Once while poking around my vegetable garden, I noticed the parsley was looking sparse. I hadn’t harvested that much, had I? Closer examination showed it wasn’t me, but a very hungry caterpillar who had been chomping on the parsley. Since then, I’ve always planted extra parsley—for the caterpillars and also for other critters who hang out in my garden.

Why plant herbs for pollinators? Because so many varieties are useful for the larvae of butterflies and moths. (Look for an article about all the great larval plants for pollinators in the March/April 2016 issue of Northern Gardener® magazine—it’s an adaptation of a chapter from Rhonda Fleming Hayes’ book, Pollinator-Friendly Gardening.)

Which herbs do pollinators like?

Among the plants butterfly larvae (caterpillars) like are dill, fennel and, of course, parsley. Dill and parsley are extremely easy to grow. Fennel, while delicious, is a bit trickier.

Not only are herbs great plants for butterfly larvae, they are a favorite of bees and other pollinators as well. Some of the best ones for bees are chives, which are an absolute bee magnet at my garden. Borage, lavender, mint, thyme, basil and one of my favorite herbs, lemon balm are also great choices.  For cooks and gardeners, many of these herbs are grown for the leaves, but the bees are interested in the flowers. So, to help the bees, allow at least some of your plants to go to flower.

Is it okay to let my herbs flower for pollinators?

Herbs are so easy to grow in containers, in the vegetable garden or along the edge of ornamental beds. Find them available as plants or seeds in the spring, and you’ll find you really cannot plant too many herbs. Harvest what you’d like to eat and let the rest go to flower. And, if you are more interested in attracting pollinators than eating the herbs, you should plant as many as you have room for!

Another herb that you may want to let flower is the dandelion. While not a favorite of lawn aficianados, dandelions are one of the first plants to flower in the spring and an early source of nectar.

Mary Lahr Schier is a Minnesota gardener, writer and editor and author of The Northern Gardener, From Apples to Zinnias, 150 Years of Garden Wisdom (Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2017), winner of the Silver Award of Merit from GardenComm in 2018. For 18 years, she edited Northern Gardener magazine, the publication of the Minnesota Horticultural Society and the only magazine dedicated to gardening in USDA Zones 3, 4 and 5..

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