When I was ten years old, I watched my father trasnform a modest yard, topped by a broken down car, into a lush garden.

I watched as passers-bys stopped, stared, and offered warm compliments.

I watched as this little breath of nature in the concrete jungle helped encourage neighborly behavior, something we much needed on that particular block.

Perhaps most importantly though, this garden became a haven for all sorts of bees and butterflies starving for reprieve in the big city. Even monarchs migrating along the Atlantic coast stopped in to recharge on their journey.

Around that same time, a family from Guyana moved into the house across the alleyway from us. The grandmother of the house began taking what had been a mostly barren dirt yard and started planting it out.

After a year or two, a variety of loose leaf lettuces and a mix of cracker jack marigolds were self-seeding in the front garden, while in the side garden, the matriarch planted rotation of various beans, peppers and bitter melon.

By the third year, amid the mass of cracker jack marigolds (which shaded the grateful lettuce just in time for summer), we found countless bumble bees.

Though we don’t know where or how, bumblebees had found this patch of cracker jacks and created a nest nearby. These bees remained a dominant sight for years to come.

In just three years, our neighbor had converted a 30 by 3 barren space into a highly beneficial garden that served both the family’s needs as well as the needs of our pollinating friends.

Watching this small piece of Brooklyn transform into a pollinator haven, taught me three key lessons about gardening for wildlife. I continue to go back to these lessons each time I create a new gardenor bed. .

1. You can build a pollinator garden no matter what your limitations may be.

If my father’s and neighbor’s gardens taught me anything it’s that, you don’t need a large space or budget to create a haven for pollinators. By choosing your plants wisely (more on this below), you can attract wildlife to most modest of spaces.

I used to run a horticultural business in Brooklyn. My clients usually had tiny spaces – 80 to 100 square feet; in rare cases someone might have had a 1000 square feet.

I even worked with people who simply had several containers on a balcony or a small slate in front of their apartment but really wanted to do something to support our diminishing pollinator population.

Yet, on these tiny spaces, people were able to build their own pollinator gardens and do their bit to support and encourage the area wildlife

2. Once you’ve planted with pollinators in mind, they will Come. By year 3, your pollinator population will be thriving.

It always feels like a miracle.

Once you create an environment that supports pollinators, you can trust they will find it. Then you simply watch the population grow each year until, by year 3. your garden will be overflowing with pollinator activity.

When I ran my own horticultural business in Brooklyn, I watched each client’s garden go through this three year rise - inevitably culminating in a pollinator population burst.

The key thing to understand is that this transformation happened irrespective of the garden’s setting, size or budget.

If you garden with those plants that pollinators need, they will do the rest.

3. Certain pollinators prefer certain plants. You can predict which pollinators will show up based on the plantings you choose.

So where to begin? How do I know which plants to choose?

First ask yourself which pollinators you want to attract.

If butterflies particularly captivate you, then begin with a set of plants that best support them.

If the honey bee population collapse is particularly pulling your heart strings, then likewise, then create an environment that gives them what they need.

Resources allowing, you can always expand from there.

But start with the pollinators you feel most passionate about first. I promise you, when you see the results, you will be carried on air from there.

Below is a recommendation of pollinator-friendly perennials (and a possible connected theme), which can be beautifully mixed and matched to provide a calling card for a desired set of pollinators. These do not offer the only combinations, by any means, but they are quick guide that I hope can be a helpful start in your considerations.

To help get you started, I’ve organized lists of plants based on the pollinators they best support.

You can use these lists to start picking the plants that work best for your space, your budget and for the pollinators you hope to attract.