By Mary Reid Barrow

By Mary Reid Barrow

Photo by Denise Holden

The photo of this little carpenter bee rudely awakened from its winter sleep has had a profound effect on me and the way I tend my yard and garden over the winter.

I have Denise and Tom Holden to thank. Denise took this photo of the bee staring at her out of a hollow dead branch. Her husband Tom barely missed the bee as he broke the branch during a late February cleanup up of their garden.

Tom, a reporter, and Denise, an  illustrator both worked for the Virginian-Pilot when I did. They are avid gardeners and would often send me photos and news for my columns on nature and gardening.

It’s said a  photo means a thousand words and if any photo ever told me how important it was to refrain from raking, pruning and cleaning up the garden before the weather warmed up, this was it.

To spend the winter, many bees and insects crawl into hollow dead stems or burrow under dried leaves. And some lay their eggs to winter over in the soil under a warm cover of leaves.

For the most part these are the insects that make our world go round the rest of the year. They pollinate the trees, flowers and vegetables. And insects are food for birds, especially their young. Baby birds—even hummingbirds—exist almost entirely on insects when they are nestlings.

Writing this reminds me of the Nature Notes I wrote earlier this winter after I realized none of the little slate colored juncos that usually visit my garden in winter were with me this year. I am pretty sure it’s because I moved all my goldenrod, a prolific seed producer, to another spot. I cleaned up the bed and planted smaller plants in its place and in the process left the juncos without their winter feast of goldenrod seeds.

Our gardens may please humans only in the warmer months, but insects need a year round home.

I know how hard it is to resist cleaning up the yard late in fall and especially after a long winter. But if you can, try to wait until the end of March or beginning of April, when the temperatures are consistently above 50 degrees.

Not only will the insects thank you but so will your garden, your trees and everything green around you.

Pollinators are everybody’s friend.