Protect Our Pollinators

Spring Garden Clean-Up Practices That Make a Huge Impact

As the seasons transition and we are met with longer, warmer days, many of us naturally gravitate outdoors to soak up the sunshine and breathe in the fresh air. Amidst this embrace of nature, it’s hard not to notice that our gardens are calling for attention.

Even though it is tempting to start spring cleaning right away, please remember that it is important that you wait until we have 7 consecutive days above 50 degrees Fahrenheit before cutting back last year’s growth, removing leaves, raking, or mulching in your garden.

Why It's Important To Wait

This might seem inconvenient, especially when these warm winter days fall on a weekend, and you happen to have the time and motivation to tidy up your yard (two things that are in short supply these days!). However, this is truly a matter of life and death for the pollinators who have spent the winter in your garden.

The USDA estimates that one out of every three bites of food we eat exists because of animal pollinators like bees, butterflies, moths, and others. Don’t we owe these creatures the curtesy of delaying our yard work an extra few weeks if it means saving their lives?

Most pollinators do not migrate out of Northwest Indiana, and instead spend their entire life here in our region! This means they need a place to survive the snowstorms and polar vortexes during the winter. So where do they go?

Many pollinators survive the winter months by burrowing into standing dead flower stalks or taking cover in leaf or brush piles in garden beds. Several bee species even burrow underground for the winter, and they rely on the leaf litter above them for insulation against the cold.

If you clean up and dispose of these areas before the pollinators have had a chance to emerge, you’ll be getting rid of more than just “yard waste”. Many insects use air temperature as a guide for when it is time to emerge from their overwintering hideout. After 7 consecutive days above 50 degrees, the majority of our pollinating friends will have moved on to begin enjoying their own spring season.

By following this recommendation, you can give the pollinators time to emerge and live on to support your garden throughout the year!

Climate Considerations

If you’ve been following Save the Dunes for a while, then you’ve probably heard this message before. In fact, we post about it every year! Our team keeps an eye on the forecast, and when late-winter warm days start to pop up, and the 10 day forecast shows signs of changing weather trends, we pull out our soapbox and make a post.

In 2021, we made that post on March 9th. In 2022, we made it on March 17th. In 2023, it was March 29th. This year, in 2024, we are publishing this post on February 22nd. Though fairly anecdotal, these dates suggest that spring weather may be coming earlier than normal this year.

The trouble is that some plants rely not only on warming temperatures to emerge in the spring, but also on available sunlight. This means that there is the potential for some missed connections this year – where pollinators have emerged, but the plants they require for food or rearing their young have not. We can’t help but think about the Karner blue butterfly, which is now extirpated (locally extinct), but once was found in the Indiana dunes.

Wild lupine in the Indiana Dunes National Park

Photo by Katie Hobgood/Save the Dunes

Wild lupine (Lupinus perennis) is the host plant for the Karner blue butterfly (Lycaeides melissa samuelis), which means it is the only plant that Karner blue caterpillars can eat (think Monarchs & Milkweed). Karner’s lay two batches of eggs on lupine each year. The first generally hatches in early spring as the lupine plant first emerges, and the second batch hatches later in the summer before the lupine dies back. In 2012, we had an early spring followed by a hot summer.

Karner blue butterfly

Photo by Paul Labus/The Nature Conservancy

This caused the caterpillars to emerge early, before the lupine plants had come up, so they had no food. Unfortunately, because of the extreme heat that summer, the lupine crop withered and died earlier than usual, so when the second batch of eggs hatched, they too had nothing to eat. In 2015, a survey found only 3 Karner blue butterflies remaining in the Indiana dunes – none of which were female.

The point of recounting this tragic story is to highlight that while we as humans might rejoice in an early spring, it can have huge impacts on the natural world. During such times, it is more important than ever to do what we can to support the life around us, and there is no easier place to do this than in our own backyards.

What Can You Do?

The early spring was not the only reason the Karner blue is gone from the Indiana dunes, but it was certainly the nail in the coffin. We don’t know the impacts that this year’s early spring might have, but it’s safe to say that our pollinators likely have a challenging year ahead. We all have a role to play when it comes to protecting pollinators. Here are a few things you can do to make their lives a bit easier.

First and foremost, wait until we have at least 7 consecutive days of 50 degree weather before cleaning up your garden beds. The longer you can give them, the better. If they emerge early, then we have a cold snap or a March snowstorm, it will be extremely helpful for them to have a place to retreat to in order to stay warm. Leave the leaves and sticks and dead plants in your garden for as long as possible.
Provide flowers as early as you can. Native plants are always ideal as they provide better nutrition for pollinators, but any source of food is helpful for many pollinators in late winter/early spring. If you are interested in incorporating native plants in your garden, check out our free resource to help you get started. Choosing plants that bloom during all the different times of year (early spring through late fall) is critical for sustaining pollinators in your garden.
Avoid treating your lawn with chemicals. Dandelions get a bad rap as pesky weeds, but they are an important early food source for some pollinators when not much else is blooming. In addition, chemicals on your lawn don’t stop at killing weeds and crabgrass – they also impact the critters living in your yard, including pollinators.
Share this information with everyone you know! We need to help empower our friends, families, and neighbors to take an active role in this work. Declining pollinator populations impact us all, and it’s our responsibility to take action to protect our pollinators. You can follow Save the Dunes on Facebook or Instagram to easily share our social posts, or feel free to download these images to share directly to your networks!

Free Resources

To learn about the native pollinator species found in the Indiana Dunes region and the plants that support their lifecycle, download our Pollinator Garden Landscaping Guide and start planning your garden today!

Learn More

Check out this video to learn more about pollinator-friendly practices to adopt as you prepare your garden this spring, and how to use our Pollinator Garden Landscaping Guide to select native plants that support your favorite pollinators!