Insectary Strips

In addition to offering food sources to honeybees and native pollinators, insectary strips can provide your homestead with noninsect-derived benefits

- Leah Smith

Though permanent (perennial) strips are worthwhile, they do require careful planning, substantial upfront costs and more specialized maintenance. Annual (or temporary) insectary strips keep it simple; they are composed of annual plants whose seeds are modestly priced and easily sourced. However, many of the plants that follow can self-seed, so light tillage and spot replanting can maintain a strip for more than one season.

Whenever possible, include at least three plant varieties in a strip; and don't feel you must plant uniformly mixed strips, as "integrated clumps" are preferable. Some excellent plant choices include the following.

HOLY BASIL: Also tulsi, this plant is prized for the tea made from its leaves. Pollinators simply love it, and though any other basil or member of the Lamiaceae (mint) family attracts them also, holy basil's superabundance of flowers and eagerness to self-seed make it the top choice.