The butterflies and the bees gotta eat too, right?!? We are seed savers, and so our garden is always full of the flowers of all the plants we grow. We also have a few favorite plants which we let grow on the margins and in the rows which serve the function of pure pollinator food.

So here are my 7 favorite plants that the pollinators seem to adore which are blooming and feeding the world with their beauty right now in our garden.

1. BORAGE - Star-Shaped, Wonderfully edible and beautiful in Salads, Heart Medicine, very honey promoting in bees. Comes back year after year, always a beautiful addition to the flowerscape.

2. COMFREY - Excellent green mulch, you can cut and come again 2x/year. Also extremely medicinal, called "bone-mend" for its ability to heal deep wounds. I cured tendonitis in my wrist with comfrey while I was pregnant. The bees love it, and once you've got it, you've got it for life.

3. MINT - We grow about 5 kinds of mint. They are all fabulous, and the winged creatures agree. Mmmm, mint nectar....

4. MOTHERWORT - Chill out mammas, this plant spirit is there to help soothe the nerves. What a fabulous ally you are to the sleep deprived mammas who seriously need to just chill the fuck out. Additionally, the bees adore Motherwort, and will be gratefully humming wherever you let her grow.

5. MUSTARD - Mustard leaves and seed is great, and the bees and butterflies and wasps love the flowers. They are really pretty in bouquets, too.

6. TOBACCO - This came to the Lunasi garden by way of a Lakota elder named Walter Funmaker many many years ago. This wise and noble plant has reseeded themselves year after year. I guess we are blessed with the tobacco spirit's blessing, and we are humbled to steward these beautiful seeds.

7. SUNFLOWER - Comes back year after year. Everyone loves a sunflower, at every stage of its growth. If you can leave them standing through the winter the hollow stalks provide great habitat for wintering wasps who perform many beneficial functions of pest control in the garden.

These are just a few of my favorite flowers in the garden which are in bloom presently. Ask me in another season and I will have many more to add. All plants have marvelously beautiful flowers if you let them go to seed. And the whole pollinating world is grateful for the extra food. Wee feed them, they feed us, and on and on the cycle goes.

Thanks for tuning in. What are some of your favorite pollinator plants?