Like many Grand Rapids rental property owners, you want to make your rental to be more environmentally friendly. A tiny thing you can do to make a difference is to create a pollinator-friendly yard. Creating easy to maintain yet attractive yards is a best practice for rental property landscaping. However, you or your tenant should also consider making your property’s yard pollinator-friendly. It’s a project worth taking into consideration for many reasons. It’s not only a valuable investment in the environment, but it could potentially add value to your property as well. When done precisely, having a pollinator-friendly yard may even be a good way to draw in environmentally conscious tenants.
Although you may not necessarily be an avid gardener, you may have heard that pollinators like butterflies, bees, hummingbirds, and other flying insects are quickly declining. These pollinators are important to our ecosystem. Without them, we would not have various fruits, nuts, and seeds that most of us eat and enjoy. But with just a couple of changes to your rental’s landscaping, you can definitely impact pollinator populations in your area.
Plant With Variety
What you can do first to encourage pollinators to visit your rental home’s yard is to use a wide variety of plants in your landscaping. You should ideally go for plants that will bloom at separate times, from early spring to late fall. In most areas, you should be able to spot native plant varieties that are both easy to care for and fast to attract pollinators.
Add a Feeder
Hanging a nectar feeder is another simple approach to attract hummingbirds and butterflies to your rental home’s yard. Apart from the many benefits these pollinators give to your landscaping plants, a lot of people also enjoy watching them feed. To get even more pollinators to your yard, you could also place a dish of ripe fruit or water mixed with sea salt. Butterflies are extremely drawn to these items.
Rethink the Lawn
For a lot of rental homes, a healthy green lawn is a vital part of the landscaping. By making a few updates, you can also support pollinators with your lawn. An example would be allowing the grass to grow a bit taller (about 3 inches) and develop seed heads that will not only retain moisture in the soil but also entice pollinators to your yard. You could also consider combining some low-growing plants with your grass, such as white clover or violets. These non-invasive plants will increase local pollinator populations without causing harm to the health of your lawn.
Use Alternatives to Pesticides
Spraying the lawn or other plants with pesticides is a frequent practice for a lot of property owners. But no matter what kind of insect you intend to kill, you could also be wiping out beneficial pollinators. If you must use a spray to manage harmful insects or other issues, consider using the ones that are more environmentally friendly. A couple of oils and soaps can fight off pests without killing off pollinators. Cornmeal will sometimes eliminate troublesome ant colonies, while garlic, pepper, and even beer can keep certain biting insects at bay.
If your tenant wants to add pollinator-friendly elements to your rental home’s yard, you might consider allowing them to do it. Of course, you and your tenant should know what updates will be made, who will do the work, and who will pay for the improvements. In the event that your tenant wants you to cover the costs of the plants and other elements, it still may be a good investment and worth saying yes to since it could add value to your property or make it more attractive to future tenants.
Designing a pollinator-friendly yard for your rental that will also boost your property values is a possibility for sure. But it may be a challenge to know what specific updates will add to your property’s appeal. You could consult expert Grand Rapids property managers for answers and advice about this and any other queries you may have about managing your property. To discover about all of the great services that Real Property Management Investment Solutions has to offer – including landscaping advice – contact us online today!
We are pledged to the letter and spirit of U.S. policy for the achievement of equal housing opportunity throughout the Nation. See Equal Housing Opportunity Statement for more information.
