By DEBORAH G. SCANLON

The backyard is blooming with an array of plants, from hydrangeas, mountain mint, ornamental oregano, verbena, allium to coneflowers. Pollinating insects feed on the nectar and pollen, and drink the moisture from dewdrops. Hummingbirds use the soft fiber from the leaves of lamb’s ear to line their nests.  

Lauren and Josh Leveque’s pollinator-friendly garden at their Woods Hole home reflects the skills they practice in their business, Little Harbor Gardens, where landscape design is incorporated into the natural environment.

Allium “Summer Beauty”

As designers with backgrounds in fine arts, Ms. Leveque said, they have found it increasingly interesting “to consider pollinators when we are creating gardens, in addition to our typical design considerations for enjoyment of a garden, such as landscape context, color, texture and a sequence of bloom. This means extending the bloom season for a long season, paying extra attention to the ‘shoulder seasons’ of spring and fall, planting a variety of flower forms, planting in groupings,” all of which enhance pollinator value.

 Recently they created a pollinator garden at the Woods Hole Public Library in honor of retired librarian Margaret McCormick. The library cleared invasive plants from a forgotten corner behind the library, and Little Harbor Gardens planted flowers to attract bees and other insects that move pollen from plant to plant, fertilizing and producing fruits and seeds.

 According to the National Park Service, one out of every three bites of food you eat exists because of the efforts of pollinators, including many fruits, vegetables, and seeds.

For local pollinators, the Leveques point out, there are 300 bee species that are native to Massachusetts. Other pollinators include butterflies, moths, wasps, hummingbirds and beetles.

In the library’s pollinator garden, they planted a mix of bushes such as seven-son flower, “Haas Halo” wild hydrangea, northern bayberry, native beach plum; perennials including “Summer Beauty” ornamental allium, beach wormwood, butterfly weed, white wild indigo, Ozark coneflower, eastern bee balm, wild quinine, foxglove beardtongue, short-toothed mountain mint, slender mountain mint, “Vera Jameson” stonecrop, “October Skies” aromatic aster; and grasses such as purple love grass, “Cape Breeze” switchgrass and “Tara” prairie dropseed.

In selecting perennials for a pollinator-friendly garden, they recommend reliable, drought-tolerant, animal-resistant flowers, choosing as many different flower types that bloom for as long as possible, allowing the pollinators to be sustained through the entire season.

Hydrangea paniculata “Kyushu”

Flower shapes are important. Black-eyed Susan and coneflowers appeal to all kinds of pollinators because the pollen is easy to access. Spike flowers such as foxglove beardtongue, with their long, narrow flower shape, are ideal for attracting hummingbirds, honey bees and bumblebees. Colors also make a difference in attracting bees. They like blues and purples, some yellows and white, but not red, because they can’t see it, Ms. Leveque noted. Butterflies can be observed on flowers of all colors, and hummingbirds especially favor bright colors.

Many of these pollinator species can be planted in the fall. Examples are asters such as “October Skies”; swamp milkweed, which is useful because monarchs can lay eggs on them, and butterfly weed, which does not need very rich soil and also appeals to monarchs. Fall is also a good time to plant bulbs like allium, crocuses and snowdrops.

Of particular interest to Cape Cod gardeners are some of the most popular plants, hydrangeas and roses. The most familiar and widely planted mophead hydrangea has been bred for its colorful, tightly packed flower heads, Ms. Leveque said. These flowers, however, are sterile, and therefore do not provide nectar and pollen. Gardeners could consider adding other species of hydrangeas to their landscapes that display the tiny, nectar and pollen-providing fertile flowers, such as those seen in the center of lacecap hydrangea flowers, which the bees love. In addition, she recommended varieties of hydrangea (Paniculata varieties, oakleaf and wild hydrangea cultivars) for pollinator appeal.

Roses are often associated with summer on Cape Cod, particularly rambling roses on fences and climbing roses on trellises. Ms. Leveque recommends looking for single varieties rather than double.  The single varieties have a single layer of petals around a visible center that displays nectar and pollen that can be easily accessed by pollinators. Roses with many layers make it difficult or impossible for pollinators to reach any nectar or pollen.

Lamb’s ear “Helene Von Stein,” which is not often thought of as a pollinator plant, collects dewdrops on the fuzzy leaf surface that insects drink, and hummingbirds use pieces of the soft leaves to line their nests.

“We are gardeners who use a mix of native and ‘well-behaved’ non-native plant varieties,” she said. “Plants that are not invasive and, in addition, are low-maintenance and appeal to pollinators.”

Some advice from local gardeners is to start small. You don’t need to have a huge garden, and think about what you want to attract to your garden. It can be a windowbox or a small spot in the backyard, and you can still keep pollinators sustained. 

The Leveques have a small unmowed “wild patch” of dandelions and white clover in their backyard. If people are concerned about having a less tidy patch in their front lawn, it can be planted in the backyard. 

They recommend that if people want to boost pollinator value in an easy way, pollinator-friendly trees like American holly, red maples and crabapples are a good addition to the landscape. They also suggested adding diversity to the edges of your property, such as where the lawn or garden meets the woods, by incorporating pollinator shrubs such as arrowwood viburnum, inkberry and beach plum, which is easier than establishing and maintaining a perennial garden. 

Native trumpet honeysuckle vine can be planted on a trellis to attract hummingbirds. Wild edges can also be a good place to establish a stand of common milkweed, which is an aggressive spreader in a garden, but when it has space to multiply and can be kept in check by mowing, it is a beneficial addition to the landscape to support monarchs.

For fall garden cleanup, rather than cutting and raking everything back as people have often done, the Leveques suggest leaving at least a portion of your perennials’ stems 12 to 18 inches tall, as some bees lay eggs in the cut stems.  As the new growth emerges in spring, those stems will quickly be covered. In areas with pressure from voles over the winter, they do a partial cutback, leaving some standing 12 to 18 inches while cutting some other plants back to prevent vole damage by reducing cover. 

For garden maintenance in the fall, you can use your leaves for mulch. The Leveques use a mulching mower that finely cuts the grass; if there are about three to four inches of leaves on the lawn, it will become a light and fluffy mulch.

A bagger attached to the mower that collects the mulched leaves can also be used, and the mulched leaves stockpiled for spring garden use, from pollinator beds to vegetable gardens, especially on early crops like onion and garlic, which cuts back on watering and weeding.