Here’s some quick tips on how to balance garden health with insect conservation! 

🌺 Aim for late April to early May, but it’s WAY more important to follow temperatures and not calendars. 

You want: 

☀️ Daytime highs over 10°C (every day) 

🌙 Nighttime stays above 5°C 

🪴Buds swelling or breaking out on shrubs and perennials

Caring for local pollinators and other beneficial bugs: 

⏲️ Don’t rush. Leave last year’s stalks, leaves, and debris until things have warmed up- lots of bees overwinter in hollow stems or under leaves!  

🙌 Clean up a bit at a time, and only tidy areas you MUST have clear for early planting.

Do your clean up in two steps:

First step: pile debris and leaves in a few smaller piles in your garden and leave for a week. (Pro tip: More piles that are lower/smaller help bugs crawl out easier than a few high piles.)

Second step: move the debris and leaves into Larger piles, compost boxes or compostable bags and then leave those full bags open for another week. This gives all those helpful bugs time to climb out of the piles or bags! 

In general, the longer you can wait, the better – but we know folks are chomping at the bit to get out there and garden!