benefits (or more) if you mulch as much of your garden as you can… On the one hand, you will protect the soil, on the other you will give shelter to insects and pollinators.
Depending on the type of mulch you use, you could also provide little helping bugs with some food, and even a source of water. Some types of mulch decompose fairly fast, or trap nutrients, so, you will be serving them a regular dinner as well. Others, like wood chips, hold water for a long time, and that’s good for thirsty little garden workers!
Tip 4 – Grow Winter Crops to Feed Your Soil, Your Family, Pollinators and Beneficial Insects!
It is such a pity to leave a garden to no use during winter! You can always grow winter crops in your vegetable patch, or even in your empty flower beds if you want. Ornamental cabbages tick both boxes (they are edible when young), to give you a fun example. This way, you will also give good insects protection and food…
But there is more, rather than leaving land uncovered, and a real issue for little insects to cross or hide in, grow what we call “green mulch”, which are usually nitrogen fixing plants or crops like alfalfa. It will protect your soil and your six-legged friends as well!
Tip 5 – Leave Logs Around Your Garden in Winter,Beetles and Other Beneficial Insects Will Call It Home!
Please save any good wood from the rains of winter, or burn it in your fireplace, but how about all those half rotting logs? They are perfect for beetles and other little helping insects! They provide all they need, in fact, heat, food and even humidity! So, leave them in sheltered positions over the cold months.
In fact, they may even spend all the winter living there, and even have “little children” during this season, so your army of tiny helpers will be much stronger in spring…
One thing is important: the logs must have started to rot; this will give insects a way in, like a door to their new home. If they are healthy and hard, they won’t work for them, and they will be much more useful to you!
Or, even better…
Tip 6 – Build a Little Beetle and Insect Sanctuary – For Winter and All Year Round!
Still recycling old logs, you cannot use any more, you can literally build a little beetle and insect nursery or sanctuary. It is very easy…
- Find a sheltered place in your garden, it must have shade and be protected from winds, like under a tree by the back wall or hedge… Near your compost heap, those places we never know what to do with.
- Simply pile up the wood logs horizontally to form a triangle, or a pyramid.
- If it is not stable, fix it with wire or even chicken wire.
That’s it! Do it now, and then keep it as a permanent feature of your garden, adding new wood as beetles and insects eat away at the old logs.
Or you can go mire fancy if you want… I have seen some shaped as a little house, literally, with different compartments, and it is a lovely and educational DIY job to do with your children!
Tip 7 – Leave Any Plants That Have Pithy or Woody Stems – They Are Hiding Places for Beneficial Insects and Pollinators
Here is another very easy, even lazy chore for you to protect insects and pollinators in your winter garden. Simply leave as many perennials with pithy and woody stems standing over winter.
These hollow stems will space for pollinators to lay eggs and shelter larvae, so, when you cut them back in spring, you will have many more little helpers to keep your garden fertile and alive!
If you find thus leaves your garden looking messy, only cut them back to 18 to 24 inches (45 to 60 cm), this is plenty for our little friends to lay their eggs!
Tip 8 – Grow Winter Flowering Plants to Feed Early Pollinators and Beneficial Insects
You can still keep your garden flowering in winter if you grow varieties that blossom at this time. But this has another benefit: on warmer days, some pollinators may pop out of their shelter to have “a quick snack” in the brisk air…
What is more, many pollinators become active by late winter, always depending on the climate, and they often find little food to fill their bellies, so, don’t leave them hungry, or they won’t be much help to your garden!
Tip 9 – Provide Fresh Water for Pollinators and Beneficial Insects to Drink over Winter!
Insects do drink, and they do it in winter too. But they cannot drink ice! So,when temperatures drop below freezing, provide water that they can drink! And if this season is dry where you live, you should make sure they have it all the time.
Take bees, for example, they spend most of winter safe and warm in their hives, but when temperatures rise above 40oF (or 5.0oC), some of them sometimes go out, often to drink, and that’s why a source of fresh water will help them a lot.
A bowl of water is not a good idea, though, they may fall in and you would need to refill it, or it may freeze… It’s far better to leave some manure in a wet spot, or even compost, or anything that warms up the moisture in the soil, these tiny insects need very little water indeed, and they can suck it from warm and moist organic matter!
Tip 10 – Use Bamboo Reeds as Homes for Ladybirds (and Other little Insects)
Especially ladybirds, but also other beetles and small insects, like to hide in little sheltered tunnels in winter. Bamboo reeds are of the perfect size for this, but anything on this scale will do, especially if insulating…
Make a little sheaf and fasten it with string or wire. But do not place it on the ground, they like to keep high up… So, you can place it on a wall, in a hedge, or hang it in a sheltered corner of your garden. When the heat of spring heats them up, they will come out and start tending to your garden!
You could even incorporate this as part of your bug sanctuary… Talking of which…
Tip 11 – Sawdust Is a Perfect Nursery for Beetles!
A pile of sawdust with a cover will invite beetles to lay eggs in it! And then their larvae (which are often quite big!!!) will live in there all through the cold season, and emerge as adults in spring. But it works better if you cover it, even with an old rug, to keep them warm and moist.
Tip 12- Grow Early Flowering Plants to Feed Beneficial Insects and Pollinators Early in the Season
Some insects, like ladybirds / ladybugs, beetles, and wasps, and above all, the greater pollinators of them all, bumblebees go into hibernation (called “diapause” for bugs); others, like bees hide in their hives for most of winter. Others spend this season as caterpillars, including many butterflies.Butwhen they wake up, they need food and water!
So, grow some early flowering plants, which will offer nutrition in late winter and early spring, and give your garden helpers a healthy start!
Tip 13 – Protect Your Bee Hives from the Cold of Winter
If you have a beehive, you should protect it from the cold of winter, and if you are a beekeeper you may already know how to… But here are two tips for you:
- Close down some of the hive’s entrances. They won’t need many in winter, because bees hardly leave their home in this season. On the contrary, these will let cold in, and also parasites and even predators (like hornets).
- Insulate the hive, to keep the bees warm, of course.
But even if you don’t have a hive, you can still help nearby colonies with all the other tips I have given you so far, especially with water, which they should always have within 500 meters (yards) from their homes… And here we go then! Give your little garden friends some TLC now, and they will do much of your work for you come spring!
Written By
Amber Noyes
Amber Noyes was born and raised in a suburban California town, San Mateo. She holds a master’s degree in horticulture from the University of California as well as a BS in Biology from the University of San Francisco. With experience working on an organic farm, water conservation research, farmers’ markets, and plant nursery, she understands what makes plants thrive and how we can better understand the connection between microclimate and plant health. When she’s not on the land, Amber loves informing people of new ideas/things related to gardening, especially organic gardening, houseplants, and growing plants in a small space.