Alternatives to Pesticides and Pollinator Friendly Gardens
ACAT's vision of a toxic-free future includes gardeners (and yardeners) no longer using pesticides harmful to ourselves, the soil, plants, and animals, and stores no longer stock these products.
Pollinators are especially susceptible to many of the pesticides used. They are often unintended casualties of intentional harm directed towards a specific 'pest'.
We try and support our pollinators by helping Anchorage residents design and build pollinator friendly gardens (see some examples below). We also work on providing up-to-date information on pesticide alternatives and pesticide harms to health and our shared environment.
Common Pesticide-Related Issues in Anchorage & our most common requests for assistance:
- Removing May Day trees
- Spraying for Spruce Bark Beetle
- Using Weed & Feed on your lawn
- Spraying for mosquitos
Plants we recommend for pollinator gardens
- Bee balm
- Comfry
- Borage
- Alaskan Bluebells
- Strawberries
- Raspberries
- Currants and Gooseberries
- Lilac
- Dandelion
- Clover
- Lupine
- Columbine
- Trollius
LIST OF AVAILABLE PLANTS! - click here for list
Perennial Nursery - Click here ofr list - Our goal is to support folks transitioning from lawn to meadow and forest, growing food and medicine, providing habitat to wildlife like pollinators. You too? We'd love to share these plants with you and with your garden projects around town. Plant donations also accepted. We'll look after them, divide them, and find them a good home:
- Check out the list of plants. It's a first draft, so I invite suggestions and edits. Most of the plants are in 1-2 gallon pots (trees are in 5-10 gallong) and kept behind Nick's house, but we can bring them to the Spenard and Midtown Garden.
Pesticide Policies in Anchorage, Alaska, and Beyond
During the off-season, Yarducopia works to motivate public support to implement local, national, and international policies to ban harmful agricultural additives and promote regenerative agrarian practices. Click here for examples.
Pollinator Friendly Gardens around Anchorage
Methods of starting your own pollinator garden
Arctic Gro sells a few varieties of flower seed mix that at is reasonably priced and includes several perennial in the mix. You can see the ingredient list below.
