According to the United States Department of Agriculture, three-fourths of the world’s flowering plants and about 35% of the world’s food crops depend on animal pollinators to reproduce.

Find out how to help these critical creatures — and how to create a pollinator garden — by joining Clallam County Master Gardeners Cece Fitton, Ed Adams and Loretta Ferguson for the Digging Deeper Saturdays presentation “Gardening for Pollinators,” set for 10:30 a.m.-noon on Saturday, July 27, at the Woodcock Demonstration Garden, 2711 Woodcock Road.

The “Pollinator Team” will cover how pollination happens, why it is so important to the ecosystem and will demonstrate different types of pollinator-friendly flowers. They will also talk about the pollinators on the Olympic Peninsula, with an emphasis on bees, butterflies and hummingbirds.

They will also present a list of guidelines to use when creating pollinator-friendly gardens and show examples of each of those guidelines practiced at the Pollinator Garden at the Woodcock Demonstration Garden.

“Our aim is to help people create and maintain this critically important habitat,” Fitton said. “This will be fun and enlightening, so people leave with clear ideas on how to create pollinator habitat in their own yards.”

In addition to the scheduled educational presentation, a team of Clallam County Master Gardeners will be available at the Woodcock Demonstration Garden from 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. to answer gardening questions. Digging Deeper attendees are encouraged to bring samples of garden problems or pests for diagnosis by Master Gardeners who can recommend control measures.

Fitton is on the team that developed the Pollinator Garden at the Woodcock Demonstration Garden. The Covid-19 lockdown turned out to be a great opportunity for her to learn about pollinators — particularly native bees. She is also in the group creating the new Wildflower Meadow that is underway there. She has been a Master Gardener since 2017.

Adams is a new Master Gardener from the class of 2023. A recently retired physical education teacher from Seattle, He was originally drawn to gardening because of his love for hummingbirds. Adams has a large pollinating garden as well as a small orchard, berry patch and many ornamental plants. When he isn’t gardening on his 5 acres, find him on the Olympic Discovery Trail walking his six dogs.

Ferguson was an educator for 30 years and taught in Washington state, Texas, England and The Netherlands. Her interest in gardening began while living in England where she visited numerous gardens and garden shows throughout the country which sparked her desire to learn more about plants and landscaping. After she and her husband moved back to the U.S., Ferguson transformed their backyard into a beautiful garden. She has been a Clallam County Master Gardener since 2017 and has brought her enthusiasm for gardening to the Pollinator Garden at Woodcock.

Digging Deeper Saturdays presentations are held 10:30 a.m.-noon on the third Saturday of selected months. These free public presentations cover basic gardening topics and are scheduled for 90 minutes to allow for demonstrations or questions.

Attendees are encouraged to check the Clallam County Master Gardener online calendar for updates about the location of the talk at extension.wsu.edu/clallam/master-gardener-calendar.

For more information about “Gardening for Pollinators” or Digging Deeper Saturdays, call 360-565-2678.