Which Plants Attract the Most Pollinators to the Vegetable Garden?

Poor pollination is one of the most common reasons for low yields on fruiting vegetables — courgettes, beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, and all fruit crops depend on pollinators to set fruit. A vegetable garden with abundant pollinator activity will consistently outperform one without it. The simplest way to bring in more bees and other pollinators is to plant companions that they cannot resist, positioned close to your food crops.

Borage — the Single Best Pollinator Plant

Borage (Borago officinalis) produces nectar at such high volume that its flowers refill within minutes of being visited. In trials comparing nectar-producing plants, borage consistently rates in the top tier for both nectar sugar concentration and production rate. Bumblebees in particular are strongly attracted to borage and will visit it throughout the day whenever flowers are open. Plant borage near squash, courgettes, and climbing beans where bumblebee activity directly improves fruit set. Borage self-seeds prolifically so plant it once and it will return every year.

Phacelia for Long-Season Coverage

Phacelia tanacetifolia is one of the most bee-attractive plants that can be grown from seed. Its lavender-blue flowers appear within six weeks of sowing and continue for many weeks, covering a long section of the season. It is particularly useful as an early-season pollen source when few other plants are in flower and overwintering bumblebee queens are emerging to establish their colonies. Sow phacelia in early spring in rows around the vegetable garden perimeter or in gaps between vegetable beds.

Lavender and Thyme for Bees Throughout the Season

Lavender flowers for up to eight weeks in midsummer and attracts bees, butterflies, and hoverflies in very large numbers. Planted as a low hedge along vegetable bed borders it provides a steady supply of pollinators to nearby crops throughout the prime growing season. Thyme flowers for a long period too and is particularly attractive to small solitary bees including mining bees that are excellent pollinators of strawberries and raspberries. Both are perennial and require no annual replanting.

Sweet Alyssum for Ground-Level Pollinator Support

Sweet alyssum (Lobularia maritima) is a low-growing annual that flowers continuously from early summer to first frost. Its tiny white flowers are a mass of nectar that attracts enormous numbers of tiny parasitic wasps (beneficial for pest control) and small solitary bees. It grows to only 10 cm tall, making it ideal for interplanting between rows or as a living mulch at the base of taller crops where it will not create shade problems. It self-seeds as reliably as borage in many climates.

Allowing Herbs to Flower

Many kitchen herbs are excellent pollinator plants when allowed to flower — parsley, coriander, chives, marjoram, and oregano all produce flowers that attract bees and beneficial insects. Most gardeners cut these herbs before they flower, but allowing some plants in each bed to bolt and flower provides a valuable pollinator resource. A few flowering herb plants at the end of each bed are more valuable for pollinator support than keeping every plant cropped as a leaf herb.