Issue link: https://alabamapower.uberflip.com/i/1165512
to eat all year long. Pollinators do, too," Carroll said. "A pollinator habitat full of different types of flowers of varying shapes, colors and heights will attract a wide variety of insects. A successful pollinator garden should have multiple species of plants blooming throughout the year to provide food." Carroll said it's important to have a wide variety because flowers are not "one size fits all" when it comes to pollinators. "Flowers come in many shapes, sizes, smells and colors. ey bloom at different times during the day and year. eir nectar and pollen attract different types of pollinators," Carroll said. "For example, moths and bats visit night-blooming flowers while bees are sleeping. Butterflies tend to visit long, deep flowers using their proboscis, which you can think of like a human tongue. Hummingbirds like deep flowers, too. On the other hand, some are attracted to smell. Beetles like spicy, fruit or rancid odors, while flies gravitate to stinky flowers." e pollinator project is part of e Preserves, a series of enhancements Alabama Power plans to make at its recreational sites. ese include fishing piers, playgrounds, hiking trails, boat ramps, picnic areas, gazebos and other improvements. Alabama Power maintains 65 public recreation sites along its 3,500 miles of shoreline in the state. So far, pollinator plots have been added at Lay, Logan Martin and Harris lakes, but plans are to expand them to other lakes. While open fields have been used so far, Yerby said the company could use a seed mix designed for more wooded and shaded areas. "ese seeds are designed by a company called Roundstone Native Seed for the area we have. ere's no fertilizer. ere's no prep as far as conditioning the soil because these are plants native to the Southeast or native to the type of soil at the site. We can do seed mixes for both open and wooded areas," Yerby said. "We won't have to do anything to these plots for the next five years once they are put in." Each pollinator plot has interpretive signs explaining what a pollinator is and why their work is so important. While buckwheat was planted this past summer at the sites, the full seed mix will be planted through October. Yerby advises anyone interested in learning more about pollinator plots to visit a local extension office. More information can also be found at aces.edu. 10 | 2019 Vol: 3